The  Chariot  Race 

Photogravure.  —  From  Painting  by  C.  Ademoilo 


3Uuotratrb  JJtlirani  Ebtttau 


WALK   IN  THE  LIGHT 

THOUGHTS  AND  APHORISMS 

LETTERS 

THE  KINGDOM   OF  GOD 

CHRISTIANITY   AND 

PATRIOTISM 

By 
COUNT  LEV   N.  TOLSTOY 


Translated  from  the  Original  Russian 
and  edited  by 

PROFESSOR  LEO  WIENER 


BOSTON 

COLONIAL  PRESS  COMPANY 

PUBLISHERS 


Copyright,  igo^ 
By  Dana  Estes  &   Company 


Entered  at  Stationer i*  Hall 


Colonial    Press  :     Electrotyped   and   Printed   by 
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CONTENTS 


Undertakings  of 


Walk  in  the  Light  While  Ye  Have  Light 

Introduction     . 
Thoughts  and  Aphorisms 
I.     Religion 

11.  God's  W^ork  . 

III.  Form  and  I^xistence 

IV.  The  Offences   of   the 

Life 

V.     Relation  to  Truth 

VI.     Life  and  Metaphysics 

VII.     Doubt      ... 

VIII.     Dissatisfaction     . 

IX.     Disagreements 

X.     Proselytism  . 

XT.     Ownership 

XII.     Family  Relations 

XIII.     Varia      . 

Letters  on  the  Famine 

Translator's  Note  . 

Tolstoy's  Letter  to  His  Wife 

Articles  and  Reports  on  the  Famine 

The  Terrible  Question  . 

On   the  Methods    of    Aiding    the    People    Who 

Have  Sitffered    from    the  Failure  of  Crops 

Among    the   Suffering    (Report    up    to    April 

12,  1892) 


PAGE 
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3 
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1.36 
147 
151 
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172 
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203 
259 
261 

274 

299 


VI  CONTENTS 

PAGE 

Account  of  the  Money  Contributed  from  April 

12  TO  July  27,  1892 309 

Conclusion     to     Last    Report    on   the    Aid   to 

THE  Starving 318 

Nicholas  Stick 323 

Why  People  Become  Intoxicated        ....  337 

The  First  Step         ........  365 

The  Teaching  of  the  Twelve  Apostles    .         .         .  411 

Master  and  Workman    .......  421 

Epilogue  to  "  Drozhzhin's  Life  and  Death"    .         .  489 

Religion  and  Morality 515 


LIST  OF  ILLUSTRATIONS 


PAGE 

The  Chariot  Race   (p.  48) Frontispiece 

A  Poor  Farm .219 

A  Beggar 251 


Russian  Peasants  at  Mass 75 

Malevannians -      .       .     395 


Vol.  10. 


WALK  IN  THE  LIGHT  WHILE 
YE   HAVE   LIGHT 

Conversations    between    a    Pagan   and   a   Christian. 
Story  from  the  Time  of  the  Ancient  Christians 

1890 


INTRODUCTION 

Guests  were  one  day  assembled  in  a  wealthy  house, 
and  a  serious  conversation  on  life  was  started.  They 
spoke  of  present  and  of  absent  people,  and  they  could  not 
find  a  single  man  who  was  satisfied  with  his  life.  Not 
only  was  there  not  one  man  who  could  boast  of  happi- 
ness, but  there  was  not  even  one  man  who  thought  that 
he  was  hving  as  was  becoming  for  a  Christian.  All  con- 
fessed that  they  were  living  only  a  worldly  life  in  cares 
for  themselves  and  for  their  families,  and  that  not  one  of 
them  was  thinking  of  his  neighbour,  and  much  less 
of  God.  Thus  the  guests  spoke  among  themselves,  and 
all  agreed  in  accusing  themselves  of  a  godless,  non-Chris- 
tian life. 

"  Why,  then,  do  we  live  thus  ? "  exclaimed  a  youth. 
"  Why  do  we  do  what  we  do  not  approve  of  ?  Have  we 
not  the  power  to  change  our  life  ?  We  know  ourselves 
that  what  ruins  us  is  our  luxury,  our  effeminacy,  our 
wealth,  and,  chiefly,  our  pride,  our  separation  from  our 
brothers.  To  be  noble  and  rich,  we  have  to  deprive 
ourselves  of  everything  which  gives  the  joy  of  life  to  a 
man.  We  crowd  into  cities,  make  ourselves  effeminate, 
ruin  our  health,  and,  in  spite  of  all  our  amusements,  die 
from  ennui  and  from  self-pity,  because  our  life  is  not  su(^h 
as  it  ought  to  be.  Why  should  we  live  thus  ?  Why  ruin 
our  whole  life,  —  all  that  good  which  is  given  us  by  God  ? 
T  do  not  want  to  live  as  heretofore !  1  will  abandon  all 
the  teaching  which  I  have  entered  upon,  for  it  will  lead 
me  to  nothing  but  the  same  agonizing  life  of  which  we  all 

3 


4  WALK   liN"    THE    LIGHT 

now  complain.  I  will  renounce  my  property  and  will  go 
to  the  country  and  live  with  the  poor ;  I  will  work  with 
them,  will  learn  to  work  with  my  hands  ;  if  my  education 
is  of  any  use  to  the  poor,  I  will  communicate  it  to  them,  but 
not  through  institutions  and  books,  but  by  living  directly 
with  them  in  a  brotherly  relation.  Yes,  I  have  made  up 
my  mind ! "  he  said,  looking  interrogatively  at  his  father, 
who  was  also  present. 

"  Your  desire  is  good,"  said  the  father,  "  but  frivolous 
and  thoughtless.  Everything  presents  itself  to  you  as 
easy,  because  you  do  not  know  life.  There  are  things 
enough  that  seem  good  to  us !  But  the  point  is,  that  the 
execution  of  what  is  good  is  frequently  difficult  and  com- 
plicated. It  is  hard  to  walk  well  on  a  beaten  track,  and 
harder  still  to  lay  out  new  paths.  They  are  laid  out  only 
by  men  who  have  fully  matured  and  who  have  com- 
pletely grasped  everything  which  is  accessible  to  men. 
The  new  paths  of  life  seem  easy  to  you,  because  you  do 
not  yet  understand  life.  All  this  is  thoughtlessness  and 
pride  of  youth.  We  old  men  are  needed  for  the  very 
purpose  that  we  may  moderate  your  transports  and  guide 
you  by  means  of  our  experience,  while  you  young  peo- 
ple should  obey  us,  in  order  that  you  may  be  able  to 
make  use  of  our  experience.  Your  active  life  is  still 
ahead,  —  now  you  are  growing  and  developing.  Educate 
yourself,  form  yourself  completely,  stand  on  your  feet, 
have  your  firm  convictions,  and  then  begin  the  new  life, 
if  you  feel  the  strength  for  it.  But  now  you  should  obey 
those  who  guide  you  for  your  good,  and  not  open  new 
paths  of  life." 

The  youth  grew  silent,  and  the  elder  guests  agreed  to 
what  the  father  had  said. 

"You  are  right,"  a  middle-aged  married  man  turned 
to  the  father  of  the  youth,  "  you  are  right,  when  you  say 
that  a  youth,  who  has  not  any  experience  in  life,  may 
make  mistakes  in  looking  for  new  paths  of  life,  and  that 


WALK    IN    THE    LIGHT  6 

his  decision  cannot  be  firm ;  but  we  have  all  agreed  to 
this,  that  our  life  is  contrary  to  our  conscience  and  does 
not  give  us  the  good  ;  therefore  we  cannot  help  but  rec- 
ognize that  the  desire  to  get  out  of  it  is  just.  A  youth 
may  take  his  reverie  to  be  a  deduction  of  reason,  but  I 
am  not  a  young  man,  and  I  will  tell  you  about  myself 
that,  as  I  listened  to  the  conversation  of  this  evening,  the 
same  thouglit  came  to  me.  The  life  which  I  lead,  ob- 
viously for  myself,  cannot  give  me  any  peace  of  mind 
and  the  good ;  tliis  is  also  shown  me  by  reason  and  by 
experience.  So  what  am  I  waiting  for?  We  struggle 
from  morning  until  evening  for  our  family,  but  in  reality 
ic  turns  out  that  my  family  and  I  myself  do  not  hve  in 
godly  fashion,  but  sink  deeper  and  deeper  in  our  sins. 
We  do  everything  for  our  families,  but  our  families  are 
not  better  off,  because  what  we  do  for  them  is  not  the 
good.  And  so  I  have  frequently  thought  that  it  would 
be  better  if  1  changed  my  whole  hfe  and  stopped  caring 
for  my  wife  and  my  children,  and  began  to  think  of  my 
soul.  There  is  good  reason  in  what  Paul  says,  *  He  that 
is  married  careth  how  he  may  please  his  wife,  and  he 
that  is  unmarried  careth  for  God.'" 

The  married  man  had  barely  finished  his  words,  when 
all  the  women  present  and  his  wife  began  to  attack  him. 

"  You  ought  to  have  thought  of  it  before,"  said  one  of 
the  middle-aged  women.  «  You  have  put  on  the  collar 
and  so  pull !  It  is  easy  enough  for  anybody  to  come  and 
say  that  he  wants  to  be  saved,  when  il  appears  hard  for 
him  to  keep  up  and  support  a  family.  This  is  a  decep- 
tion and  a  rascality  !  No,  a  man  must  be  able  to  live  in 
godly  fashion  with  a  family.  Of  course,  it  is  so  easy  to 
be  saved  all  by  oneself.  P)esides,  if  you  do  so,  you  act 
contrary  to  Christ's  teaching.  God  has  commanded  us 
to  love  others,  wliile  the  way  you  do,  you  wish  for  the 
sake  of  God  to  offend  others.  No  one  has  a  right  to  do 
violence  to  his  family  !  " 


6  WALK  IN    THE   LIGHT 

But  the  married  man  did  not  agree  to  this.  He 
said : 

"  I  do  not  want  to  abandon  my  family.  I  only  say 
that  the  family  and  the  children  should  not  be  kept  in 
worldly  fashion,  so  that  they  get  used  to  living  for  their 
lust,  as  we  have  just  said,  but  that  we  should  live  in  such 
a  way  that  the  children  should  from  the  earhest  time  be- 
come accustomed  to  privation,  to  labour,  to  aiding  others, 
and  chiefly  to  a  brotherly  life  in  respect  to  all  men.  But, 
to  attain  this,  we  must  renounce  aristocracy  and  wealth." 

"  There  is  no  need  of  curbing  others,  while  you  do  not 
yourself  live  in  godly  fashion  ! "  his  wife  retorted  to  this, 
with  irritation.  "  You  yourself  lived  for  your  pleasure 
when  you  were  young,  so  why  do  you  want  to  torment 
your  children  and  your  family  ?  Let  them  grow  up 
quietly,  and  then,  let  them  do  what  they  please,  but  do 
not  force  them ! " 

The  married  man  kept  silence,  but  an  old  man,  who 
was  present,  took  his  part : 

"  Let  us  admit,"  he  said,  "  that  a  married  man,  who  has 
accustomed  his  family  to  certain  comforts,  cannot  sud- 
denly deprive  them  of  them.  It  is  true,  if  the  education 
of  the  children  has  been  begun,  it  is  better  to  finish  it 
than  to  break  up  everything,  the  more  so,  since  the  chil- 
dren will  themselves  choose  the  path  which  they  will 
deem  best.  I  admit  that  for  a  married  man  it  is  hard 
and  even  impossible  without  sinning  to  change  his  life. 
But  we  old  men  have  been  commanded  to  do  so  by  God. 
I  will  tell  you  about  myself :  I  am  living  now  without 
any  obhgations,  —  I  must  confess,  I  am  living  for  my 
belly  only,  —  I  eat,  drink,  rest,  —  and  I  am  ashamed  and 
disgusted  with  myself.  It  is  time  for  me  to  give  up  this 
life,  to  distribute  my  property,  and  at  least  before  death 
to  live  as  God  has  commanded  a  Christian  to  hve." 

But  they  did  not  agree  with  the  old  man  either.  Here 
was  his  niece  and  godchild,  aU  of  whose  children  he  had 


WALK   IN   THE    LIGHT  7 

christened  and  given  presents  to  on  holidays,  and  here 
was  also  his  son.     They  all  retorted  to  him. 

"  No,"  said  his  son,  "  you  have  worked  enough  in  your 
life,  —  it  is  time  for  you  to  take  a  rest,  and  not  to  torture 
yourself.  You  have  Hved  for  sixty  years  with  your 
habits,  and  you  cannot  stop  them.  You  will  only  torture 
yourself  in  vain." 

"  Yes,  yes,"  confirmed  his  niece,  "  you  will  be  in  want, 
and  you  will  be  out  of  sorts,  and  you  will  grumble  and 
sin  more  than  ever.  God  is  merciful  and  pardons  all  the 
sinners,  and  not  only  you,  such  a  dear  uncle." 

"  And  why  should  we  ? "  added  another  old  man,  who 
was  of  the  same  age  as  the  uncle.  "  You  and  I  have, 
perhaps,  two  days  left  to  live.  Why  should  we  begin 
anew  ? " 

"  How  wonderful ! "  said  one  of  the  guests,  who  had 
been  silent  during  the  conversation,  "  how  wonderful ! 
All  say  that  it  is  good  to  live  in  godly  fashion,  and  that  we 
live  badly,  and  that  we  torment  ourselves  in  body  and 
soul ;  but  the  moment  it  comes  to  business,  it  turns  out, 
that  the  children  ought  not  to  be  broken  in,  but  that  they 
ought  to  be  brought  up,  not  in  godly  fashion,  but  as  of 
old.  The  young  people  must  not  get  out  from  under  their 
parents'  will,  and  they  must  not  live  in  godly  fashion,  but 
as  of  old ;  married  men  must  not  change  the  life  of  their 
wives  and  children,  and  must  not  live  in  godly  fashion, 
but  as  of  old  ;  and  there  is  no  reason  why  old  men  should 
begin  anew,  —  they  are  not  accustomed  to  it,  and  they 
have  but  two  days  to  live,  and  all  such  things.  It  turns 
out  that  nobody  can  live  well,  but  that  we  may  only  talk 
about  it." 


WALK  IN  THE  LIGHT  WHILE 
YE    HAVE    LIGHT 


I. 

This  happened  in  the  reign  of  the  Eoman  Emperor 
Trajan,  100  Anno  Domini.  It  was  at  a  time  when  the 
disciples  of  Christ's  disciples  were  still  alive,  and  the 
Christians  held  firmly  to  the  law  of  the  teachers,  as  it 
says  in  the  Acts. 

The  multitude  of  them  that  believed  were  of  one  heart 
and  of  one  soul :  and  none  of  them  said  that  aught  of 
the  things  which  he  possessed  was  his  own  ;  but  they  had 
all  things  common.  And  with  great  power  the  apostles 
gave  witness  of  the  resurrection  of  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ, 
and  great  grace  was  upon  their  faith.  Neither  was  there 
any  among  them  that  lacked :  for  as  many  as  were  pos- 
sessors of  lands  or  houses  sold  them,  and  brought  the 
prices  of  the  things  that  were  sold,  and  laid  them  down 
at  the  apostles'  feet,  and  distribution  was  made  unto 
every  man  according  as  he  had  need.  (Acts,  Chap.  IV., 
32-35.) 

In  these  first  times  there  lived  in  the  country  of  Cilicia, 
in  the  city  of  Tarsus,  a  rich  merchant,  a  Syrian,  a  dealer 
in  precious  stones,  Juvenalis  by  name.  He  came  from 
simple  and  poor  people,  but  through  labour  and  skill  in 
his    business    he  gained  wealth   and   the  respect   of  his 


10  WALK   IN    THE    LIGHT 

fellow  citizens.  He  had  travelled  much  in  foreign  coun- 
tries and,  though  he  was  not  learned,  had  come  to  know 
and  understand  many  things,  and  the  inhabitants  of  the 
city  respected  him  for  his  intellect  and  justice.  He  pro- 
fessed the  same  Eoman,  pagan  faith  which  was  professed 
by  all  the  respected  men  of  the  Eoman  empire ;  that 
faith,  the  fulfilment  of  whose  ceremonies  they  had  begun 
strictly  to  demand  from  the  time  of  Emperor  Augustus 
and  which  the  present  Emperor  Trajan  himself  strictly 
observed.  The  country  of  Cihcia  is  far  from  Rome,  but 
it  was  governed  by  a  Roman  supreme  officer,  and  what 
was  done  in  Rome  found  its  echo  in  Cilicia,  and  the 
governors  imitated  their  emperors. 

Juvenalis  remembered  from  his  childhood  the  stories 
of  what  Nero  had  done  in  Rome,  had  later  seen  how  the 
emperors  had  perished  one  after  another,  and,  being  a 
clever  man,  understood  that  there  was  nothing  sacred 
in  the  Roman  religion,  but  that  it  all  was  the  work  of 
human  hands.  The  senselessness  of  all  the  life  surround- 
ing him,  especially  of  what  was  taking  place  in  Rome, 
where  he  often  went  on  business,  had  frequently  dis- 
turbed him.  He  had  doubts ;  he  could  not  grasp  it  all, 
and  he  referred  it  all  to  his  lack  of  education. 

He  was  married,  and  he  had  had  four  children,  but 
three  of  them  had  died  in  their  youth,  and  there  was  only 
one  son  left,  and  his  name  was  Julius. 

In  this  Julius  Juvenalis  centred  all  his  love  and  all 
his  cares.  Juvenalis  was  particularly  anxious  to  have 
his  son  educated  in  such  a  way  that  his  son  should  not 
be  tormented  by  those  doubts  concerning  life,  by  which 
he  himself  had  been  troubled.  When  Julius  passed  his 
fifteenth  year,  his  father  gave  him  to  be  instructed  by  a 
philosopher  who  had  settled  in  their  city,  and  w^ho  took 
youths  to  instruct  them.  The  father  gave  him  to  the 
philosopher  together  with  his  comrade  Pamphylius,  the 
son    of   one  of  Juvenalis's  deceased  manumitted  slaves. 


WALK   IN   THE   LIGHT  11 

The  youths  were  of  the  same  age,  both  handsome,  and 
they  were  friends. 

Both  youths  studied  dihgently,  and  both  were  of  good 
morals.  Julius  excelled  more  in  the  study  of  the  poets 
and  of  mathematics,  while  Pamphylius  excelled  in  the 
study  of  philosophy.  A  year  previous  to  the  end  of  their 
instruction,  Pamphylius  came  to  school  and  informed  his 
teacher  that  his  mother,  a  widow,  was  going  to  the  city 
of  Daphne,  and  that  he  would  have  to  stop  studying. 
The  teacher  was  sorry  to  lose  a  pupil  who  was  doing  him 
honour;  and  so  was  Juvenalis,  but  most  of  all  Julius. 
To  all  admonitions  to  stay  and  continue  his  instruction, 
Pamphylius  remained  imperturbable  and,  thanking  his 
friends  for  their  love  and  their  cares  of  him,  he  parted 
from  them. 

Two  years  passed ;  Julius  finished  his  studies,  and 
durinsj  all  that  time  he  had  not  seen  his  friend. 

Once  he  met  him  in  the  street ;  he  invited  him  to  his 
house  and  began  to  ask  him  how  and  where  he  was 
living.  Pamphylius  told  him  that  he  was  hving  with 
his  mother  in  the  same  place. 

"  We  do  not  hve  alone,"  he  said,  "  but  there  are  many 
friends  with  us,  and  we  have  everything  in  common  with 
them." 

"  How  in  common  ?  "  asked  Julius. 

"  So  that  none  of  us  considers  anything  his  own." 

"  Why  do  you  do  so  ? " 

"  We  are  Christians,"  said  Pamphylius. 

"  Is  it  possible  ?  "  exclaimed  Julius.  "  But  I  was  told 
that  the  Christians  killed  children  and  ate  them.  Is  it 
possible  you  take  part  in  this  ?  " 

"  Come  and  see,"  replied  Pamphylius.  "  We  do  not 
do  anything  in  particular ;  we  live  simply,  trying  to  do 
nothing  bad." 

"  But  how  can  one  live  without  considering  anything 
one's  own  ? " 


12  WALK    IN    THE    LIGHT 

•'  We  manage  to  live.  If  we  give  our  brothers  our 
labour,  they  give  us  theirs." 

"  Well,  and  if  your  brothers  take  your  labour,  and  do 
not  give  it  back,  what  then  ? " 

"  There  are  no  such,"  said  Pamphylius.  "  Such  people 
like  to  live  in  luxury  and  will  not  come  to  us :  our  life  is 
simple  and  not  luxurious." 

"  But  are  there  not  many  lazy  people  who  will  be  glad 
to  be  fed  for  nothing  ? " 

"  There  are  such,  and  we  receive  them  cheerfully. 
Lately  there  came  to  us  such  a  man,  a  fugitive  slave  ;  at 
first,  it  is  true,  he  was  lazy  and  lived  badly,  but  he  soon 
changed  his  manner  of  life,  and  is  now  a  good  brother." 

'•'  But  suppose  he  had  not  mended  his  ways  ? " 

"  There  are  such,  too.  Elder  Cyril  has  said  that  such  we 
must  treat  like  the  dearest  brothers,  and  love  even  better." 

"  Is  it  possible  to  love  good-for-nothing  people  ? " 

"  One  cannot  help  but  love  a  man  ! " 

"  But  how  can  you  give  to  all  everything  which  they 
ask  for  ?  "  inquired  Julius.  "  If  my  father  gave  to  all  who 
ask  him  for  somethiiig,  he  would  soon  be  left  without 
anything." 

"  I  do  not  know,"  replied  Pamphylius,  "  but  we  have 
enough  left  for  our  needs ;  and  if  it  happens  that  we 
have  nothing  to  eat  or  to  cover  ourselves  with,  we  ask  of 
others  and  they  give  to  us.  Yes,  this  happens  rarely.  It 
happened  but  once  that  I  had  to  go  to  bed  without  a 
supper,  and  that,  too,  was  so  because  I  was  very  tired  and 
did  not  wish  to  go  to  a  brother  to  ask  him  for  it." 

"  I  do  not  know  how  you  do  it,"  said  Julius,  "  only,  as 
my  father  has  told  me,  if  you  do  not  guard  what  is  yours, 
and  if,  besides,  you  give  everything  to  those  who  ask  it, 
you  will  yourself  starve  to  death." 

"  We  do  not  starve.  Come  and  see.  We  live,  and  not 
only  do  not  suffer  want,  but  have  enough  to  spare" 

«  How  is  this  ? " 


WALK    IN    THE    LIGHT  13 

"  It  is  like  this  :  We  all  confess  the  same  law,  hut 
the  force  of  execution  varies  in  us  :  one  has  more,  another 
less  of  it.  One  has  already  perfected  himself  in  the  good 
life,  another  is  only  beginning  it.  At  the  head  of  all  of  us 
stands  Christ  with  his  life,  and  we  all  try  to  emulate  him, 
and  in  this  alone  do  we  see  our  good.  Some,  like  Elder 
Cyril  and  his  wife  Pelagea,  stand  ahead  of  us ;  others 
stand  behind  us  ;  others  again  are  far  behind,  but  all  walk 
on  the  same  path.  The  leaders  are  already  near  to  Christ's 
law,  —  the  renunciation  of  self,  —  and  have  lost  tiieir 
souls,  in  order  to  find  them.  They  need  nothing ;  they 
have  no  thought  of  themselves,  and  the  last  thing  they 
have  they,  according  to  Christ's  law,  give  to  him  who 
asks  for  it.  There  are  others  who  are  weaker,  w^ho  can- 
not give  up  everything ;  they  weaken  and  have  still  a 
thought  of  themselves ;  they  weaken  without  the  custom- 
ary food  and  raiment,  and  do  not  give  up  everything. 
There  are  others,  who  are  weaker  still,  — -  those  who  have 
but  lately  entered  upon  the  path ;  they  continue  to  live  as 
of  old,  retain  much  for  themselves,  and  give  up  only  what 
is  superfluous.  And  it  is  these  hindmost  people  who  come 
to  the  aid  of  those  in  front.  We  are,  besides,  all  of  us  by 
relationship  intermingled  with  the  pagans.  One  has  a 
father  who  is  a  pagan  and  holds  property  and  gives  it  to 
his  son.  The  son  gives  it  to  those  who  ask  him  for  it,  but 
the  father  gives  him  some  again.  Another  has  a  pagan 
mother  who  pities  her  son  and  helps  him.  A  third  has 
pagan  children,  and  their  mother  is  a  Christian,  and  the 
children  solace  their  mother  and  give  her  things,  asking 
her  not  to  distribute  them ;  and  she  takes  them  out  of 
love  for  them,  and  none  the  less  gives  them  to  others.  A 
fourth  has  a  pagan  wife.  A  fiftli  has  a  pagan  husband. 
Thus  are  all  intermingled,  and  the  foremost  would  be  glad 
to  give  their  last,  but  are  not  able  to  do  so.  It  is  this 
which  supports  the  weak  in  their  faith,  and  from  this  a 
great  superfluity  is  collected." 


14  WALK   IN   THE   LIGHT 

To  this  Julius  said  : 

"But  if  it  is  so,  you  evidently  depart  from  Christ's 
teaching  and  only  make  believe.  If  you  do  not  give  up 
everything,  there  is  no  difference  between  you  and  us.  As 
I  take  it,  if  one  is  a  Christian,  he  ought  to  fulfil  every- 
thing, —  give  up  everything  and  become  a  beggar." 

«  That  is  best  of  all,"  said  Pamphylius,    "  Do  so." 

"  Yes,  I  will,  when  I  see  that  you  do  so." 

"  We  do  not  wish  to  show  anything,  and  I  advise  you 
not  to  come  to  us  and  not  to  abandon  your  life  for  the 
sake  of  appearances ;  what  we  do,  we  do,  not  for  appear- 
ances, but  according  to  faith." 

"  What  is  meant  by  according  to  faith  ? " 

"  By  according  to  faith  is  meant  that  salvation  from 
the  evils  of  the  world,  from  death,  is  only  in  a  life  accord- 
ing to  Christ's  teaching.  It  is  aU  the  same  to  us  what 
people  will  say  of  us.  We  do  not  do  anything  for  the 
sake  of  people,  but  because  in  this  alone  do  we  see  life  and 
the  good." 

"  It  is  impossible  not  to  live  for  oneself,"  said  Julius. 
"  The  gods  themselves  have  implanted  this  in  us,  that  we 
love  ourselves  more  than  others  and  seek  pleasures  for 
ourselves.  And  you  do  the  same.  You  say  yourself  that 
there  are  some  among  you  who  have  a  thought  for  them- 
selves. They  will  be  preparing  more  and  more  pleasures 
for  themselves  and  will  more  and  more  abandon  your  faith 
and  will  do  precisely  as  we  do." 

"  No,"   replied    Pamphyhus,  "  our   people  walk  along 
another    path    and    never    weaken,    but    keep    growing 
stronger,  just  as  the  fire  will  never  go  out  so  long  as 
wood  is  put  on  it.     In  this  does  our  faith  consist." 
"  I  cannot  make  out  in  what  this  faith  does  consist." 
"  Our  faith  consists  in  this,  that  we  understand  life  as 
Christ  has  explained  it  to  us." 
"  How  has  he  ? " 
"  Christ  told  the  following  parable :  Husbandmen  were 


WALK   IN    THE    LIGHT  16 

living  in  another  man's  garden  and  had  to  pay  tribute  to 
their  master.  It  is  we,  the  people,  who  are  living  in  the 
world  and  must  pay  tribute  to  God,  —  to  do  His  will. 
But  those  men  with  their  worldly  faith  thought  that  the 
garden  was  theirs,  that  they  did  not  need  to  pay  for  it, 
and  that  all  they  had  to  do  was  to  enjoy  its  fruits.  The 
master  sent  a  messenger  to  the  husbandmen  to  receive 
the  tribute,  but  they  drove  him  away.  The  master  sent 
his  son  for  the  tribute,  and  they  killed  him,  thinking  that 
after  that  no  one  would  disturb  them.  This  is  the 
worldly  faith  by  which  all  the  men  of  the  world  live, 
when  they  do  not  recognize  the  fact  that  life  is  given  for 
the  purpose  of  serving  God.  But  Christ  has  taught  us  that 
the  worldly  faith,  that  it  is  better  for  a  man  if  he  drives 
the  master's  messenger  and  the  son  out  of  the  garden  and 
does  not  pay  tribute,  is  a  false  faith,  because  one  result 
or  the  other  cannot  be  avoided,  either  you  pay  tribute,  or 
you  are  driven  out  of  the  garden.  He  has  taught  us  that 
all  the  joys,  those  which  we  call  joys, —  eating,  drinking, 
merriment,  —  can  be  no  joys  if  life  is  placed  in  them  ;  that 
they  are  joys  only  when  v/e  seek  something  else,  —  the 
fulfilment  of  God's  will ;  that  only  then  these  joys  follow 
the  fulfilment  as  a  true  reward.  To  wish  to  take  the 
joys  without  the  labour  of  fulfilling  God's  will,  to  tear 
the  joys  away  from  labour,  is  the  same  as  to  tear  the  stalks 
of  flowers  and  plant  them  without  roots.  We  believe  in 
this,  and  so  cannot  seek  the  deception  instead  of  the 
truth.  Our  faith  consists  in  this,  that  the  good  of  life  is 
not  in  joys,  but  in  the  fulfilment  of  God's  will  without 
any  thought  as  to  joys  or  any  hope  respecting  them. 
And  thus  we  live,  and  the  longer  we  live,  the  more  we 
see  that  the  joys  and  the  good,  like  a  wheel  following  the 
shaft,  come  in  the  wake  of  the  fulfilment  of  God's  will. 
Our  teacher  has  said,  '  Come  unto  me,  all  ye  that  labour 
and  are  heavy  laden,  and  I  will  give  you  rest.  Take  my 
yoke  upon  you,  and  learn  of   me ;  for  I   am  meek   and 


16  WALK   IN    THE    LIGHT 

lowly  of  heart,  and  ye  shall  find  rest  unto  your  souls. 
For  my  yoke  is  easy,  and  my  burden  is  light.' " 

Thus  spoke  Pamphylius.  Julius  listened  and  his  heart 
was  touched,  but  what  Pamphylius  had  said  was  not 
clear  to  him ;  it  seemed  to  him  that  Pamphylius  was 
deceiving  him ;  and  he  looked  again  into  Pamphylius's 
good  eyes,  and  it  seemed  to  him  that  Pamphylius  was 
deceiving  himself.  Pamphylius  invited  Julius  to  come 
to  see  him,  to  inspect  their  life,  and,  if  he  was  pleased 
with  it,  to  remain  to  live  with  them. 

Juhus  promised  he  would  come,  but  he  did  not  go  to 
see  PaniphJ'lius  ;  he  was  carried  away  by  his  own  manner 
of  life,  and  forgot  Pamphylius. 


IL 

Julius's  father  was  rich,  loved  his  only  son,  was  proud 
of  him,  and  spared  no  money  on  him.  Julius's  life  passed 
like  that  of  rich  young  men :  in  idleness,  luxury,  and  the 
amusements  of  dissipation,  which  have  always  been  the 
same,  —  wine,  gaming,  and  fast  women. 

But  the  enjoyments  to  which  Julius  abandoned  him- 
self demanded  more  and  more  money,  and  Julius  began 
to  feel  a  lack  of  it.  Once  he  asked  his  father  for  more 
than  his  father  was  in  the  habit  of  giving  to  him.  The 
father  gave  it  to  him,  but  also  reprimanded  him.  Feel- 
ing himself  guilty  and  not  wishing  to  confess  his  guilt, 
his  son  grew  angry  and  insulted  his  father,  as  those 
always  grow  angry  who  know  their  guilt  and  do  not  wish 
to  confess  it.  The  money  taken  from  his  father  was 
very  soon  spent,  and,  })esides,  Julius  happened  at  that 
time  to  get  into  a  brawl  with  a  companion  of  his  and  to 
kill  a  man.  The  chief  of  the  city  learned  of  this  and 
wanted  to  take  Julius  under  guard,  but  his  father  obtained 
his  pardon.  Just  then  Julius  needed  more  money  for  his 
dissipations.  He  borrowed  money  from  a  friend,  promis- 
ing to  return  it  to  him.  Besides,  his  mistress  demanded 
a  present  from  him :  she  took  a  liking  for  a  pearl  neck- 
lace, and  he  knew  tliat  if  he  did  not  fulfil  her  prayer,  she 
would  abandon  him  and  go  to  live  with  a  rich  man  who 
had  long  been  trying  to  get  her  away  from  Julius. 
Julius  went  to.  his  mother,  and  told  her  that  he  was  in 
need  of  money,  and  that  he  would  kill  himself  if  he  did 
not  get  as  much  as  he  needed. 

He  did  not  blame  himself,  but  his  father,  for  the  condi- 

17 


18  WALK   IN    THE    LIGHT 

tion  he  was  iu.  He  said  :  "  My  father  accustomed  me  to 
a  Ufe  of  luxury,  and  then  began  to  begrudge  me  the 
money.  If  he  had  given  me  in  the  beginning  without 
rebukes  what  he  later  gave  me,  I  should  have  arranged 
my  life  and  should  have  had  no  need ;  but  as  he  never 
gave  me  any  sufficiency,  I  was  compelled  to  turn  to 
usurers,  and  they  squeezed  everything  out  of  me ;  and 
there  was  nothing  left  for  me  to  live  on,  as  is  proper  for 
a  rich  young  man,  and  I  am  ashamed  in  the  presence  of 
my  companions,  while  my  father  does  not  wish  to  under- 
stand anything.  He  has  forgotten  that  he  himself  was 
once  a  young  man.  It  is  he  who  brought  me  to  this 
state,  and  if  he  does  not  give  me  now  what  I  am  asking 
for,  I  shall  kill  myself." 

The  mother,  who  spoiled  her  son,  went  to  his  father. 
The  father  sent  for  his  son,  and  began  to  scold  him  and 
his  mother.  The  son  answered  insultingly  to  his  father. 
The  father  struck  him.  The  son  grasped  his  father's 
hands.  The  father  called  the  slaves  and  commanded 
them  to  bind  his  son  and  lock  him  up. 

When  Julius  was  left  alone,  he  began  to  curse  his 
father  and  his  own  life. 

His  death  or  the  death  of  his  father  presented  itself  to 
him  as  the  only  way  out  from  the  condition  in  which  he 
was. 

Juhus's  mother  suffered  more  than  he.  She  did  not 
try  to  make  out  who  was  to  blame  for  all  this.  She  only 
was  sorry  for  her  beloved  child.  She  went  to  her  hus- 
band to  implore  his  pardon.  Her  husband  would  not 
listen  to  her,  rebuked  her  for  having  spoiled  her  son ;  she 
rebuked  him,  and  it  all  ended  in  the  husband  beating  his 
wife.  But  the  mother  paid  no  attention  to  the  blows, 
and  went  to  her  son  to  admonish  him  to  beg  his  father's 
pardon  and  submit  to  him.  For  this  she  promised  her 
son  secretly  that  she  would  give  him  the  money  which 
he  was  in  need  of.     Her  son  agreed,  and  then  the  mother 


WALK  IN   THE   LIGHT  19 

went  to  her  husband  and  begged  him  to  forgive  his  son. 
The  father  for  a  long  time  scolded  his  wife  and  his  son, 
but  finally  decided  that  he  would  forgive  his  son,  but 
only  on  condition  that  he  would  abandon  his  life  of  dis- 
sipation and  would  marry  a  rich  merchant's  daughter, 
whom  his  father  wanted  to  get  as  a  wife  for  his  son. 

"  He  will  get  money  from  me  and  the  wife's  dowry," 
said  the  father,  "  and  then  let  him  begin  a  regular  life. 
If  he  promises  to  do  my  will,  I  shall  forgive  him.  But 
now  I  will  not  give  him  anything,  and  the  first  time  he 
transgresses,  I  will  turn  him  over  to  the  chief." 

Julius  agreed  to  everything,  and  was  released.  He 
promised  to  get  married  and  to  abandon  his  bad  life,  but 
he  did  not  have  the  intention  of  doing  so. 

His  life  at  home  became  a  hell  for  him :  his  father  did 
not  speak  to  him  and  quarrelled  with  his  mother  on 
account  of  him,  and  his  mother  cried. 

On  the  following  day  his  mother  called  him  to  her 
apartments  and  secretly  handed  him  a  precious  stone 
which  she  had  carried  off  from  her  husband. 

"  Go  and  sell  it,  not  here,  but  in  another  city,  and  do 
what  you  have  to  do.  I  shall  know  how  for  a  time  to  con- 
ceal tliis  loss,  and  if  it  is  discovered,  I  will  put  the  blame 
on  one  of  the  slaves." 

The  mother's  words  touched  Julius's  heart.  He  was 
terrified  at  what  she  had  done  and,  without  taking  the 
precious  stone,  left  the  house. 

He  did  not  know  himself  whither  he  was  going,  and 
for  what  purpose.  He  walked  on  and  on,  away  from  the 
city,  feeling  the  necessity  of  being  left  alone  and  reflecting 
on  what  had  happened  to  him  and  on  what  was  awaiting 
him.  As  he  kept  marching  on  and  on,  he  left  the  city 
behind  and  entered  a  holy  grove  of  the  Goddess  Diana. 
Upon  reaching  a  solitary  spot,  he  began  to  think.  The 
first  thought  that  came  to  him  was  to  ask  the  goddess's  aid, 
but  he  no  longer  believed  in  his  gods  and  so  knew  that 


20  WALK   IN   THE   LIGHT 

no  aid  was  to  be  expected  from  them.  And  if  not  from 
them,  from  whom  ?  It  seemed  too  strange  to  him  to 
reflect  on  his  own  situation.  In  his  soul  there  was  chaos 
and  darkness.  But  there  was  nothing  to  be  done :  it  was 
necessary  for  him  to  turn  to  his  conscience,  and  he  began 
before  it  to  consider  his  life  and  his  acts ;  and  both 
seemed  bad  to  him  and,  above  all,  foohsh.  Why  had  he 
been  tormenting  himself  so  much  ?  Why  had  he  been 
ruining  his  youthful  years?  There  were  few  joys,  and 
much  sorrow  and  unhappiness !  But  the  main  thing 
was,  he  felt  himself  alone.  Before  this  he  had  had  a 
loving  mother,  a  father,  and  even  friends,  —  now  there 
was  nothing.  No  one  loved  him !  He  was  a  burden  to 
all.  He  had  managed  to  cross  everybody's  life :  for  his 
mother  he  was  the  cause  of  her  discord  with  his  father ; 
for  his  father  he  was  a  spendthrift  of  his  money,  which 
had  been  collected  by  the  labour  of  a  whole  life ;  for  his 
friends  he  was  a  dangerous,  disagreeable  rival.  For  all  of 
them  it  was  desirable  that  he  should  die. 

Passing  his  life  in  review,  he  recalled  Pamphylius,  and 
his  last  meeting  with  him,  and  how  Pamphylius  had 
invited  him  to  come  to  them,  the  Christians.  And  it 
passed  through  his  head  that  he  would  not  return  home, 
but  would  go  to  the  Christians  and  would  remain  with 
them. 

"  But  is  my  situation  so  desperate  ? "  he  thought,  and 
he  again  recalled  everything  which  had  happened  to  him, 
and  again  he  was  frightened  at  this,  that,  as  he  thought, 
no  one  loved  him  and  he  loved  no  one.  His  mother, 
father,  friends  did  not  love  him,  could  not  help  but  desire 
his  death ;  but  did  he  himself  love  any  one  ?  His 
friends  ?  He  felt  that  he  did  not  love  any  one.  They 
were  all  his  antagonists ;  all  were  pitiless  to  him  now  that 
he  was  in  misfortune. 

"  My  father  ? "  he  asked  himself,  and  he  was  seized  by 
terror,  when,  at  this  question,  he  looked  into  his  own 


WALK   IN   THE    LIGHT  21 

heart.  He  not  only  did  not  love  him,  but  even  hated 
him  for  the  oppressions,  for  the  insults.  He  hated  him 
and,  besides,  he  saw  clearly  that  for  his,  Julius's  happi- 
ness, he  needed  his  father's  death. 

"  Yes,"  he  said  to  himself,  "  if  I  knew  that  no  one 
would  ever  see  or  find  out,  —  what  would  I  do,  if  I  could 
with  one  stroke,  at  once,  deprive  him  of  life  and  free 
myself  ? " 

And  Julius  answered  himself: 

"Yes,  I  should  kill  him!" 

He  gave  this  answer  to  himself,  and  he  was  frightened 
at  himself. 

"  My  mother  ?  Yes,  I  pity  her,  but  I  do  not  love  her ; 
it  is  all  the  same  to  me  what  will  become  of  her,  —  all  I 
need  is  her  aid.  Yes,  I  am  a  beast !  and  a  hunted-down, 
a  baited  beast,  and  I  differ  from  a  beast  only  in  this,  that 
I  can,  by  my  will,  go  away  from  the  deceptive,  evil  life ; 
I  can  do  what  a  beast  cannot,  —  I  can  kill  myself.  I 
hate  my  father,  I  love  no  one  —  neither  my  mother,  nor 
my  friends  —  unless,  perhaps,  Pamphylius  alone." 

And  he  again  thought  of  him.  He  began  to  recall  the 
last  meeting,  and  their  conversation,  and  Pamphylius's 
words  as  to  what  Christ  said,  according  to  their  teaching : 
"  Come  unto  me,  all  ye  that  labour  and  are  heavy  laden, 
and  I  will  give  you  rest."      Is  it  true  ? 

He  began  to  think,  to  recall  the  meek,  fearless,  and 
joyful  face  of  Pamphylius,  and  he  wanted  to  believe  what 
Pamphylius  had  said. 

"  What  am  I  indeed  ? "  he  said  to  himself.  "  Who  am 
I  ?  A  man  searching  after  the  good.  .  I  have  searched 
after  it  in  lustful  desires  and  have  not  found  it.  And  all 
those  who  live  like  me  find  it  as  little.  All  are  evil  and 
suffer.  But  there  is  a  man  who  is  always  full  of  joy, 
because  he  is  not  searching  after  anything.  He  says  that 
there  are  many  such,  and  that  all  will  be  such,  if  they 
shall  follow  what  their  Teacher  says.     What  if  this  is  the 


22  WALK   IN   THE   LIGHT 

truth  ?     Truth  or  untruth,  —  I  am  drawn  toward  it,  and 
I  shaU  go." 

Thus  Julius  said  to  himself,  and  he  left  the  grove, 
having  decided  not  to  return  home,  and  went  toward  the 
village  in  which  the  Christians  lived. 


III. 

Julius  walked  cheerfully  and  joyously,  and  the  farther 
he  walked  and  the  more  vividly  he  presented  to  himself 
the  hfe  of  the  Christians,  recalling  everything  which 
Pamphylius  had  said,  the  more  happy  he  felt.  The  sun 
was  dechning  toward  evening,  and  he  wanted  to  rest, 
when  he  met  a  man  on  the  road,  who  was  resting  and 
eating  his  supper.  The  man  was  of  middle  age,  with  a 
bright  face.  He  was  sitting,  and  eating  olives  and  a  flat 
cake.     When  he  saw  Juhus,  he  smiled,  and  said : 

"  Good  evening,  young  man  !  The  road  is  still  far. 
Sit  down  and  rest  thyself." 

Julius  thanked  him,  and  sat  down. 

"  Whither  dost  thou  go  ?  "  asked  the  stranger. 

"  To  the  Christians,"  said  Julius,  and,  by  degrees,  he 
told  the  stranger  his  whole  life  and  his  determination. 

The  stranger  listened  attentively,  asked  him  about  the 
details,  and  himself  did  not  express  his  opinion  ;  but  when 
Julius  had  ended,  the  stranger  put  the  remaining  food  into 
his  wallet,  adjusted  his  clothes,  and  said : 

"  Young  man,  do  not  carry  out  thy  intention  !  Thou  art 
in  error.  I  know  life,  but  thou  dost  not  know  it.  I  know 
the  Christians,  but  thou  dost  not  know  them.  Listen :  I 
will  analyze  all  thy  life  and  thy  thoughts,  and  after  thou 
hast  heard  them  from  me,  thou  wilt  make  that  decision 
which  will  appear  to  thee  most  correct.  Thou  art  young, 
rich,  handsome,  strong,  and  the  passions  are  boiling  in  thee. 
Thou  desirest  to  find  a  quiet  harbour,  where  the  passions 
shall  not  agitate  thee  and  thou  wilt  not  suffer  from  their 
consequences,  and  it  seems  to  thee  that  thou  wilt  find 

23 


24  WALK   IN   THE   LIGHT 

such  a  harbour  among  the  Christians.     There  is  no  such 
place,  dear  youth,  because  what  is  troubling  thee  is  not 
to  be  found  in  Cilicia,  nor  in  Rome,  but  in  thyself.     In 
the  quiet  of  the  country  solitude  the  same  passions  will 
torment  thee,  only  a  hundred  times  more  powerfully.    The 
deception  of  the  Christians,  or  their  error  (I  do  not  want 
to  condemn  them),  consists  in  this,  that  they  do  not  wish 
to  recognize  human  nature.     Only  an  old  man,  who  has 
outlived  all  his  passions,  may  be  a  complete  executor  of 
their  teaching.     But  a  man  in  possession  of  his  strength, 
or  a  youth  like  thee,  who  has  not  experienced  life  and 
tried   himself,  cannot  submit  to  their  law,  because  this 
law  has   for  its  basis,  not  human   nature,  but  the  idle 
speculation  of  their  founder,  Christ.     If  thou  shalt  go  to 
them,  thou  wilt  suffer  what  thou  sufferest  now,  only  to  a 
far  greater  extent.     Now  thy  passions  lead  thee  on  false 
paths,  but,  having  once  made  a  mistake  in  the  direction, 
thou  art  able  to  correct  thvself ;  now  thou  hast  at  least 
the  satisfaction   of  liberated  passion,  that  is,  life.     But 
among  them,  thou,  violently  repressing  thy  passions,  wilt 
err  just  as  much,  even  worse,  and  besides  this  suffering 
wilt   have  the  unceasing   suffering  of    man's   unsatisfied 
needs.     Let  the  water  out  over  a  dam,  and  it  will  water 
the  earth  and  the  meadows,  and  animals  ;   but  hold  it 
back,  and  it  will  tear  up  the  earth  and  run  out  with  dirt. 
The  same  is  true  of  the  passions.     The  teaching  of  the 
Christians,  their  teaching  in  regard  to  life,  consists,  besides 
the  beliefs  with  which  they  console  themselves,  and  of 
which  I  shall  not  speak,  also  in  the  following  :  they  do  not 
recognize  violence,  wars,  courts,  or  property,  or  the  sciences, 
arts,  —  all  that  which  makes  life  easy  and  joyous.     All 
this  would  be  well,  if  all  men  were  such  as  they  describe 
their  teacher  to  have  been.     But  this  is  not  the  case,  and 
this  cannot  be.     Men  are  evil  and  are  subject  to  their 
passions.     This    play  of   the  passions  and    the    conflicts 
which   result  from  them  hold  men  back  in  those  con- 


walk:  m  the  light  25 

ditions  of  life  in  which  they  live.  Barbarians  (savages) 
know  no  repression,  and  one  savage  would,  for  the  gratifi- 
cation of  his  desires,  destroy  the  whole  world,  if  all  men 
should  submit  as  easily  as  the  Christians  do.  If  the  gods 
have  implanted  the  sentiment  of  anger  in  men,  they  have 
done  so  because  these  sentiments  are  necessary  for  the 
hfe  of  men.  The  Christians  teach  that  these  sentiments 
are  evil,  and  that  without  them  men  would  be  happy ; 
there  would  be  no  murders,  capital  punishments,  wars. 
This  is  true,  but  it  resembles  the  proposition  that  for 
their  welfare  they  must  not  receive  nourishment.  Indeed, 
there  would  be  no  greed  and  hunger  and  all  the  calamities 
which  result  from  them.  But  still  this  proposition  would 
not  change  human  nature.  And  if  two  or  three  dozens  of 
men,  beheving  this  and  actually  not  taking  any  food, 
should  starve  to  death,  this  would  not  change  human 
nature.  The  same  is  true  of  the  other  passions,  —  indig- 
nation, anger,  revenge,  even  love  of  women,  of  luxury,  of 
splendour,  and  of  grandeur,  are  characteristic  of  the  gods 
also,  and  so  are  man's  unchangeable  properties.  Destroy 
man's  nutrition,  and  man  will  be  destroyed ;  similarly 
destroy  man's  characteristic  passions,  and  humanity  will 
be  destroyed.  The  same  is  true  of  ownership,  which  the 
Christians  are  supposed  to  deny.  Look  about  thee  :  every 
vineyard,  every  enclosure,  every  house,  every  she-ass, — 
all  this  has  been  produced  by  men  only  under  the  con- 
dition of  ownership.  Eeject  the  right  of  ownership,  and 
not  one  vineyard  will  be  dug  up,  not  one  animal  will 
be  raised  and  trained.  The  Christians  assert  that  tliey 
have  no  property,  but  they  enjoy  its  fruits.  They  say 
that  they  have  everything  in  common,  and  that  every- 
thing is  brought  togethei-.  But  what  they  bring  together, 
they  have  received  from  people  who  own  property.  They 
only  deceive  men  and,  at  best,  deceive  themselves.  Thou 
sayest  that  they  work  themselves,  in  order  to  support 
themselves ;    but    what   they   get   by   work    would   not 


26  WALK   IN   THE   LIGHT 

support  them,  if  they  did  not  make  use  of  what  men  who 
recognize  ownership  have  produced.  Even  if  they  could 
support  themselves,  they  only  could  sustain  their  lives, 
and  there  would  be  no  place  among  them  for  the  sciences, 
nor  for  the  arts.  They  do  not  recognize  the  use  of  our 
sciences  and  arts.  Nor  can  they  act  differently.  All 
their  teaching  tends  only  to  bring  them  back  to  the 
primitive  state,  to  savagery,  to  the  animal.  They  cannot 
serve  humanity  by  means  of  the  sciences  and  arts,  and, 
since  they  do  not  know  them,  they  deny  them.  They 
cannot  serve  by  those  means  which  form  man's  exclusive 
property  and  bring  him  near  to  the  gods.  They  will  have 
no  temples,  no  statues,  no  theatres,  no  museums.  They 
say  that  they  do  not  need  them.  The  easiest  way  not  to 
be  ashamed  of  their  baseness  is  to  despise  altitude,  and 
this  they  are  doing.  Their  teacher  is  an  ignoramus 
and  cheat.  And  they  emulate  him.  Besides,  they  are 
godless.  They  do  not  recognize  the  gods  and  their  inter- 
vention in  human  affairs.  For  them  exists  only  the 
father  of  their  teacher,  whom  they  also  call  their  own 
father,  and  the  teacher  himself,  who,  according  to  their 
conception,  has  revealed  all  the  mysteries  of  life  to  them. 
Their  teaching  is  a  miserable  deception.  Consider  this : 
our  teaching  says  that  the  world  exists  through  the  gods 
and  that  the  gods  protect  men.  But  men,  to  live  well, 
must  worship  the  gods  and  themselves  seek  and  think,  — 
and  so  we  are  guided  in  our  life,  on  the  one  hand,  by  the 
will  of  the  gods,  on  the  other,  by  the  combined  wisdom  of 
all  humanity.  We  live,  think,  and  seek,  and  so  move 
toward  truth.  But  they  have  no  gods,  nor  their  will,  nor 
human  wisdom,  but  only  one  thing,  the  bhnd  belief  in 
their  crucified  teacher,  and  in  everything  which  he  has 
said  to  them.  Weigh  which  guide  is  more  reliable,  the 
will  of  the  gods  and  the  combined,  free  activity  of  human 
wisdom,  or  the  compulsory,  blind  belief  in  the  words  of 
one  man." 


WALK    IN    THE    LIGHT  27 

Julius  was  struck  by  what  the  stranger  had  told  him, 
especially  by  his  last  words. 

His  iuteution  of  going  among  the  Christians  was  not 
only  shaken,  but  it  now  even  seemed  strange  to  him  how, 
under  the  influence  of  his  troubles,  he  could  have  decided 
upon  such  madness.  But  there  was  still  the  question 
open  for  him  what  he  was  to  do  now  and  how  to  get  out 
of  those  difficult  conditions  in  which  he  now  was,  and  he 
told  the  stranger  about  his  situation  and  asked  his  advice, 

"  I  wanted  to  speak  of  this  very  thing,"  continued  the 
stranger.     "  What  art  thou  to  do  ?     Thy  path,  in  so  far  as 
human  wisdom  is  accessible  to  me,  is  clear  to  me.     All 
thy  troubles  arise  from  the  passions  which  are  character- 
istic of  man.     Thou  hast  been  carried  away  by  passion, 
which  took  thee  so  far  that  thou  didst  suffer.     Such  are 
the  usual  lessons  of  life.     These  lessons  must  be  used  to 
advantage.     Thou  hast  experienced  much,  and  thou  know- 
est  where  it  is  bitter  and  where  sweet :   thou   canst  no 
longer  repeat  those  blunders.     Take  advantage  of  thy  ex- 
perience.    What  grieves  thee  more  than  anything  else  is 
thy  enmity  toward  thy  father.     This  enmity  is  due  to  thy 
situation ;  choose  another,  and  it  will  be  destroyed,  or,  at 
least,  it  will  no  longer  manifest  itself  so  painfully.     All 
thy  troubles  are  due  to  the  irregularity  of  thy  situation. 
Thou  hast  abandoned  thyself  to  the  amusements  of  youth  ; 
this  is  natural  and  good.     But  it  was  good  only  so  long 
as  it  corresponded  to  thy  age.     But  the  time  passed  and 
thou  didst  abandon  thyself    with   the  powers  of  a  man 
to  the  wantonness  of  youth,  and   that  was  bad.     Thou 
hast  reached  a  time  when  thou  oughtest  to  become  a  man, 
a  citizen,  and  serve  thy  country,  work  in  its  behalf.     Thy 
father  proposes  to  thee  tliat  thou  shouldst  get  married. 
His  advice  is  wise.     Thou  hast  outlived  one  period  of  life, 
youth,  and  hast  entered  upon  another.     All  thy  tribula- 
tions are  symptoms  of  a  transitional  condition.     Kecognize 
that  the  time  of  youth  has  passed  and,  boldly  rejecting  what 


28                             WALK   m   THE    LIGHT  j 

\ 

( 
\ 

was  proper  for  it,  but  not  proper  for  a  man,  enter  upon  I 
the  new  path.  Get  married,  give  up  the  enjoyments  of  i 
youth,  busy  thyself  with  commerce,  pubhc  affairs,  the  j 
sciences,  and  the  arts,  and  thou  wilt  not  only  make  thy  j 
peace  with  thy  father  and  thy  friends,  but  thou  wilt  also  ' 
find  peace  and  joy.  The  main  thing  that  agitated  thee  is  j 
the  unnaturalness  of  thy  situation.  Thou  hast  become  a  i 
man,  and  thou  shouldst  enter  into  matrimony  and  be  • 
a  man.  And  so  my  chief  counsel  is  :  Do  thy  father's  bid-  i 
ding,  get  married.  If  thou  art  attracted  to  solitude,  which  j 
thou  hadst  intended  to  find  among  the  Christians,  if  thou  [ 
art  inclined  toward  philosophy,  and  not  toward  the  activ- 
ity of  life,  thou  canst  usefully  abandon  thyself  to  this 
activity  only  after  thou  hast  learned  life  in  its  true  sig- 
nificance. This  thou  wilt  know  only  as  an  independent  i 
citizen  and  head  of  a  family.  If  after  that  thou  shalt  be  ; 
attracted  to  solitude,  abandon  thyself  to  it,  and  then  it  i 
will  be  a  true  attraction,  and  not  an  outburst  of  dissatis-  ■ 
faction,  such  as  it  is  at  present.     Then  go  !  "  i 

The  last  words  more  than  any  others  convinced  Julius.  i 

He  thanked  the  stranger  and  returned  home.  ! 

His   mother  received  him  with  joy.     His  father,  too,  I 
when  he  learned  of  his  readiness  to  submit  to  his  will  and 

to  marry  the  maiden  which  had  been  proposed  to  him,  i 

was  reconciled  with  his  son.  i 


IV. 

Three  months  later  they  celebrated  the  wedding  with 
beautiful  Eulampia,  and  Julius,  having  changed  his  man- 
ner of  life,  began  to  manage  a  separate  house  with  his  wife, 
and  himself  attended  to  part  of  the  business  which  his 
father  had  turned  over  to  him. 

Once  he  went  for  his  business  house  to  a  near-by  town, 
and  while  he  was  sitting  there  in  a  merchant's  shop,  saw 
Pamphylius  pass  by  with  a  maiden,  who  was  a  stranger  to 
him.  Both  were  walking  with  heavy  burdens  of  grapes, 
which  they  were  selliug.  When  Julius  recognized  his 
friend,  he  went  up  to  him  and  asked  him  to  step  into  the 
shop,  in  order  to  have  a  chat  with  him.  When  the  maiden 
saw  Pamphylius's  desire  to  go  with  his  friend  and  his  mis- 
giving about  leaving  her  alone,  she  hastened  to  say  that  she 
did  not  need  him  and  would  sit  alone  with  the  grapes, 
waiting  for  purchasers.  Pamphylius  thanked  her  and 
went  with  Julius  into  the  shop.  Julius  asked  permission 
of  the  merchant,  his  friend,  to  go  into  his  living-room,  and 
when  he  had  received  the  permission,  retired  with  Pam- 
phylius to  the  rooms  in  the  back. 

The  friends  asked  one  another  for  the  details  of  their 
lives.  Pamphylius's  life  had  not  changed  since  they  had 
met  the  last  time :  he  continued  to  live  in  the  Christian 
commune,  was  not  married,  and  assured  liis  friend  that 
his  life  was  getting  more  and  more  joyous  with  every 
year,  day,  and  hour.  Julius  told  his  friend  what  had 
happened  with  him,  and  how  he  had  been  on  his  way  to 
the  Christians,  when  his  meeting  with  the  stranger  eluci- 
dated to  him  the  errors  of  the  Christians,  and  his  own 

29 


30  WALK   IN    THE    LIGHT 

duty  to  get  married,  and  how  he  had  followed  the  advice 
and  had  married. 

"  Well,  art  thou  happy  now  ? "  Pamphylius  asked. 
"  Hast  thou  found  in  marriage  what  the  stranger  promised 
thee  ? " 

"  Happy  ? "  said  Julius.  "  What  do  you  mean  by 
happy  ?  If  we  are  to  understand  by  it  a  full  gratification 
of  my  desires,  I  am  naturally  unhappy.  So  far  I  have 
been  carrying  on  my  business  with  success,  and  people 
begin  to  respect  me ;  and  in  either  of  these  things  I  find 
a  certain  satisfaction.  Though  I  see  many  men  who  are 
richer  and  more  honoured  than  I,  I  foresee  the  possibility 
of  coming  up  to  them  and  even  surpassing  them.  This 
side  of  my  life  is  full,  but  my  wedded  state,  I  will  say 
outright,  does  not  satisfy  me.  I  will  say  more :  I  feel 
that  this  very  matrimony,  which  ought  to  give  me  joy, 
has  not  given  it  to  me,  and  that  the  joy,  which  I  experi- 
enced at  first,  kept  diminishing  and  finally  was  destroyed ; 
and  in  the  place  where  there  was  joy  there  has  grown  up 
sorrow.  My  wife  is  beautiful,  clever,  learned,  and  good. 
At  first  I  was  entirely  happy.  But  now,  —  you  do  not 
know  this,  because  you  have  no  wife,  —  there  occur  causes 
for  discord,  because  she  seeks  my  love,  when  I  am  indif- 
ferent to  her,  and  vice  versa.  Besides,  for  love  we  need 
novelty.  A  less  attractive  woman  than  my  wife  attracts 
me  more  at  first,  but  later  becomes  less  attractive  to  me 
than  my  wife ;  I  have  already  experienced  this.  No,  I 
have  not  found  any  satisfaction  in  my  married  state. 
Yes,  my  friend,"  concluded  Julius,  "  the  philosophers  are 
right :  life  does  not  give  what  the  soul  wishes  for.  I 
have  experienced  this  now  in  matrimony.  But  the  fact 
that  life  does  not  give  the  good  which  the  soul  wishes  for 
does  not  prove  that  your  deception  may  give  it,"  he  added, 
smiling. 

"  In  what  dost  thou  see  our  deception  ? "  asked  Pam- 
phylius. 


WALK   IN   THE   LIGHT  31 

"  Your  deception  consists  in  this,  that  you,  to  liberate 
a  man  from  the  calamities  which  are  connected  with  the 
affairs  of  life,  deny  all  affairs  of  life,  —  life  itself.  To 
free  yourselves  from  disenchantments  you  deny  the  en- 
chantment, marriage  itself." 

"  We  do  not  deny  marriage,"  said  Pamphylius. 

"  If  not  marriage,  you  deny  love." 

"  On  the  contrary,  we  deny  everything  but  love.  It 
serves  us  as  the  first  foundation  of  everything." 

"  I  do  not  understand  thee,"  said  Julius.  "  From  what 
I  have  heard  from  others  and  from  thee,  and  from  the  fact 
that  thou  art  not  yet  married,  though  we  are  of  the  same 
age,  I  conclude  that  you  do  not  have  marriage.  Your 
people  continue  in  the  married  state,  if  they  entered  into 
it  before,  but  they  do  not  enter  anew  into  wedlock.  You 
do  not  trouble  yourselves  about  the  continuation  of  the 
human  race.  If  you  were  alone,  the  human  race  would 
have  long  ago  come  to  an  end,"  said  Julius,  repeating  what 
he  had  heard  many  times. 

"  That  is  not  true,"  said  Pamphylius.  "  It  is  true  that 
we  do  not  make  it  our  aim  to  continue  the  human  race 
and  do  not  trouble  ourselves  about  it  as  much  as  I  have 
many  a  time  heard  your  sages  trouble  themselves.  We 
assume  that  our  Father  has  already  taken  care  of  this: 
our  aim  consists  only  in  living  according  to  His  wiU.  If 
in  His  will  is  the  continuation  of  the  human  race,  it  will 
be  continued ;  if  not,  it  will  come  to  an  end ;  this  is  not 
our  affair,  not  our  care ;  our  care  is  to  live  according  to 
His  will.  But  His  will  is  expressed  both  in  our  sermon 
and  in  our  revelation,  where  it  says  that  a  man  should 
unite  with  his  wife,  and  there  should  not  be  two  bodies, 
but  one.  Marriage  is  not  only  not  prohibited  among 
us,  but  is  even  encouraged  by  our  old  teachers.  The 
difference  between  our  marriage  and  yours  consists  in 
this,  that  our  law  has  revealed  to  us  that  every  lustful 
looking  at  a  woman  is  a  sin,  and  so  we  and  our  women, 


32  WALK   IN   THE    LIGHT 

instead  of  adorning  ourselves  and  provoking  lust,  try  to 
remove  ourselves  from  it  so  far  that  the  sentiment  of  love 
between  us,  as  between  brothers  and  sisters,  should  be 
stronger  than  the  sensation  of  lust  for  one  woman,  which 
you  call  love." 

"  But  you  can  still  not  suppress  the  love  of  the  beauti- 
ful," said  Julius.  "  I  am  convinced,  for  example,  that 
that  beauty,  the  maiden  with  whom  thou  didst  carry 
the  grapes,  in  spite  of  her  attire,  which  conceals  her 
charms,  evokes  in  thee  the  feeling  of  love  for  a 
woman." 

"  I  do  not  yet  know,"  Pamphylius  said,  blushing.  "  I 
have  not  thought  of  her  beauty.  Thou  art  the  first  who 
has  told  me  of  it.  She  is  for  me  only  a  sister.  But  I  shall 
go  on  with  what  I  wanted  to  tell  thee  about  the  difference 
between  our  marriage  and  yours.  The  difference  origi- 
nates even  from  this,  tliat  with  you  lust,  under  tlie  name 
of  beauty  and  love  and  serving  Goddess  Venus,  is  sus- 
tained, provoked  in  m'en.  But  with  us  it  is  the  very 
opposite :  lust  is  not  considered  an  evil  (God  has  not 
created  any  evil),  but  a  good,  which  becomes  an  evil  when 
it  is  not  in  its  place,  —  an  ofi'ence,  as  we  call  it.  And  this 
is  the  reason  why  I  am  not  yet  married,  though  I  may 
possibly  be  to-morrow." 

"  But  what  will  decide  it  ? " 

"  God's  will." 

"  How  dost  thou  recognize  it  ? " 

"  If  we  never  look  for  indications  of  it,  we  never  find 
it ;  but  if  we  look  for  them  constantly,  they  become  clear, 
as  clear  as  are  for  you  your  divinations  from  sacrifices  and 
birds.  And  as  you  have  your  own  sages,  who  according 
to  their  wisdom,  and  according  to  the  entrails  of  sacrificial 
animals,  and  according  to  the  flight  of  the  birds  expound 
to  you  the  wdll  of  the  gods,  so  we  have  sages  who  explain 
to  us  the  will  of  the  Father,  according  to  Christ's  revela- 
tion, according  to  the   feeling   of  their  hearts  and   the 


WALK    IN    THE    LIGHT  33 

thoughts  of  other  men,  and,  chiefly,  according  to  their 
love  of  them." 

"  But  all  this  is  very  indefinite,"  retorted  Julius, 
"  What,  for  example,  will  show  thee  when  to  marry, 
and  whom  ?  When  I  was  about  to  marry,  I  had  the 
choice  among  three  maidens :  these  three  were  chosen 
from  among  others,  because  they  were  beautiful  and  rich, 
and  my  father  was  satisfied  if  I  married  any  one  of  them. 
Of  these  three  I  chose  Eulampia,  because  she  was  to  me 
more  beautiful  and  attractive  than  the  rest ;  this  is  natu- 
ral.    But  what  will  guide  thee  in  thy  choice  ? " 

"  To  answer  thee,"  said  Pamphylius,  "  I  must  tell  thee 
first  of  all  that,  since  by  our  teaching  all  men  are  equal 
before  their  Father,  they  are  just  as  equal  before  us,  ac- 
cording to  their  position  and  to  their  spiritual  and  bodily 
quahties  ;  and  so  our  choice  (if  this  word,  which  is  incom- 
prehensible to  us,  be  used)  cannot  be  limited  to  anything. 
A  Christian's  wife  or  husband  may  be  chosen  among  any 
men  or  women  of  the  world." 

"  This  makes  it  even  less  possible  to  make  up  one's 
mind,"  said  Juhus. 

"  I  will  tell  thee  what  our  elder  has  said  about  the 
difference  that  exists  between  the  marriage  of  a  Christian 
and  that  of  a  pagan.  A  pagan,  like  thee,  chooses  a  wife, 
who,  in  his  opinion,  will  afford  him,  him  personally,  the 
greatest  amount  of  enjoyment.  But  the  eyes  stray  with 
this,  and  it  is  hard  to  decide,  the  more  so  since  the  enjoy- 
ment is  ahead.  But  for  a  Christian  there  is  no  choice  for 
himself,  or  rather,  the  choice  for  his  personal  enjoyment 
occupies  a  secondary,  and  not  the  first,  place.  For  a 
Christian  the  question  is,  not  to  violate  God's  will  by  his 
'marriage." 

"  But  where  can  there  be  a  violation  of  God's  will  in 
the  marriage  ? " 

"  I  might  have  forgotten  the  Iliad,  which  we  studied 
and  read  together,  but  thou,  who  art  living  among  sages 


34  WALK   IN    THE    LIGHT 

and  poets,  canst  not  forget  it.  What  is  the  whole  Iliad  ? 
It  is  a  story  of  the  violation  of  God's  will  in  relation  to 
marriage.  And  Meuelaus,  and  Paris,  and  Helen,  and 
Achilles,  and  Agamemnon,  and  Chryseis,  —  all  that  is  a 
description  of  all  the  strange  calamities  which  arise  for 
men  and  even  now  take  place  from  this  violation." 

"  But  wherein  does  the  violation  consist  ? " 

"  The  violation  consists  in  this,  that  a  man  loves  in 
woman  his  enjoyment  from  being  near  her,  and  not  the 
human  being  like  himself,  and  so  enters  into  matrimony 
for  the  sake  of  his  enjoyment.  Christian  marriage  is  pos- 
sible only  when  a  man  has  love  for  men  and  when  the 
object  of  his  carnal  love  is  first  of  all  an  object  of  this 
brotherly  love  of  man  for  man.  Just  as  it  is  rational  and 
safe  to  build  a  house  only  when  there  is  a  foundation,  to 
paint  a  picture  when  everything  on  which  it  is  to  be 
painted  is  prepared,  —  so  carnal  love  is  legitimate  only 
when  it  has  respect  and  love  of  one  man  for  another  at 
its  base.  On  this  foundation  alone  can  a  rational  Chris- 
tian family  life  be  reared." 

"But  I  still  fail  to  see  why  such  a  Christian  marriage, 
as  thou  callest  it,"  said  Juhus,  "  excludes  the  love  for  a 
woman,  which  Paris  experienced," 

"  I  do  not  say  that  the  Christian  marriage  does  not 
admit  the  exclusive  love  of  woman ;  on  the  contrary, 
only  then  is  it  rational  and  sacred ;  but  the  exclusive 
love  of  woman  can  arise  only  when  the  formerly  exist- 
ing love  toward  all  men  has  not  been  violated.  But  the 
exclusive  love  for  one  woman,  which  the  poets  extol,  rec- 
ognized as  good  in  itself,  without  being  based  on  the  love 
of  men,  has  no  right  to  be  called  love.  It  is  an  animal 
lust  and  frequently  passes  over  into  hatred.  The  best 
examples  of  this,  that  the  so-called  love  (eros),  if  it  is  not 
based  on  brotherly  love  for  all  men,  becomes  bestiahty, 
are  the  cases  of  violence  committed  against  the  very 
woman,  whom   he   who  violates  her   makes   suffer   and 


WALK   IN    THE    LIGHT  35 

whose  ruin  he  causes.  In  violence  there  is  evidently  no 
love  for  a  man,  if  he  tortures  him  whom  he  loves.  But 
with  the  non-Christiau  marriage  there  is  frequently  con- 
cealed violence,  when  he  who  marries  a  maiden,  who  does 
not  love  him,  or  who  loves  another,  makes  her  suffer  and 
has  no  compassion  on  her,  only  that  he  may  be  able  to 
satisfy  his  love." 

"  Let  us  say  that  this  is  so,"  said  Julius,  "  but  if  the 
maiden  loves  him,  there  is  no  injustice,  and  I  do  not  see 
any  difference  between  a  Christian  and  a  pagan  marriage." 

"  I  do  not  know  the  details  of  thy  marriage,"  answered 
Pamphylius,  "  but  I  know  that  every  marriage,  which  has 
for  its  basis  nothing  but  the  personal  good.  Cannot  help 
but  be  the  cause  of  discord ;  even  as  the  simple  taking  of 
food,  among  animals  and  among  men  who  differ  httle 
from  animals,  cannot  take  place  without  quarrelling  and 
fighting.  Everybody  wants  a  dainty  morsel,  but  as  there 
are  not  enough  dainty  morsels  to  go  around,  discord 
results  from  this.  If  there  is  no  open  discord,  there  is 
one  which  is  concealed.  The  weak  individual  wants  a 
dainty  morsel,  but  he  knows  that  the  strong  one  will  not 
give  it  to  him,  and,  although  he  knows  the  impossibility 
of  taking  it  away  directly  from  the  strong  individual,  he 
looks  with  concealed,  envious  malice  upon  the  strong  man 
and  uses  the  first  opportunity  to  take  it  away  from  him. 
The  same  is  true  of  pagan  marriage,  only  it  is  twice  as 
bad,  because  the  object  of  hatred  is  man,  so  that  there 
arises  discord  between  the  married  pair." 

"But  how  can  this  be  effected,  that  the  married  pair 
should  love  no  one  but  one  another  ?  There  will  always 
be  found  a  man  or  a  maiden  who  loves  some  one  else. 
And  so,  according  to  your  opinion,  marriage  is  impos- 
sible. And  so  I  see  that  they  say  rightly  of  you  that 
you  do  not  marry  at  all.  That  is  the  reason  why  thou 
art  not  mairied  and,  probably,  wilt  not  lie.  It  cannot  be 
that  a  man  should  marry  a  woman  without  having  first 


36  WALK   IN   THE    LIGHT 

roused  the  feeling  of  love  for  himself  in  another  woman,; 
or  that  a  girl  should  live  to  maturity  without  having 
roused  a  feeling  in  a  man.  How  was  Helen  to  have 
acted  ? " 

"  Elder  Cyril  says  of  this  as  follows :  in  the  pagan 
world,  men,  without  thinking  of  the  love  of  their  brothers, 
without  cultivating  tliis  sentiment,  think  only  of  one 
thing,  of  the  provocation  of  a  love  of  passion  for  woman, 
and  they  cultivate  this  passion.  And  so  in  their  world 
every  Helen,  or  one  like  her,  arouses  love  in  many.  Rivals 
fight  with  one  another,  try  to  surpass  one  another,  like 
animals,  in  order  to  get  possession  of  a  female.  And  in 
a  greater  or  lesser  degree,  their  marriage  is  an  act  of  vio- 
lence. In  our  community  we  not  only  do  not  think  of 
the  personal  enjoyment  of  beauty,  but  we  avoid  all  of- 
fences which  lead  to  this,  and  which  in  the  pagan  world 
are  made  a  merit  and  a  subject  of  worship.  We,  on  the 
contrary,  think  of  those  obligations  of  respect  and  love  of 
our  neighbour,  which  we  have  without  distinction  for  all 
men,  for  the  greatest  beauty  and  for  the  greatest  ugliness. 
We  cultivate  this  feeling  with  all  our  strength,  and  so  the 
feeling  of  love  has  for  me  the  upper  hand  in  us  over 
the  temptation  of  beauty  and  vanquishes  it  and  destroys 
the  discord,  which  results  from  the  sexual  relations.  A 
Christian  marries  only  when  he  knows  that  his  union 
with  the  woman  causes  no  one  any  harm." 

"  But  is  this  possible  ? "  retorted  Julius.  "  Can  we  con- 
trol our  infatuations  ? " 

"We  cannot,  if  we  give  them  full  sway,  but  we  can 
prevent  their  awakening  and  getting  up.  Take  as  an 
example  the  relation  of  father  and  daughter,  mother  and 
son,  brother  and  sister.  The  mother  is  for  her  son,  the 
daughter  for  her  father,  the  sister  for  her  brother,  no 
matter  how  beautiful  they  may  be,  not  an  object  of  per- 
sonal enjoyment,  but  of  love,  and  no  sensations  are  awak- 
ened.    They  would  awaken,  if  the  father  should  find  out 


WALK   IN    THE    LIGHT  37 

that  the  one  he  considered  to  be  his  daughter  is  not  his 
^daughter,  and  the  same  in  the  relation  of  mother  and  son, 
brother  and  sister ;  but  even  then  this  sensation  would  be 
very  feeble  and  submissive,  and  it  would  be  in  man's 
power  to  control  it.  The  feeling  of  lust  would  be  weak, 
because  at  the  base  of  it  is  tlie  sentiment  of  love  for 
mother,  daughter,  sister.  Why  dost  thou  not  wish  to 
admit  that  the  same  sentiment  may  be  educated  and  con- 
firmed in  man  in  relation  to  all  women,  just  as  in  the 
case  of  the  mothers,  sisters,  daughters,  aud  that  on  the 
basis  of  this  sentiment  there  may  grow  up  the  sentiment 
of  conjugal  love  ?  The  moment  a  brother  has  discovered 
that  the  one  whom  he  regarded  as  his  sister  is  not  his 
sister,  he  allows  in  himself  the  feeling  of  love,  as  for  a 
woman ;  even  so  a  Christian,  feeling  that  his  love  is  not 
offending  any  one,  allows  this  sentiment  to  rise  in  his 
soul." 

"  Well,  and  if  two  men  fall  in  love  with  the  same 
maiden  ? " 

"  Then  one  sacrifices  his  happiness  for  the  happiness  of 
another." 

"  But  if  she  loves  one  of  them  ?  " 

"  Then  he  whom  she  loves  less  sacrifices  his  sentiment, 
for  her  happiness." 

"  Well,  and  if  she  loves  both  alike,  and  both  sacrifice 
themselves,  she  does  not  marry  at  all  ? " 

"  No,  then  the  elders  will  look  into  the  matter,  and 
counsel  in  such  a  way  that  there  shall  be  the  greatest  good 
for  all,  with  the  greatest  love." 

"  But  this  is  never  done,  and  it  is  not  done  because  it 
is  contrary  to  human  nature." 

"  Contrary  to  human  nature  ?  What  human  nature  ? 
Man,  besides  being  an  animal,  is  also  a  man,  and  it  is 
true  that  such  a  relation  to  woman  is  not  in  accord  with 
man's  animal  nature,  but  it  is  with  his  rational  nature. 
And  when  he  uses  his  reason  in  order  to  serve  his  animal 


38  WALK   IN    THE    LIGHT 

nature,  he  does  worse  than  an  animal,  —  he  rises  to 
violence,  to  incest,  —  which  no  animal  would  do.  But 
when  he  uses  his  rational  nature  for  the  restraint  of  the 
animal,  when  his  animal  nature  serves  his  reason,  he 
attains  that  good  which  satisfies  him." 


V. 

"But  tell  me  about  thyself  personally,"  said  Julius. 
"  I  see  thee  with  this  beauty  ;  thou  evidently  livest  near 
her  and  servest  her ;  dost  thou  really  not  wish  to  become 
her  husband  ? " 

"  I  have  not  thought  of  it,"  said  Pamphylius.  "  She  is 
the  daughter  of  a  Christian  widow.  I  serve  them  just 
as  others  do.  Thou  didst  ask  me  whether  I  love  her  so 
much  as  to  wish  to  be  united  with  her.  This  question 
is  hard  for  me ;  but  I  shall  answer  it  frankly.  This 
thought  has  come  to  me,  but  there  is  a  youth  who  loves 
her,  and  so  I  do  not  yet  dare  to  think  of  it.  This  youth 
is  a  Christian  and  loves  us  both,  and  I  cannot  commit  an 
act  which  would  grieve  him.  I  live  without  thinking 
about  it.  I  seek  but  for  this,  to  fulfil  the  law  of  love 
of  men,  —  this  is  all  that  is  needed.  I  shall  marry  when 
I  see  that  that  is  necessary." 

"  But  the  acquisition  of  a  good,  industrious  son-in-law 
cannot  be  a  matter  of  indifference  to  her  mother.  She 
will  wish  for  you,  and  not  for  others." 

"  No,  it  makes  no  difference  to  her,  because  she  knows 
that,  besides  me,  all  our  people  are  ready  to  serve  her,  as 
they  would  any  one  else,  and  I  shall  serve  her  neither 
more  nor  less,  no  matter  whether  I  shall  be  her  son-in- 
law  or  not.  If  from  this  shall  result  my  marriage  with 
her  daughter,  I  shall  accept  it  with  joy,  as  I  shall  accept 
her  marriage  to  some  one  else." 

"  That  cannot  be  1 "  exclaimed  Julius.  "  What  is  so 
terrible  among  you  is,  that  you  deceive  yourselves.  And 
thus  you  deceive  others.     That  stranger  told  me  correctly 

39 


40  WALK    IN    THE    LIGHT 

about  you.  As  I  listen  to  thee,  I  involuntarily  submit 
myself  to  the  beauty  of  the  life  which  thou  describest  to 
me ;  but  when  I  reflect,  I  see  that  all  this  is  a  deception, 
which  leads  to  savagery,  to  coarseness  which  approaches 
that  of  animals." 

"  In  what  dost  thou  see  this  savagery  ?  " 

"  In  this,  that  supporting  yourselves  by  work,  you  have 
no  leisure  or  chance  to  busy  yourselves  with  the  sciences 
or  the  arts.  Here  thou  art  in  a  ragged  garment,  with 
coarsened  hands  and  feet ;  thy  companion,  who  might  be 
a  goddess  of  beauty,  resembles  a  slave.  You  have  neither 
any  songs  to  Apollo,  nor  temples,  nor  poetry,  nor  games, — 
nothing  which  the  gods  have  given  for  the  adornment  of 
human  life.  To  work,  to  work  like  slaves  or  like  oxen, 
only  in  order  to  feed  coarsely,  is  this  not  a  voluntary  and 
godless  renunciation  of  will  and  of  human  nature  ? " 

"  Again  human  nature  !  "  said  Pamphylius.  "  But  in 
what  does  this  nature  consist  ?  In  torturing  slaves  by 
giving  them  work  beyond  their  strength,  in  killing  our 
brothers  and  making  them  slaves,  in  making  of  women 
a  subject  of  amusement  ?  All  this  is  needed  for  that 
beauty  of  life,  which  thou  considerest  proper  to  human 
nature.  Does  man's  nature  consist  in  this,  or  in  living  in 
love  and  concord  with  all  men,  feeling  himself  a  member 
of  one  universal  brotherhood  ?  Thou  art  very  much  mis- 
taken, if  thou  thinkest  that  we  do  not  recognize  the 
sciences  and  art.  We  value  highly  all  the  abilities  with 
which  human  nature  is  endowed ;  but  we  look  upon  all  of 
"man's  inherent  abilities  as  upon  means  for  the  attainment 
of  one  and  the  same  end,  to  which  we  devote  all  our  life, 
namely,  the  fulfilment  of  God's  will.  In  science  and  in 
art  we  do  not  see  an  amusement,  of  use  only  as  a  pleasure 
for  idle  people ;  we  demand  from  science  and  art  the 
same  that  we  demand  from  all  human  occupations, — 
that  in  them  should  be  realized  the  same  activity  of  love 
of  God  and  our  neighbour,  by  which  all  the  acts  of  a 


WALK   IN    THE    LIGHT  41 

Christian  are  permeated.     We  recognize  as  true  science 
only  such  knowledge  as  helps  us  to  live  better,  and  we 
respect    art  only  when  it   purifies    our  designs,  elevates 
our  souls,  strengthens  our  powers,  which  are  necessary 
for  a  life  of  labour  and  of  love.     Such  knowledge  we,  in 
proportion  as  we  are  able,  do  not  fail  to  develop  in  our- 
selves and  in  our  children,  and    to  such  art  we  gladly 
devote  ourselves  in  our  time  of    leisure.     We  read  and 
study  the  writings  bequeathed  to  us  by  the  wisdom  of 
men  who  have  hved  before   us  ;    we  siDg  psalms,  paint 
pictures,  and  our  poems  and  pictures  brace  our  spirit  and 
console  us  in  moments  of  grief.     It  is  for  this  reason  that 
we  cannot  approve  of  those  applications  which  you  make 
of  the  sciences  and   arts.     Your  learned   men  use  their 
abihty  of  imagination  to  invent  new  means  for  causing 
evil  to  men  ;  they  perfect  the  methods  of  war,  that  is,  of 
murder ;  they  invent  new  methods  for  gain,  that  is,  for 
getting  rich  at  the  expense  of  others.     Your  art  serves  you 
for  the  erection  and  adornment  of  temples  in  honour  of 
the  gods,  in  whom  the  most  advanced  among  you  have 
long  ago  ceased  believing,  but  you  encourage  this  faith  in 
them  in  other  people,  assuming  that  with  this  deception 
you  will  best  retain  them  in  your  power.    You  erect  statues 
in  honour  of  the  most  powerful  and  cruel  of  your  tyrants, 
whom  nobody  respects,  but  all  fear.     In  your  theatres  you 
give  representations  of  criminal  love.     Your  music  serves 
for  the  enjoyment  of  your  rich,  who  glut  themselves  with 
food  and  drink  at  their  feasts.     And  your  painting,  which 
adorns  houses  of  debauchery,  is  such  that  a  man  who  is 
not  intoxicated  by  animal  passion  cannot  even  look  upon 
without  blushing.     No,    not  for  this  have  those  higher 
abihties,   which  distinguish  him  from  the  animal,  been 
given  to  man.     It  is  not  right  to  make  of  them  an  en- 
joyment for  our  bodies.     In  devoting  all  our  lives  to  the 
fulfilment  of  God's  will,  we  so  much   the  more  employ 
our  highest  abilities  in  the  same  service." 


42  WALK    IN    THE    LIGHT 

"  Yes,"  said  Julius,  "  all  that  would  be  beautiful,  if  life 
under  such  conditions  were  possible ;  but  it  is  not  possi- 
ble to  live  thus.  You  deceive  yourselves.  You  do  not 
recognize  the  defence  we  provide.  But  if  the  Koman 
legions  did  not  exist,  would  it  be  possible  to  live  calmly  ? 
You  make  use  of  the  defence,  without  acknowledging  it. 
Even  some  of  your  people,  so  thou  didst  tell  me  thyself, 
have  defended  themselves.  You  do  not  recognize  prop- 
erty, but  you  make  use  of  it :  our  people  have  it,  and  give 
it  to  you.  Thou  wilt  not  thyself  give  thy  grapes  away, 
but  sellest  them  and  wilt  buy  them.  All  this  is  decep- 
tion !  If  you  did  what  you  say,  it  would  be  all  right ; 
but  as  it  is,  you  deceive  others  and  yourselves." 

Julius  grew  excited  and  said  everything  which  he  had 
on  his  mind.  Pamphylius  waited  in  silence.  When 
Julius  had  ended,  Pamphylius  began  to  retort : 

"  In  vain  dost  thou  think  that,  though  we  do  not  rec- 
ognize your  defences,  we  make  use  of  them.  We  do  not 
need  the  Koman  legions,  because  we  do  not  ascribe  any 
value  to  what  demands  a  defence  by  means  of  violence. 
Our  good  consists  in  what  does  not  demand  any  defence, 
and  this  no  one  can  take  from  us.  Though  material 
things,  which  in  your  eyes  represent  property,  pass 
through  our  hands,  we  do  not  regard  them  as  our  own, 
and  give  them  to  those  who  need  them  for  their  suste- 
nance. We  sell  the  grapes  to  those  who  will  buy  them, 
not  for  the  sake  of  personal  gain,  but  with  the  one  pur- 
pose of  acquiring  what  the  needy  want.  If  any  one 
should  wish  to  take  these  grapes  away  from  us,  we  should 
give  them  up  without  resistance.  For  the  same  reason 
we  are  not  afraid  of  the  incursion  of  savages.  If  they 
should  begin  to  take  from  us  the  products  of  our  labour, 
we  should  let  them  have  them  ;  if  they  should  demand 
that  we  should  work  for  them,  we  should  do  so  with 
pleasure,  and  they  would  not  only  have  no  cause,  but 
would  even  find  it  unprofitable,  to  kill  and  torture  us. 


WALK   IN    THE    LIGHT  43 

The  savages  would  soon  comprehend,  and  would  love 
us,  and  we  should  have  less  to  suffer  from  them  than 
from  those  enlightened  men  of  yours,  who  are  about  us 
now  and  who  persecute  us.  It  is  said  that  only  thanks 
to  the  right  of  ownership  are  all  those  products  obtained, 
by  which  men  subsist  and  live ;  but,  reflect  thyself,  by 
whom  are  all  the  necessary  articles  of  life  produced  ? 
Thanks  to  whose  labour  do  you  accumulate  that  wealth, 
on  which  you  pride  yourselves  ?  Is  it  produced  by  those 
who,  folding  their  hands,  command  their  slaves  and  hire- 
lings, and  are  the  only  ones  who  enjoy  the  property  ?  or 
by  those  poor  slaves  who,  for  the  sake  of  bread,  fulfil  the 
commands  of  their  master  and  themselves  enjoy  no 
property,  receiving  as  their  share  barely  enough  for  their 
daily  sustenance  ?  And  why  do  you  think  that  these 
men  will  stop  working,  when  they  shall  have  the  possi- 
bility of  doing  rational  labour,  useful  to  themselves,  for 
themselves  and  for  those  whom  they  love  and  pity  ?  Thy 
accusations  against  us  consist  in  this,  that  we  do  not 
fully  attain  what  we  strive  after,  that  we  do  not  even 
recognize  violence  and  ownership,  and  yet  make  use  of 
them.  If  we  are  cheats,  there  is  no  sense  in  talking  with 
us,  and  we  deserve  neither  anger  nor  arraignment,  but 
only  contempt,  and  this  we  gladly  accept,  because  one  of 
our  rules  is  the  recognition  of  our  insignificance.  But 
if  we  sincerely  strive  after  what  we  profess,  then  thy 
accusations  about  our  deception  would  be  unjust.  If  we 
strive  as  do  my  brothers  and  I,  in  order  to  fulfil  the  law 
of  our  teacher,  after  living  without  violence  and  the 
ownership  which  results  from  it,  we  strive  after  it,  not 
for  external  purposes,  wealth,  power,  honours,  —  we  rec- 
ognize none  of  these  things,  —  but  for  the  sake  of  some- 
thing else.  We  seek  the  good  just  as  you  do ;  the  only 
difference  is,  that  we  see  the  good  in  something  different. 
You  believe  that  tbe  good  is  in  wealth  and  honours,  but 
we  believe  differently.     Our  faith  shows  us  that  our  good 


44  WALK    IN    THE    LIGHT 

is  not  in  violence^  but  in  obedience ;  not  in  wealth,  but  in 
giving  everything  up.  And,  like  plants  striving  after  the 
light,  we  cannot  help  but  strive  after  that  where  our 
good  is.  We  do  not  fulfil  everything  we  wish  for  our 
good,  that  is  true.  But  can  this  be  otherwise  ?  Thou 
strivest  after  having  the  most  beautiful  wife,  after  having 
the  largest  possessions,  —  hast  thou,  or  has  any  one  else, 
ever  reached  it  ?  If  a  marksman  does  not  strike  the  tar- 
get, does  he  stop  aiming  at  it,  because  he  has  many  times 
missed  his  aim  ?  The  same  is  true  of  us.  Our  good, 
according  to  Christ's  teaching,  is  in  love.  We  seek  our 
good,  but  each  one  of  us  attains  it  variously  and  far  from 
completely." 

"  Yes,  but  why  do  you  not  believe  all  human  wisdom, 
and  why  have  you  turned  away  from  it  and  believed  only 
your  crucified  teacher  ?  Your  slavery,  your  submission 
to  him,  it  is  this  that  repels  me." 

"  Again  thou  art  mistaken,  and  he  is  mistaken  who 
thinks  that  we,  in  professing  our  teaching,  have  our  faith 
only  l/ccause  the  man  whom  we  believe  has  commanded 
us  to  have  it.  On  the  contrary,  those  who  with  their 
whole  soul  seek  the  knowledge  of  the  truth,  the  com- 
munion with  the  Father,  those  who  seek  the  good,  invol- 
untarily come  to  the  path  on  which  Christ  walked,  and 
so  involuntarily  stand  behind  Him,  see  Him  in  front  of 
them.  All  those  who  love  God  Mali  meet  on  this  path, 
and  thou,  too.  He  is  the  son  of  God  and  a  mediator  be- 
tween God  and  men,  not  because  some  one  told  us  so  and 
we  believe  in  it  blindly,  but  because  all  those  who  seek 
God  find  His  son  before  them,  and  involuntarily,  only 
through  Him,  understand,  see,  and  know  God." 

Julius  made  no  reply,  and  for  a  long  time  sat  in 
silence. 

"  Art  thou  happy  ?  "  he  asked. 

"  I  wish  for  nothing  better.  But,  more  than  this :  I 
for  the  most  part  experience  a  feeling  of  perplexity,  a  con- 


WALK    IN    THE    LIGHT  45 

sciousness  of  some  injustice,  —  because  I  am  so  very 
happy,"  said  Pamphylius,  smiling. 

"  Yes,"  said  Julius,  "  maybe  I  should  be  happier,  if  I  had 
not  met  the  stranger  then,  and  had  reached  you." 

"  If  thou  thinkest  so,  what  keeps  thee  back  ? " 

"  And  my  wife  ?  " 

"  Thou  sayest  that  she  is  inclined  toward  Christianity, 
—  so  she  will  go  with  thee." 

"  Yes,  but  the  other  life  has  been  begun,  —  how  is  it  to 
be  broken  up  ?  It  has  been  begun,  it  has  to  be  finished," 
said  Julius,  presenting  to  himself  the  dissatisfaction  of 
his  father,  mother,  friends,  but  mainly  those  efforts  which 
have  to  be  made  in  order  to  make  this  change. 

Just  then  the  maiden,  Pamphylius's  companion,  walked 
up  to  the  door  of  the  shop  with  a  young  man.  Pamphy- 
lius went  out  to  them,  and  the  young  man,  in  Julius's 
presence,  tcld  them  that  he  had  been  sent  by  Cyril  to  buy 
hides.  The  grapes  were  all  sold,  and  wheat  was  bought. 
Pamphylius  proposed  to  the  young  man  that  he  should  go 
with  Magdalen  and  take  the  wheat  home,  while  he  him- 
self would  buy  and  bring  the  hides. 

"  It  will  be  better  for  thee,"  he  said. 

"  No,  Magdalen  had  better  go  with  thee,"  said  the 
young  man,  and  d  'parted. 

Julius  took  Pamphylius  into  the  shop  of  a  merchant  he 
knew.  Pamphylius  tilled  the  wheat  in  bags  and,  having 
given  Magdalen  a  small  part,  threw  his  heavy  burden 
over  his  shoulder,  bade  Julius  good-bye,  and  left  the  town 
with  the  maiden.  At  the  turn  of  the  street  Pamphylius 
looked  around  and,  smiling,  shook  his  head  to  Julius  and, 
smiling  in  the  same  way,  and  even  more  joyously,  at 
Magdalen,  he  said  something  to  her  and  they  disappeared 
from  view. 

"  Yes,  I  should  have  done  better,  if  I  had  reached  them 
then,"  thought  Julius.  And  in  his  imagination,  alternat- 
ing, arose  two  pictures,  that  of  powerful  Pamphylius  with 


46  WALK    IN    THE    LIGHT 

the  tall,  strong  maiden,  carrjdng  baskets  on  their  heads 
and  their  good,  bright  faces,  and  now  his  domestic  hearth, 
which  he  had  left  in  the  morning  and  to  which  he  would 
return,  and  the  pampered,  beautiful,  but  wearisome  and 
unpleasant  wife,  in  fine  raiment  and  bracelets,  lying  on 
rugs  and  pillows. 

But  Julius  had  not  time  to  think  :  merchants,  his  com- 
panions, came  up  to  him,  and  they  began  their  habitual 
occupation,  which  ended  with  a  dinner  with  drinking, 
and  at  night  with  women. 


VI. 

Ten  years  passed.  Julius  did  not  meet  Pamphylius 
again,  and  the  meetings  with  him  slowly  passed  out  of 
his  mind,  and  the  impressions  of  liim  and  of  the  Christian 
life  wore  off. 

Julius's  life  went  its  usual  way.  During  this  time  his 
father  died,  and  he  had  to  take  upon  himself  the  whole 
business.  The  business  was  complicated :  there  were  the 
usual  purchasers ;  there  were  sellers  in  Africa,  clerks, 
debts  to  be  collected  and  to  be  paid.  Julius  was  involun- 
tarily drawn  into  his  affairs,  to  which  he  devoted  all  his 
time.  Besides,  there  appeared  new  cares.  He  was  chosen 
to  a  public  office,  and  this  new  occupation,  wdiich  tickled 
his  vanity,  was  attractive  to  him.  Besides  commercial 
affairs,  he  attended  to  public  matters,  and,  as  he  possessed 
a  good  mind  and  the  gift  of  words,  he  began  to  push  to 
the  front,  so  that  he  was  able  to  attain  a  high  public 
position.  In  the  course  of  these  ten  years  a  significant 
and  disagreeable  change  had  taken  place  in  his  domestic 
affairs.  Three  children  were  born  to  him,  and  this  birth 
of  the  children  separated  him  from  his  wife.  In  the  first 
place,  his  wife  lost  the  greater  part  of  her  beauty  and 
freshness  ;  in  the  second,  she  busied  herself  less  with  her 
husband.  All  her  tenderness  and  affection  were  concen- 
trated on  her  children.  Though  the  children,  according 
to  the  custom  of  the  pagans,  were  turned  over  to  wet- 
nurses  and  attendants,  Julius  frequently  found  them  with 
their  mother,  or  did  not  find  her  in  her  apartments,  but  in 
those  of  her  children,  and  the  children  generally  annoyed 
Julius,  affording  him  more  displeasure  than  joy. 

47 


48  WALK    IN    THE    LIGHT 

Being  busy  with  his  mercantile  and  public  affairs, 
Julius  abandoned  his  former  life  of  dissipation,  but  he 
still  needed,  as  he  assumed,  an  elegant  rest  after  his 
labours,  and  this  he  did  not  find  with  his  wife,  the  more 
so  since  during  this  time  his  wife  cultivated  more  and 
more  the  acquaintance  of  her  Christian  slave,  and  more 
and  more  was  carried  away  by  the  new  teaching,  and 
rejected  in  her  life  everything  external,  pagan,  which  had 
formed  her  charm  for  Julius.  As  he  did  not  find  in  his 
wife  what  he  wanted,  he  cultivated  the  acquaintance  of  a 
woman  of  easy  behaviour  and  with  her  passed  those 
hours  of  leisure  which  he  had  left  from  his  occupations. 

If  Julius  had  been  asked  whether  he  was  happy  or 
not,  during  these  years  of  his  life,  he  would  have  been 
unable  to  answer. 

He  was  so  busy  !  From  one  affair  and  pleasure  he 
passed  to  another  affair  or  pleasure,  but  not  one  of  them 
was  such  that  he  was  fully  satisfied  with  it,  or  that  he 
wished  to  continue  it.  Every  affair  was  such  that  the 
quicker  he  could  free  himself  from  it,  the  better  it  was 
for  him ;  and  not  one  pleasure  was  such  that  it  was  not 
poisoned  by  something,  that  the  tedium  of  satiety  was 
not  mixed  in  with  it. 

Thus  Julius  lived,  when  an  event  happened  to  him 
which  almost  changed  the  whole  manner  of  his  life.  He 
took  part  in  the  races  at  the  Olympian  games,  and,  in 
bringing  his  chariot  successfully  to  the  goal,  suddenly 
drove  into  another  chariot,  which  he  had  overtaken.  A 
wheel  broke,  and  he  fell  down  and  broke  two  ribs  and  an 
arm.  His  injuries  were  severe,  but  not  serious.  Julius 
was  carried  home,  and  he  had  to  lie  in  bed  for  three 
months. 

During  these  three  months,  amidst  severe  physical 
sufferings,  his  mind  began  to  work,  and  he  had  leisure  to 
think  about  his  life,  looking  upon  it  as  that  of  an  outsider. 
And  his  life  presented  itself  to  him  in  a  gloomy  light,  the 


WALK   IN    THE    LIGHT  49 

more  so  since  at  that  time  there  happened  three  unpleasant 
events,  which  pained  him  sorely.  The  first  was,  that  his 
slave,  his  father's  trusted  servant,  having  received  some 
precious  stones  in  Africa,  had  run  away  with  them,  thus 
causing  a  great  loss  and  a  disorganization  in  Julius's 
affairs.  The  second  was,  that  Julius's  concubine  had  left 
him  and  had  chosen  another  protector.  The  third  and 
the  most  disagreeable  event  for  him  was  this,  that  during 
his  illness  took  place  the  election  to  the  governorship,  a 
position  which  he  had  hoped  to  get,  but  to  which  his  rival 
was  chosen.  All  tliis,  it  seemed  to  Julius,  had  happened, 
because  his  chariot  had  gone  one  finger's  breadth  too  much 
to  the  left. 

As  he  was  lying  all  alone  on  his  bed,  he  began  involun- 
tarily to  think  of  how  his  life  depended  on  the  most 
insignificant  accidents,  and  these  thoughts  brought  him  to 
others,  and  to  the  recollection  of  his  former  misfortunes,  — 
of  his  attempt  to  go  to  the  Christians  and  of  Pamphylius, 
whom  he  had  not  seen  for  ten  years.  These  recollections 
were  intensified  by  his  conversations  with  his  wife,  who 
now  stayed  with  him  frequently  during  his  illness  and 
told  him  everything  she  knew  about  Christianity  from 
her  slave.  This  slave  had  at  one  time  lived  in  the  same 
comnninity  with  Pamphylius,  whom  she  knew.  Julius 
wished  to  see  this  slave,  and  when  she  came  to  his  couch, 
he  asked  her  in  detail  about  everything  and  especially 
about  Pamphylius. 

"  Pamphylius,"  the  slave  told  him,  "  was  one  of  the  best 
brothers,  and  was  loved  and  respected  by  all."  He  was 
married  to  that  same  Magdalen,  whom  Julius  had  seen 
ten  years  before.     They  had  already  several  children. 

"  Yes,  the  man  who  does  not  believe  that  God  has 
created  men  for  their  good,"  concluded  the  slave,  "  needs 
only  go  and  look  at  their  life." 

Julius  dismissed  the  slave  and,  when  left  alone,  buried 
himself  in  thought  concerning  everytliing  which  he  had 


60  WALK    IN    THE    LIGHT 

heard.     He  felt  ashamed,  when  he  compared  his  life  with 
that  of  Pamphylius,  and  he  wanted  not  to  think  of  it. 

To  distract  himself,  he  picked  up  a  Greek  manuscript, 
which  his  wife  had  laid  down  before  him,  and  began  to 
read.     In  the  manuscript  he  read  as  follows  : 

"  There  are  two  ways,  —  one  is  the  way  of  life,  and  the 
other  the  way  of  death.  The  way  of  life  consists  in  this : 
In  the  first  place,  thou  shalt  love  God,  who  has  created 
thee ;  in  the  second  place,  thy  neighbour  as  thyself ;  and 
what  thou  dost  not  wish  to  have  done  to  thee,  do  not  to 
another.  The  teaching  which  is  included  in  these  words 
is  as  follows :  Bless  those  who  curse  you  ;  pray  for  your 
enemies,  and  fast  for  your  persecutors,  for  what  reward  is 
there,  if  ye  love  those  who  love  you  ?  Do  not  the  pagans 
do  likewise  ?  Love  those  who  hate  you,  and  ye  will  have 
no  enemies.  Remove  yourselves  from  carnal  and  from 
worldly  lusts.  If  a  man  smite  thee  on  the  right  cheek, 
turn  to  him  the  other  also,  and  thou  shalt  be  perfect.  If 
a  man  compel  thee  to  walk  a  mile,  walk  with  him  two ; 
if  a  man  take  from  thee  what  is  thine,  do  not  ask  it  back, 
for  thou  canst  not ;  if  a  man  take  thy  upper  garment, 
give  him  also  thy  shirt.  To  all  who  ask,  give,  and  demand 
not  back,  for  the  Father  wishes  that  all  should  receive  of 
His  gifts  of  grace.  Blessed  is  he  who  gives  according  to 
the  commandment ! 

"  The  second  commandment  of  the  teaching :  Thou 
shalt  not  kill,  thou  shalt  not  commit  adultery,  thou  shalt 
not  fornicate,  nor  steal,  nor  divine,  nor  poison,  nor  covet 
that  which  is  thy  neighbour's.  Swear  not,  bear  not  false 
witness,  speak  not  evil,  remember  not  evil.  Be  not  double 
in  thought,  nor  double  of  tongue.  Let  not  thy  word  be 
false,  nor  idle,  but  in  conformity  with  the  fact.  Be  not 
greedy,  nor  avaricious,  nor  hypocritical,  nor  evil-mannered, 
nor  haughty.  Have  no  evil  intentions  against  thy  neigh- 
bour. Have  no  hatred  for  any  man,  but  arraign  some, 
pray  for  others,  and  others  again  love  more  than  thy  soul. 


WALK    IN    THE    LIGHT  51 

"  My  child  !  Avoid  every  evil  and  everything  like  it. 
Be  not  angry,  for  auger  leads  to  murder ;  nor  jealous,  nor 
quarrelsome,  nor  irritable,  for  from  all  this  comes  murder. 

"  My  child !  Be  not  lustful,  for  lust  leads  to  fornica- 
tion ;  he  not  foul  of  speech,  for  from  this  comes  adultery, 

"  My  child  !  Do  not  lie,  for  lying  leads  to  stealing  ;  be 
not  greedy,  nor  vain,  for  from  all  this  comes  stealing. 

"  My  child !  Be  no  murnmrer,  for  this  leads  to  blas- 
phemy ;  nor  bold,  nor  evil-minded,  for  from  all  this  comes 
blasphemy.  But  be  meek,  for  the  meek  shall  inherit  the 
earth.  Be  long-suffering  and  merciful,  and  kindly,  and 
humble,  and  good,  and  always  tremble  at  the  words  which 
thou  shalt  hear.  Exalt  not  thyself  in  spirit,  and  give  no 
boldness  to  thy  soul.  Let  not  thy  soul  cleave  to  the  proud, 
but  converse  with  the  righteous,  and  with  the  humble. 
Accept  everything  which  may  happen  with  thee  as  good, 
knowing  that  nothing  can  be  without  God. 

"  My  child  !  Cause  no  divisions,  and  reconcile  those 
who  quarrel.  Extend  not  thy  hand  to  receive,  and  close 
it  not  at  giving.  Waver  not  in  giving  and,  giving,  murmur 
not,  for  thou  shalt  find  out  who  is  a  good  giver  of  rewards. 
Turn  not  away  from  the  needy,  but  in  everj^thing  have 
communion  with  thy  brother,  and  call  nothing  thine  own 
property,  for  if  ye  are  participants  in  the  imperishable 
things,  ye  are  so  much  the  more  in  perishable  things. 
From  childhood  teach  thy  children  the  fear  of  God. 
Command  not  thy  slaves  in  anger,  lest  they  cease  to  fear 
God,  who  is  above  both  of  you,  for  He  comes  not  to  call, 
judging  by  persons,  but  calls  those  whose  spirit  He  has 
prepared. 

"  And  the  way  of  death  is  as  follows :  first  of  all  it  is 
evil  and  cursed,  —  here  are  murder,  adultery,  lust,  forni- 
cation, steahng,  idolatry,  sorcery,  poisoning,  rape,  false 
witness,  hypocrisy,  double-mindedness,  cunning,  pride, 
malice,  haughtiness,  avarice,  foul  speech,  envy,  impudence, 
conceit,  vanity ;  here  are  the  persecutors  of  the  good,  the 


52  WALK    IN   THE    LIGHT 

haters  of  truth,  the  lovers  of  lying,  who  acknowledge  no 
retribution  for  righteousness,  nor  cleave  to  good,  nor 
to  righteous  judgment,  watchful,  not  of  the  good,  but  of 
evil,  from  whom  are  removed  humbleness  and  patience ; 
here  are  also  the  lovers  of  vanity,  the  seekers  of  rewards, 
who  have  no  compassion  for  their  neighbours,  who  labour 
not  for  the  oppressed,  who  know  not  their  Creator ;  mur- 
derers of  children,  miners  of  God's  image,  who  turn  away 
from  the  needy,  oppressors  of  the  oppressed,  defenders  of 
the  rich,  unlawful  judges  of  the  poor,  sinners  in  all 
things  !     Beware,  children,  of  all  such  people." 

Long  before  Julius  had  read  the  manuscript  to  the  end, 
there  happened  with  him,  what  happens  with  people  who 
read  a  book,  that  is,  another  person's  thoughts,  with  the 
sincere  desire  for  the  truth  ;  he  entered  with  his  soul 
in  communion  with  those  who  had  inspired  these 
thoughts.  He  read,  guessing  in  advance  what  would 
be,  and  not  only  agreed  with  the  thoughts  of  the  book, 
but  seemed  himself  to  have  expressed  them. 

With  him  happened  that  common,  most  mysterious, 
most  significant  phenomenon  in  life,  unnoticed  by  many, 
which  consists  in  this,  that  the  so-called  live  man  becomes 
alive,  when  he  enters  into  communion,  unites  into  one, 
with  the  so-called  dead,  and  lives  one  life  with  them. 

Julius's  soul  united  with  him  who  wrote  and  inspired 
these  thoughts,  and  after  this  communion  he  examined 
himself,  his  hfe.  And  he  himself  and  his  whole  life 
appeared  to  him  as  one  terrifying  mistake.  He  did  not 
live,  but  with  all  his  cares  about  his  life  and  with  the 
temptations  only  ruined  in  himself  the  possibility  of 
the  true  hfe. 

"  I  do  not  want  to  ruin  my  life,  —  I  want  to  live,  to 
walk  on  the  path  of  life,"  he  said  to  himself. 

He  recalled  everything  Pamphylius  had  told  him  in 
their  former  conversations,  and  all  that  now  appeared 
to  him  so  clear  and  so  indubitable  that  he  was  surprised 


WALK   IN    THE    LIGHT  53 

how  he  could  have  believed  the  stranger  at  that  time  and 
been  kept  from  fulfilling  his  intention,  —  of  going  to  the 
Christians.  He  recalled  also  what  the  stranger  had  told 
him  : 

"  Go  there,  when  thou  hast  experienced  life." 

"  Well,  I  have  experienced  life  and  have  found  nothing 
in  it." 

He  also  recalled  the  words  of  Pamphylius,  that,  no 
matter  when  he  would  come  to  them,  they  would  be  glad 
to  receive  him. 

"  Yes,  I  have  erred  and  suffered  enough ! "  he  said  to 
himself.  "  I  shall  give  up  everything,  and  I  shall  go  and 
live  with  them,  as  it  says  here." 

He  told  liis  thought  to  liis  wife,  and  she  was  delighted 
at  his  intention.  His  wife  was  ready  for  everything. 
The  only  question  was  how  to  carry  it  out.  What  was 
to  be  done  with  the  children  ?  Were  they  to  be  taken 
along,  or  to  be  left  with  their  grandmother  ?  How  were 
they  to  be  taken  ?  How  could  they,  after  the  tenderness 
of  their  bringing  up,  be  subjected  to  all  the  difhcullies  of 
a  stern  life  ?  The  slave  proposed  to  go  with  them.  But 
the  mother  was  afraid  for  her  children,  and  said  that  it 
would  be  better  to  leave  them  with  their  grandmother 
and  go  alone.     And  to  this  they  agreed. 

Everything  was  decided  upon,  and  only  Julius's  sick- 
ness retarded  the  execution  of  their  plans. 


VII. 

In  this  mood  Julius  fell  asleep.  Next  morning  he  was 
told  that  a  skilful  physician,  who  was  passing  through 
the  city,  wished  to  see  him,  promising  to  cure  him  soon. 
Julius  gladly  received  the  physician.  The  physician  was 
no  other  than  the  same  stranger  whom  Julius  had  met  as 
he  was  on  his  way  to  the  Christians.  The  physician 
examined  his  wounds,  and  prescribed  to  him  potions  of 
herbs  to  strengthen  him. 

"  Shall  I  be  able  to  work  with  my  hand  ? "  asked 
Julius. 

"  Oh,  yes  !     Direct  the  chariot,  write,  yes." 

"  But  hard  work,  —  digging  ? " 

"  I  have  not  thought  of  it,"  said  the  physician,  "  because 
this  will  not  be  needed  in  thy  position." 

"  On  the  contrary,  I  shall  need  it  very  much,"  said 
Julius ;  and  he  told  the  physician  that  since  he  had  seen 
him  he  had  followed  his  advice  and  had  experienced  life ; 
but  hfe  had  not  given  him  what  it  had  promised,  but,  on 
the  contrary,  had  disenchanted  him,  and  that  now  he 
wished  to  carry  out  the  intention  of  which  he  had  spoken 
then. 

"  Yes,  they  have  evidently  put  their  whole  deception 
into  practice,  and  have  enchanted  thee  in  such  a  way  that 
in  thy  position,  with  those  obligations  which  lie  upon 
thee,  especially  in  relation  to  the  children,  thou  dost  none 
the  less  not  see  their  error." 

"  Read  this,"  was  all  Julius  said,  handing  him  the 
manuscript  which  be  had  read. 

The  physician  took  the  manuscript  and  looked  at  it. 

54 


WALK   IN    THE    LIGHT  55 

« I  know  this,"  he  said,  "  I  know  this  deception,  and  I 
marvel  how  such  a  learned  man  as  thou  art  can  fall  into 
such  a  trap." 

"  I  do  not  understand  thee.  In  what  does  the  trap 
consist  ? " 

"  The  whole  question  is  in  the  life,  and  they,  these 
sophists  and  rioters  against  men  and  gods,  offer  a  happy 
way  of  life,  in  which  all  men  shall  be  happy  ;  there  will 
be  no  wars,  no  capital  punishment,  no  poverty,  no  quar- 
rels, no  malice.  And  they  assert  that  such  a  condition  of 
men  will  exist  when  all  men  shall  fulfil  Christ's  com- 
mandments, —  when  they  shall  not  quarrel,  nor  fornicate, 
nor  swear,  nor  offer  violence,  nor  wage  war  upon  one 
another.  But  they  deceive  us  in  that  they  take  the  aim 
for  the  means.  The  aim  is  not  to  quarrel,  not  to  swear, 
not  to  fornicate,  and  so  forth,  and  this  aim  is  attained 
only  by  means  of  the  public  life.  But  they  say  very 
nearly  what  a  teacher  of  .shooting  might  say  :  '  Thou  wilt 
hit  the  target,  if  thy  arrow  sliall  fly  in  a  straight  line  to 
the  target.'  But  the  problem  is,  how  to  do  so  that  it  may 
fly  in  a  straight  line.  And  this  problem  is  attained  in 
shooting  by  the  stringing  of  the  string,  the  flexibility 
of  the  bow,  the  straightness  of  the  arrow.  The  same  is 
true  of  the  life  of  men.  The  best  life  of  men,  in  which 
there  is  no  need  for  quarrelhng,  fornicating,  killing,  is 
attained  by  having  a  string,  —  the  rulers,  —  the  flexi- 
bility of  the  bow,  —  the  strength  of  power,  —  and  a 
straight  arrow,  —  the  justice  of  the  law.  But  they,  under 
the  pretext  of  a  better  life,  destroy  everything  which  has 
improved  life.  They  recognize  neither  government,  nor 
power,  nor  laws." 

"  But  they  assert  that  without  rulers,  power,  or  laws 
we  can  live  better,  if  men  shall  fulfil  Christ's  law." 

"  Yes ;  but  what  guarantees  that  men  will  fulfil  it  ? 
Nothing.  They  .say,  '  You  have  experienced  life  with 
power  and  laws,  and  life  did  not  become  perfect ;  now 


56  WALK   IN   THE   LIGHT 

« 

experience  the  absence  of  power  and  of  laws,  and  life  will 
become  perfect ;  you  have  no  right  to  deny  this,  because 
you  have  not  experienced  it.'  But  it  is  here  that  the 
sophistry  of  the  godless  people  becomes  obvious.  Saying 
this,  do  they  not  say  the  same  that  a  man  would  say  to  a 
farmer  ?  '  Thou  so  west  in  the  ground  and  coverest  the 
seed,  and  yet  the  crop  is  not  such  as  thou  desirest;  I 
advise  thee,  sow  in  the  sea,  and  it  will  be  better ;  and 
thou  hast  no  right  to  deny  my  proposition,  because  thou 
hast  not  tried  it.'  " 

"  Yes,  that  is  true,"  said  Julius,  who  was  beginning  to 
waver. 

"  But  this  is  not  enough,"  continued  the  physician. 
"Let  us  assume  what  is  insipid  and  impossible:  let  us 
assume  that  the  foundations  of  the  Christian  teaching 
can  be  communicated  to  all  men  by  the  taking  of  certain 
drops,  and  that  suddenly  all  men  will  fulfil  Christ's  teach- 
ing, loving  God  and  their  neighbours  and  fulfilling  the 
commandments.  Let  us  assume  this,  and  yet  the  path  of 
life  according  to  their  teacliing  will  not  stand  scrutinizing. 
There  will  be  no  Hfe,  and  life  will  come  to  an  end.  Their 
teacher  was  a  young  vagabond,  and  such  will  be  his  fol- 
lowers, and,  according  to  our  supposition,  the  whole  world. 
Those  who  live  now  will  continue  hving,  but  their  chil- 
dren will  not,  or  only  one  in  ten  will  remain  living. 
According  to  their  teaching,  all  children  must  be  equal  to 
every  mother  and  to  every  father,  both  one's  own  children 
and  those  of  strangers.  How  will  these  children  be 
saved,  when  we  see  that  the  whole  passion,  the  whole  love, 
for  these  children,  wliich  is  implanted  in  the  mothers, 
will  scarcely  keep  the  children  from  destruction;  what 
will  happen  when  this  passion  passes  into  compassion, 
which  is  equal  for  all  children?  Who  is  to  be  taken, 
and  what  child  is  to  be  saved  ?  Who  will  sit  up  nights 
with  a  sick,  ill-smelling  child,  if  not  its  mother  ?  Nature 
has  made  a  protection  for  the  child  in  the  love  of  its 


WALK   IN    THE   LIGHT  57 

mother ;  they  take  it  away  and  put  nothing  in  its  place. 
Who  will  teach  the  son  ?  Who  will  comprehend  his 
soul,  if  it  is  not  his  father  ?  Who  will  ward  off  danger 
from  him  ?  All  this  is  done  away  with  !  The  whole  life, 
that  is,  the  continuation  of  the  human  race,  is  done  away 
with." 

"  This  too  is  true,"  said  Julius,  carried  away  by  the 
physician's  eloquence. 

"  Yes,  my  friend,  leave  thy  raving  and  live  rationally, 
especially  now,  when  upon  thee  lie  such  great,  important, 
and  real  obligations.  It  is  a  matter  of  honour  that  you 
carry  them  out.  Thou  hast  lived  up  to  the  second  period 
of  thy  doubts,  but  go  on,  and  there  will  be  no  more 
doubts.  Thy  first  and  most  indubitable  duty  is  the  edu- 
cation of  thy  children,  whom  thou  hast  neglected  :  thy 
duty  toward  them  consists  in  making  of  them  most  worthy 
servants  of  thy  country.  The  existing  political  structure 
has  given  thee  everything  thou  hast,  and  thou  shouldst 
serve  it  thyself  and  give  it  worthy  servants  in  the  persons 
of  thy  children.  Thy  second  duty  is  to  serve  society. 
Thy  failure  lias  grieved  and  disenchanted  thee,  —  this  is 
a  temporary  accident.  Nothing  is  given  without  struggle, 
and  the  joy  of  the  triumph  is  strong  only  when  the 
victory  has  been  ditiicult.  Leave  it  to  thy  wife  to  amuse 
herself  with  the  prattling  of  Christian  writers ;  but  be 
thyself  a  man  and  educate  thy  children  to  be  men.  Be- 
gin thy  life  with  the  consciousness  of  duty,  and  all  thy 
doubts  will  fall  off  by  themselves.  They  have  come  to 
thee  anyway  from  your  morbid  state.  Fulfil  thy  duty  in 
relation  to  thy  country  by  serving  it  and  by  preparing  thy 
children  for  this  service.  Put  them  on  their  feet,  that 
they  may  be  able  to  take  thy  place,  and  then  peacefully 
abandon  thyself  to  the  life  which  attracts  thee,  but  until 
then  thou  hast  no  right  to  it ;  and  if  thou  didst  devote 
thyself  to  it,  thou  wouldst  find  notliiug  but  sutfering." 


VIII. 

Either  the  medicinal  herbs  or  the  counsels  of  the  wise 
physician  acted  upon  Julius,  and  he  soon  braced  up,  and 
his  thoughts  about  the  Christian  life  appeared  to  him  wild 
ravings. 

The  physician  remained  a  few  days,  and  then  went 
away.  Julius  got  up  soon  after,  and,  taking  advantage  of 
his  counsels,  began  a  new  life.  He  engaged  teachers  for  his 
children  and  himself  watched  their  studies.  He  passed 
his  own  time  in  public  affairs,  and  soon  attained  great 
importance  in  the  city. 

Thus  Julius  lived  a  year,  and  during  this  time  he  did 
not  even  think  of  the  Christians.  But,  at  the  expiration 
of  a  year,  a  court  was  held  in  his  city  to  judge  the 
Christians. 

A  lieutenant  had  arrived  in  Cilicia  from  the  Koman 
emperor  for  the  purpose  of  crushing  the  Christian  propa- 
ganda. Julius  had  heard  of  the  measures  taken  against 
the  Christians,  and,  assuming  that  this  had  no  reference 
to  the  Christian  community  in  which  Pamphylius  was 
living,  did  not  give  it  any  thought.  But  once,  as  he  was 
walking  over  the  forum  to  the  place  of  his  business,  he 
was  accosted  by  a  middle-aged,  poorly  clad  man,  whom 
he  did  not  recognize  at  lirst:  this  was  Pamphylius.  He 
walked  up  to  Julius,  leading  a  boy  by  his  hand. 

"  Good  morning,  friend,"  Pamphylius  said  to  him.  "  I 
have  a  great  request  to  make  of  thee,  but  I  do  not  know 
whether  thou  wilt,  during  the  present  persecutions  of  the 
Christians,  recognize  me  as  thy  friend,  and  whether  thou 

58 


WALK   IN   THE   LIGHT  59 

art  not  afraid  to  lose  thy  place  by  keeping  company  with 


me." 


"  I  am  not  afraid  of  any  one,"  replied  Julius,  "  and  in 
proof  of  it,  I  beg  thee  to  go  with  me  to  my  house.  I 
shall  even  miss  my  business  at  the  forum  in  order  to 
speak  with  thee  and  be  useful  to  thee.  Come  with  me ! 
Whose  child  is  this  ? " 

"  He  is  my  son." 

"  Eeally,  I  ought  not  to  have  asked  thee.  I  recognize 
thy  face  in  him,  and  I  recognize  these  blue  eyes,  and  I  need 
not  ask  who  thy  wife  is :  it  is  that  beauty  whom  I  saw 
several  years  ago  with  thee." 

"  Thou  hast  guessed  it,"  replied  Pamphylius.  "  Soon 
after  thou  sawest  her  with  me,  she  became  my  wife." 

The  friends  entered  Juhus's  house.  Juhus  called  out 
his  wife  and  gave  her  the  boy,  and  himself  led  Pam- 
phylius into  his  luxurious,  secluded  room. 

"  Here  thou  may  est  say  everything,  —  no  one  will  hear 
us,"  said  Juhus. 

"  I  am  not  afraid  if  I  am  heard,"  replied  Pamphylius. 
"  My  request  even  does  not  consist  in  this,  that  the 
Christians  who  have  been  taken  should  not  be  judged 
and  executed,  but  only  that  they  should  be  permitted 
openly  to  confess  their  faith." 

And  Pamphylius  told  him  that  the  Christians  who  had 
been  seized  by  the  authorities  had  sent  word  about  their 
condition  to  their  community.  Elder  Cyril,  knowing  of 
Pamphylius's  relations  to  Julius,  had  commissioned  Pam- 
phylius to  go  and  intercede  for  the  Christians.  The 
Christians  were  not  asking  to  be  pardoned  :  they  regarded 
the  witnessing  to  the  truth  of  Christ's  teaching  as  their 
calling.  They  could  bear  witness  to  this  by  a  long  life  of 
eighty  years,  or  prove  it  even  by  their  martyrdom.  Either 
was  a  matter  of  indifference  to  them,  and  carnal  death, 
which  was  inevitable,  was  equally  devoid  of  terror  and 
full  of  joy  for  them,  whether  now  or  in  fifty  years ;  but 


60  WALK    IN    THE    LIGHT 

they  wished  their  life  to  be  useful  to  men,  and  so  sent 
Pamphylius  to  beg  that  the  judgment  and  the  execution 
should  be  pubhc." 

Julius  was  surprised  at  Pamphylius's  request,  but 
promised  that  he  would  do  everything  in  his  power. 

"  I  have  promised  thee  ray  aid,"  said  Julius,  "  but  I 
promise  it  to  thee  in  consideration  of  my  friendship  for 
thee  and  that  especial,  good  feeling  of  meekness  which 
thou  hast  always  evoked  in  me ;  but  I  must  confess  that 
I  consider  your  teaching  senseless  and  harmful.  I  can 
judge  of  this,  because  I  myself  lately,  in  a  moment  of  dis- 
enchantment and  sickness,  during  my  dejection  of  spirit, 
shared  your  views  and  came  very  near  abandoning  every- 
thing and  joining  you.  I  know  whereon  your  error  is 
based,  because  I  have  myself  passed  through  it,  —  on  the 
love  of  self,  on  the  weakness  of  spirit,  and  on  morbid 
feebleness  ;  it  is  a  faith   for  women,  and  not  for  men." 

"  But  why  ? " 

"  Because,  while  you  recognize  that  in  human  nature 
lies  dissension  and  violence,  which  results  from  dissension, 
you  do  not  wish  to  take  part  in  them  and  to  teach  them 
to  others,  and,  by  not  doing  your  share,  you  do  not  wish  to 
make  use  of  the  structure  of  the  world,  which  is  based 
on  violence.  Is  this  just  ?  The  world  has  always  existed 
with  rulers.  These  rulers  have  taken  upon  themselves 
the  whole  labour  and  the  whole  responsibihty,  and  have 
protected  us  against  external  and  internal  enemies.  And 
in  return  for  this,  we,  the  subje(3ts,  have  submitted  to 
these  rulers,  have  bestowed  honours  upon  them,  or  have 
aided  them  in  their  service.  But  you,  instead  of  partici- 
pating with  your  labours  in  the  affairs  of  state,  and  in  the 
measure  of  your  deserts  rising  higher  and  higher  in 
the  estimation  of  men,  have,  in  your  pride,  at  once  recog- 
nized all  men  to  be  equal,  in  order  that  you  may  not 
consider  any  one  higher  than  yourselves,  but  may  consider 
yourselves  equal  to  Csesar.     You  think  so  yourselves  and 


WALK    IN    THE    LIGHT  61 

you  teach  others  so.  And  for  feeble-minded  and  lazy 
people  this  offence  is  great !  Instead  of  labouring,  every 
slave  will  at  once  regard  himself  as  equal  to  Csesar.  But 
more  than  that :  you  deny  the  tribute,  and  slavery,  and 
the  courts,  and  executions,  and  war,  —  everything  which 
holds  men  together.  If  men  obeyed  you,  society  would 
fall  to  pieces  and  we  should  return  to  the  time  of  savagery. 
You  preach  in  the  state  the  destruction  of  the  state.  But 
your  very  existence  is  conditioned  by  the  state.  If  that 
did  not  exist,  neither  would  you.  You  would  all  be  the 
slaves  of  the  Scythians  or  of  wild  men,  the  first  that  should 
know  of  your  existence.  You  are  like  an  ulcer  which 
destroys  the  body,  but  which  can  appear  and  feed  only  on 
the  body.  And  the  living  body  struggles  with  it  and 
crushes  it !  It  is  this  that  we  are  doing  with  you,  and  we 
cannot  help  but  do  so.  And  in  spite  of  my  promise  to 
lielp  thee  in  the  fulfilment  of  your  desire,  I  look  upon  your 
teaching  as  very  harmful  and  base :  base,  because  I  con- 
sider it  dishonest  and  unjust  to  gnaw  the  breast  which 
feeds  thee  !  It  is  base  to  make  use  of  the  benefits  of  the 
structure  of  the  state  and,  without  taking  part  in  this 
structure,  by  which  the  state  is  supported,  to  destroy  it ! " 
"  In  thy  words,"  said  Pamphylius,  "  there  would  be 
much  that  is  just,  if  we  really  lived  as  thou  thiukest. 
But  thou  dost  not  know  our  life,  and  hast  formed  a 
wrong  impression  about  it.  Those  means  for  subsistence, 
which  we  employ  for  ourselves,  are  obtainable  without 
the  aid  of  violence.  It  is  hard  for  you,  with  your  habits 
of  luxury,  to  form  an  idea  how  little  a  man  needs  in  order 
to  exist  without  privations.  A  man  is  so  constructed  that 
in  a  healthy  state  he  can  with  his  hands  earn  much  more 
than  what  he  needs  for  his  own  subsistence.  But  by 
living  together,  we  are  able,  with  the  work  in  common, 
witliout  any  effort  to  sustain  our  children,  and  our  old 
men,  and  the  sick,  and  the  feeble.  Tliou  sayest  of  the 
rulers  that  they  defend   men    against   outer   and  inner 


62  WALK   m    THE    LIGHT 

enemies,  —  but  we  love  our  enemies,  and  so  we  have 
none.  Thou  affirmest  that  we,  the  Christians,  provoke 
in  the  slave  the  desire  to  be  a  Csesar  ;  we,  on  the  contrary, 
both  in  word  and  in  deed  preach  one  thing,  —  patient 
humility  and  labour,  the  lowest  kind  of  labour,  —  the 
labour  of  the  working  man.  We  know  nothing  and 
understand  nothing  about  affairs  of  state ;  we  know  this 
much,  and  this  we  know  indubitably,  that  our  good  is 
only  there  where  the  good  of  other  men  is,  and  we  seek 
this  good ;  the  good  of  all  men  is  in  union,  but  union  is 
not  obtained  through  violence,  but  through  love.  The 
violence  of  a  robber  against  a  passer-by  is  as  provoking  to 
us  as  the  violence  exerted  by  an  army  over  captives,  by 
judges  over  those  who  are  to  be  punished,  and  we  cannot 
consciously  take  part  in  either.  We  cannot  without  labour 
make  use  of  violence.  Violence  is  reflected  in  us,  but  our 
participation  in  violence  does  not  consist  in  applying  it, 
but  in  bearing  it  humbly,  when  exerted  against  us." 

"  But  tell  me,  Pamphylius,  why  are  people  hostile  to 
you,  and  why  do  they  persecute,  drive,  and  kill  you  ? 
Why  does  your  teaching  of  love  lead  to  dissension  ? " 

"  The  cause  is  not  in  us,  but  in  you.  We  put  above 
everything  else  the  divine  law,  which  governs  our  con- 
science and  reason.  We  can  comply  only  with  those  laws 
of  state  which  are  not  contrary  to  the  divine  laws :  '  To 
Csesar  the  things  which  are  Cesar's  and  to  God  the  things 
which  are  God's.'  And  it  is  for  this  that  men  persecute  us. 
We  are  not  able  to  stop  this  hostility  against  us,  because 
we  cannot  forget  the  truth,  which  we  have  come  to  com- 
prehend ;  we  cannot  begin  to  live  contrary  to  our  con- 
science and  to  our  reason.  Of  this  hostility  which  our 
faith  provokes  in  others  against  us,  our  teacher  has  said : 
'  Think  not  that  1  am  come  to  send  peace  on  earth ;  I 
came  not  to  send  peace,  but  a  sword ! '  Christ  has  ex- 
perienced this  hostility  Himself,  and  he  has  warned  us, 
His  disciples,  more  than  once  of  it:  'The  world  hateth 


WALK   IN"   THE    LIGHT  63 

me,'  He  said,  '  because  the  works  thereof  are  evil.  If  ye 
were  of  the  world,  the  world  would  love  you ;  but  be- 
cause ye  are  not  of  the  world,  but  I  have  freed  you  from 
the  world,  therefore  the  world  hateth  you.  The  time 
Cometh,  that  whosoever  killeth  you  will  think  that  he 
doeth  God  service.'  But,  like  Christ,  we  are  not  afraid  of 
those  who  kill  the  body,  and  so  they  can  do  nothing 
more  with  us.  '  And  this  is  their  condemnation,  that 
light  is  come  into  the  world,  and  men  loved  darkness 
rather  than  light,  because  their  deeds  were  evil.'  There 
is  no  reason  for  losing  courage  on  account  of  this,  because 
the  truth  prevails.  The  sheep  hear  the  shepherd's  voice 
and  follow  him,  because  they  know  his  voice.  And 
Christ's  flock  does  not  perish,  but  grows,  drawing  new 
sheep  toward  itself  from  all  the  countries  of  the  earth,  for, 
'  The  wind  bloweth  where  it  listeth,  and  thou  hearest  the 
sound  thereof,  but  canst  not  tell  whence  it  cometh,  and 
whither  it  goeth.' " 

"  Yes,"  Julius  interrupted  him,  "  but  are  there  many 
among  you  who  are  sincere  ?  You  are  frequently  accused 
of  pretending  that  you  are  martyrs,  and  that  you  are  glad 
to  perish  for  the  truth,  but  the  truth  is  not  on  your  side. 
You  are  proud  madmen,  who  destroy  all  the  foundations 
of  social  hfe  ! " 

Pamphylius  made  no  reply,  and  looked  sadly  at  Julius. 


IX. 

While  Julius  was  saying  this,  Pamphylius's  little  son 
came  ruuning  into  the  room  and  pressed  close  to  his 
father's  side. 

In  spite  of  all  the  affection  of  Julius's  wife,  he  ran  away 
from  her  and  came  to  his  father's  side.  Pamphylius  drew 
a  sigh,  patted  his  son,  and  rose  up,  but  Julius  held  him 
back,  asking  him  to  stay  for  dinner  and  talk  with  him 
longer. 

"  I  am  surprised,"  said  Julius,  "  at  your  having  married 
and  had  children.  I  cannot  understand  in  what  way 
you  Christians  can,  in  the  absence  of  property,  educate 
your  children.  How  can  your  mothers  live  calmly, 
knowing  that  your  children  are  not  provided  for  ?  " 

"  Why  are  our  children  provided  for  less  than  yours  ?  " 

"Because  you  have  no  slaves  and  no  property.  My 
wife  is  very  much  inclined  toward  Christianity,  and  at 
one  time  she  even  v/anted  to  abandon  this  hfe,  —  this 
was  six  years  ago.  I  wanted  to  go  with  her :  but  first  of 
all  she  was  frightened  by  that  uncertainty,  that  want, 
which  presented  itself  for  her  children,  and  I  could  not 
help  but  agree  with  her.  That  was  during  my  sickness. 
At  that  time  all  my  life  was  loathsome  to  me  and  I 
wanted  to  give  everything  up.  But  my  wife's  fears  and, 
on  the  other  hand,  the  elucidations  by  my  physician,  who 
cured  me,  persuaded  me  that  the  Christian  life,  as  you 
lead  it,  is  possible  and  good  for  those  who  have  no  fami- 
lies, but  that  there  is  no  place  in  it  for  married  people, 
for  mothers  with   children,  and    that    with    life  as  you 

understand  it,  life,  that  is,  the  human  race,  must  come  to 

64 


WALK   IN    THE    LIGHT  65 

an  end.  And  this  is  quite  true.  Therefore  thy  appear- 
ance with  thy  child  is  particularly  surprising  to  me." 

"  Not  only  one  child ;  at  home  are  left  a  suckling  babe 
and  a  three-year-old  girl." 

"  Explain  to  me  how  this  is  done.  I  do  not  under- 
stand it.  Five  years  ago  I  was  ready  to  give  every- 
thing up  and  to  join  you  ;  but  I  had  children,  and  1 
understood  that,  no  matter  how  well  it  would  be  for  me, 
I  had  no  right  to  sacrifice  my  children,  and  so  I  remained 
living  as  before,  in  order  to  bring  them  up  under  the  con- 
ditions in  which  I  myself  grew  up  and  lived." 

"  It  is  strange,"  said  PamphyUus,  "  how  differently  we 
judge !  We  say,  If  grown  persons  hve  in  a  worldly 
fashion,  this  may  be  forgiven,  Ijecause  they  a^-e  already 
spoiled,  but  for  children,  —  that  would  be  terrible  !  To 
live  with  them  in  the  world  and  to  offend  them  !  '  Woe 
unto  the  world  because  of  offences !  for  it  must  needs  be 
that  offences  come ;  but  woe  to  that  man  by  whom  the 
offence  cometh  ' '  Thus  says  our  teacher,  and  I  do  not 
say  this  for  a  retort,  but  because  it  is  really  so.  The 
chief  need  of  living  in  such  a  way  as  we  all  live  results 
for  us  from  this,  that  among  us  there  are  children,  those 
beings  of  whom  it  is  said,  '  Unless  ye  be  as  children,  ye 
shall  not  enter  the  kiuodom  of  God.'  " 

"  But  how  can  a  Christian  family  be  without  any  defi- 
nite means  ? " 

"According  to  our  faith,  there  is  but  one  means,  the 
work  of  love  for  men,  while  yours  is  violence.  It  may 
be  destroyed,  as  wealth  is  destroyed,  and  then  only  work 
and  the  love  of  men  is  left,  "\^'e  consider  that  what  is 
the  foundation  of  everything,  that  we  must  hold  on  to, 
and  that  we  ought  to  increase.  And  when  this  exists, 
the  family  lives  and  even  prospers.  Yes,"  continued 
Pamphylius,  "  if  I  liad  any  doubts  as  to  the  veracity  of 
Christ's  teaching  and  wavered  in  its  execution,  these 
doubts  and  waverings  of  mine  would  have  ended  at  once, 


66  WALK    IN    THE    LIGHT 

if  I  thought  of  the  lot  of  the  children  who  are  brought  up 
by  the  pagans  under  conditions  in  which  thou  hast  grown 
up  and  briugest  up  thy  children.  No  matter  how  we  may 
arrange  life  with  palaces,  slaves,  and  the  imported  produc- 
tions of  foreign  countries,  the  life  of  the  majority  of  men 
remains  what  it  ought  to  be.  The  only  provision  for 
life  will  always  be  the  love  of  men  and  labour;  We 
want  to  free  ourselves  and  our  children  from  these  condi- 
tions, and  not  by  means  of  violence,  but  with  love,  do 
we  make  men  serve  us,  and,  strange  to  say,  the  more  we 
think  we  secure  ourselves  in  this  manner,  the  more  we 
deprive  ourselves  of  the  true,  natural,  and  safe  provision, 
of  love.  The  greater  the  power  of  the  ruler,  the  less  love 
there  is  for  him.  The  same  is  true  of  the  other  provision, 
of  labour.  The  more  a  man  frees  himself  from  labour 
and  becomes  accustomed  to  luxury,  the  less  able  he  be- 
comes to  labour,  the  more  he  is  deprived  of  the  true  and 
eternal  provision.  And  these  conditions,  under  which 
men  place  their  children,  they  call  provisions !  Take  thy 
son  and  mine,  and  send  them  both  to  find  the  way,  to 
give  an  order,  to  do  what  is  necessary,  and  thou  wilt  see 
which  of  the  two  will  do  better ;  and  try  to  have  the 
two  educated  by  others :  whom  will  they  take  more 
readily  ?  No,  do  not  say  those  terrible  words,  that  the 
Christian  life  is  possible  only  for  the  childless.  On  the 
contrary,  it  may  be  said :  it  is  pardonable  only  for 
the  childless  to  live  a  pagan  life.  But  woe  unto  him 
that  shall  offend  one  of  these  little  ones ! " 

Julius  was  silent. 

"  Yes,"  he  said,  "  maybe  thou  art  right,  but  the  educa- 
tion of  the  children  has  been  begun,  and  the  best  teachers 
teach  them.  Let  them  learn  everything  we  know,  —  no 
harm  can  come  from  it.  There  is  still  time  for  me  and 
for  them.  They  can  come  to  you,  when  they  shall  have 
strength  and  shall  find  it  necessary.  But  I  can  do  so  later 
after  I  have  put  my  children  on  their  feet  and  am  left  free." 


WALK    IN    TUE    LIGHT  67 

"  Know  the  truth,  and  ye  shall  be  free,"  said  Pamphy- 
liiis.  "  Christ  gives  full  liberty  at  once ;  the  worldly 
teaching  will  never  give  it." 

And  Pamphylius  went  away  with  his  son. 

The  execution  was  public :  Julius  saw  there  Pamphy- 
lius, as  he,  with  other  Christians,  was  taking  away  the 
bodies  of  the  martyrs. 

He  saw  him  ;  but,  fearing  the  higher  authorities,  he  did 
not  go  up  to  him  and  did  not  call  him  up. 


Another  twenty  years  passed.  Julius's  wife  had  died. 
His  life  proceeded  in  the  cares  of  a  public  activity,  in  the 
search  after  power,  which  now  was  given  him,  and  now 
escaped  from  him.     His  fortune  was  great  and  kept  in- 


creasing. 


His  sons  were  grown  up :  his  second  son  more  espe- 
cially began  to  lead  life  on  a  broad  scale.  He  made 
holes  in  the  bottom  of  the  bucket  in  which  the  fortune 
accumulated  and,  in  proportion  as  the  fortune  grew,  the 
leaks  also  were  increased.  Here  began  Julius's  struggle 
with  his  sons,  precisely  such  as  had  been  his  with  his 
father :  there  were  malice,  hatred,  jealousy. 

At  that  time  a  new  chief  deprived  Julius  of  favour. 
Julius  was  abandoned  by  his  former  flatterers,  and  exile 
awaited  him.  He  went  to  Eome,  to  make  explanations ; 
he  was  not  admitted,  and  was  ordered  to  return  home. 

Upon  returniug  he  found  bis  son  with  dissipated  youths. 
The  rumour  had  spread  in  Cilicia  that  Julius  had  died, 
and  the  son  was  celebrating  the  death  of  his  father. 
Julius  was  beside  himself,  and  struck  his  son  so  hard 
that  he  fell  down  as  one  dead.  Then  Julius  went  to  his 
wife's  apartments.  There  he  found  the  Gospel,  in  which 
he  read :  "  Come  unto  me,  all  ye  that  labour  and  are  heavy 
laden,  and  I  will  give  you  rest.  Take  my  yoke  upon 
you,  and  learn  of  me ;  for  I  am  meek  and  lowly  in  heart ; 
and  ye  shall  find  rest  unto  your  souls.  For  my  yoke  is 
easy,  and  my  burden  light." 

"  Yes,"  thought  Julius,  "  He  has  been  calling  me  for  a 

68 


WALK   IN    THE    LIGHT  69 

Ions  time.  I  did  not  believe  Him  and  was  insubmissive 
and  evil,  and  my  yoke  was  heavy  and  my  burden 
evil." 

Julius  sat  for  a  long  time  with  the  open  Gospel  on  his 
knees,  reflecting  on  his  whole  past  life,  and  recalliug 
everything  which  Pamphylius  had  told  him  at  different 
times.  Then  Julius  arose  and  went  to  his  son,  whom, 
to  his  surprise,  he  found  on  his  legs,  and  he  was  inex- 
pressibly happy,  because  he  had  not  injured  him  by  his 
blow. 

Without  saying  a  word  to  his  son,  Julius  went  out 
into  the  street  and  walked  in  the  direction  of  the  Chris- 
tian community.  He  walked  the  whole  day  and  in  the 
evening  stopped  for  the  night  at  the  house  of  a  peasant. 
In  the  room  which  he  entered  lay  a  man.  At  the  noise 
of  steps  the  man  arose.     It  was  the  physician. 

"  No,  now  thou  shalt  no  longer  dissuade  me,"  exclaimed 
Julius.  "  I  am  now  going  there  for  the  third  time,  and 
I  know  that  only  there  shall  I  hnd  rest." 

"  Wliere  ? "  asked  the  physician. 

"  With  the  Christians." 

"  Yes,  maybe  tliou  wilt  find  rest,  but  thou  hast  not  ful- 
filled thy  duty.  There  is  no  manhness  in  thee:  thy  mis- 
fortunes van(juish  thee.  Not  thus  do  real  philosophers 
act.  Misfortune  is  only  a  fire  in  which  the  gold  is  tested. 
Tliou  hast  passed  through  the  crucible.  Now  thou  art 
wanting,  and  now  tliou  fleest !  It  is  now  that  thou 
oughtest  to  test  men  and  thyself.  Thou  hast  acquired 
true  wisdom,  and  this  thou  oughtest  to  use  for  the  good 
of  thy  country.  What  would  happen  to  the  citizens,  if 
those  who  have  come  to  know  men,  their  passions  and 
conditions  of  life,  instead  of  sharing  their  knowledge, 
their  experience,  in  behalf  of  society,  should  bury  it  in 
their  search  after  peace  ?  Thy  wisdom  of  life  has  been 
acquired  in  society,  and  thou  oughtest  to  give  it  to  the 
same  society." 


70  WALK   IN    THE    LIGHT 

"  But  I  have  no  wisdom  !  I  am  all  in  error  !  Though 
my  errors  are  old,  they  have  not  on  that  account  been 
changed  to  wisdom,  just  as  water,  no  matter  how  old  and 
foul  it  may  be,  will  not  be  changed  to  wine." 

Thus  spoke  Julius,  and,  seizing  his  cloak,  he  hurriedly 
left  the  house  and  without  rest  continued  his  journey. 
At  the  end  of  the  next  day  he  arrived  at  the  community 
of  the  Christians. 

He  was  welcomed  by  them,  though  they  did  not  know 
that  he  was  a  friend  of  Pamphylius,  who  was  beloved 
and  respected  by  all.  At  the  table  Pamphyhus  saw  his 
friend,  and  he  ran  up  to  him  with  joy  and  embraced 
him, 

"  Here  I  have  come,"  said  Julius.  "  Tell  me  what  to 
do,  and  I  shall  obey  thee." 

"  Have  no  thought  of  it,"  said  Pamphylius.  "  Come 
with  me." 

And  Pamphylius  took  Julius  to  the  house  where  the 
newcomers  stopped,  and,  pointing  a  bed  out  to  him,  he 
said: 

"  Thou  wilt  see  thyself  wherewith  thou  canst  serve 
people,  when  thou  hast  had  a  chance  to  see  our  life ;  but, 
that  thou  mayest  know  how  to  dispose  of  thy  leisure,  I 
shall  appoint  thee  some  work  for  to-morrow.  They  are 
now  gathering  the  grapes  in  our  vineyards :  go  and  help 
them.     Thou  wilt  thyself  find  out  where  thy  place  is." 

On  the  next  morning  Julius  went  into  the  vineyard. 
The  first  was  a  young  vineyard,  which  was  laden  with 
clusters  of  grapes.  Young  people  were  gathering  them. 
All  the  places  were  occupied,  and  Julius  could  not  find 
any  place  there  for  himself,  though  he  walked  up  and 
down  the  vineyard  for  a  long  time.  He  w^ent  farther, 
where  there  was  an  older  vineyard,  and  where  there  was 
less  of  the  fruit ;  but  even  here  Juhus  found  nothing  to 
do :  all  worked  in  pairs,  and  there  was  no  place  for  him. 
He  went  farther  still,  and  entered  an  overgrown  vineyard. 


WALK   IN   THE   LIGHT  71 

It  was  all  empty.     The  vines  were  blasted  and  crooked, 
and,  as  Julius  thought,  barren. 

"  So  this  is  my  life,"  he  said  to  himself. 

"  If  I  had  come  the  first  time,  it  would  have  been  as 
the  fruit  of  the  first  vineyard.  If  I  had  come  when  I 
started  for  the  second  time,  it  would  have  been  like  the 
fruit  of  the  second  vineyard ;  but  here  is  my  life  now :  it 
is  like  these  useless,  overgrown  vines,  which  are  good  for 
fuel  only." 

And  Julius  was  frightened  at  what  he  had  done ;  he 
was  frightened  at  the  punishment  which  awaited  him  for 
having  wasted  his  life  to  no  purpose.  And  Julius  was 
grieved,  and  he  said  aloud : 

"  I  am  not  good  for  anything  and  cannot  do  anything 
now." 

And  he  did  not  rise  from  the  spot,  and  wept  because 
he  had  lost  what  could  no  longer  be  returned.  And 
suddenly  he  heard  an  old  man's  voice,  which  called  him : 

"  Labour,  my  brother  ! " 

Julius  looked  back,  and  he  saw  an  old  man,  bent  with 
years,  white  as  snow,  who  with  difficulty  moved  his  feet. 
He  was  standing  at  a  \dne  and  collecting  the  sweet 
clusters  which  were  left  here  and  there.  Julius  walked 
over  to  him. 

"  Labour,  dear  brother !     Labour  is  joyful ! " 

And  he  showed  him  how  to  look  for  the  clusters  which 
were  left  here  and  there.  Julius  went  to  look  for  them 
and  he  brought  some  and  deposited  them  in  the  old  man's 
basket.     And  the  old  man  said  to  him  in  reply : 

"  See  whether  these  clusters  are  worse  than  those  col- 
lected in  the  other  vineyards!  'Walk  in  the  light,  while 
ye  have  light,'  our  master  has  said.  '  It  is  the  will  of  Him 
that  sent  me  that  every  man  who  seeth  the  son  and 
beheveth  on  Him  should  have  everlasting  life,  and  I  will 
bring  him  to  hfe  at  the  last  day.  For  God  sent  not  His 
son  into  the  world  to  condemn  the  world :  but  that  the 


72  WALK    I?T    THE    LIGHT 

world  through  Him  might  be  saved.  He  that  believeth 
on  Him  is  not  condemned :  but  he  that  believeth  not  is 
condemned  already,  because  he  hath  not  believed  in  the 
name  of  the  only  begotten  son  of  God.  And  this  is 
the  condemnation,  that  light  is  come  into  the  world,  and 
men  loved  darkness  rather  than  light,  because  their  deeds 
were  evil.  For  every  one  that  doeth  evil  hateth  the 
light,  neither  cometh  to  the  light,  lest  his  deeds  should 
be  reproved.  But  he  that  doeth  truth  cometh  to  the 
light,  that  his  deeds  may  be  made  manifest,  that  they  are 
wrought  in  God.'  Grieve  not,  my  son !  We  are  all  sons 
of  God  and  His  servants  !  We  are  all  His  army  !  Dost 
thou  think  he  has  no  other  servants  but  thee  ?  And 
what  if  thou  hadst,  in  thy  full  strength,  devoted  thyself 
to  His  service,  —  shouldst  thou  have  done  everything  He 
wants,  everything  that  ought  to  be  done  to  men  in  order 
to  establish  His  kingdom  ?  Thou  sayest  that  thou 
shouldst  have  done  twice,  ten  times,  a  hundred  times  as 
much.  But  if  you  did  a  million  times  as  much  as  all 
other  men,  what  would  this  be  in  God's  work  ?  Nothing. 
There  is  no  limit  and  no  end  to  God's  work,  as  there  is 
not  to  God.  Come  to  Him,  and  be  not  a  labourer,  but  a  son, 
and  thou  shalt  become  a  participator  of  infinite  God  and 
His  work.  There  is  no  great  and  no  small  with  God,  but 
there  is  what  is  straight  and  what  is  crooked.  Enter  the 
straight  path  of  life  and  thou  shalt  be  with  God,  and  thy 
work  will  be  neither  small  nor  great,  but  the  work  of  God. 
Eemember  that  in  heaven  there  is  more  joy  on  account  of 
one  sinner  than  of  a  hundred  righteous.  The  worldly 
affairs,  all  that  which  thou  hast  missed,  have  only  shown 
thee  thy  sin,  —  and  thou  hast  repented.  And  since  thou 
hast  repented,  thou  hast  found  the  straight  path  ;  walk  on 
it  with  God,  and  think  not  of  the  past,  of  what  is  greater 
and  what  lesser.  For  God  all  the  living  are  equal ! 
There  is  one  God  and  one  life ! " 

And  Julius  calmed  down,  and  began  to  live  and  to 


WALK   IN    THE    LIGHT  73 

work  for  his  brothers  according  to  his  strength  and  the 
best  he  knew  how.  And  thus  he  lived  in  joy  for  another 
twenty  years,  and  did  not  see  how  he  died  a  carnal 
death. 

Ydsnaya  Polydna,  October,  1890. 


THOUGHTS   AND   APHORISMS 

Collected    from    L.    N.   Tolstoy's    Private    Corre- 
spondence, by   D.    R.   Kudryavtsev 

1886- 1893 


THOUGHTS  AND  APHORISMS^ 

Collected    from    L.    N.    Tolstoy's    Private    Corre- 
spondence, by   D.   R.   Kudryavtsev 


LETTER  FROM  L.  N.  TOLSTOY  TO  D.  R. 
KUDRYAVTSEV 

Dear  Brother  :  —  I  received  your  book  and  read  it 
partly  with  pleasure,  recalling  those  trains  of  thought  aud 
those  sentiments  which  I  experienced,  when  I  expressed 
the  thoughts  which  are  contained  in  it,  and  partly  with 
annoyance  and  sorrow,  because  I  have  expressed  so  ob- 
scurely what  I  wanted  to  express. 

I  have  for  a  long  time  been  struggling  with  vanity  and 
egoism,  and  have  conquered  these  to  such  an  extent  that 
I  no  longer  experience  a  disagreeable  sensation  at  tlie 
thought  that  I  shall  be  condenmed  for  my  too  bold, 
thoughtless,  and  frequently  insufficiently  grounded  ex- 
pression of  my  thoughts,  the  more  so,  since  I  agree  with 
you  that  here  and  there  something  from  what  you  have 
collected  may  be  of  use  to  men. 

I  should  never  have  thought  of  publishing  this  book, 

but,  once  it  is  out,  I  have  nothing  against  it,  and  only 

thank  you  for  the  sympathy  which  you  express. 

Affectionately, 

L.  Tolst6y. 

1  From  tbis  collectiou  extracts  previously  given  are  omitted, — 
Translator's  Note. 

77 


L 

EELIGION 


The  whole  misunderstanding  is  based  on  this,  that, 
speaking  of  religion,  the  positivists  understand  by  it 
something  quite  different  from  what  I  do  and  what  Con- 
fucius, Lao-tse,  Buddha,  Christ,  have  said  about  it. 

According  to  the  opinion  of  the  positivists,  it  is  neces- 
sary to  invent,  or  at  least  to  think  out,  a  religion,  and  it  is 
necessary  to  think  out  such  a  religion  as  wiU  have  a  good 
effect  upon  men  and  will  agree  with  science,  and  will 
combine  and  embrace  everything  and,  warming  up  people 
and  encouraging  them  to  do  good,  will  not  impair  their 
lives. 

But  I  understand  (I  flatter  myself  with  the  hope  that  I 
am  not  alone  in  this)  religion  quite  differently. 

Eeligion  is  the  consciousness  of  those  truths  which  are 
universally  accessible  to  all  men,  in  all  their  situations, 
at  all  times,  and  are  as  indubitable  as  that  two  times  two 
are  four. 

The  business  of  religion  is  to  find  and  express  these 
truths,  and  when  this  truth  is  expressed,  it  will  inevitably 
change  the  life  of  men ;  and  so  what  the  positivists  call  a 
scheme  is  not  at  all  an  arbitrary  assertion  by  anybody, 
but  an  expression  of  those  laws  which  are  always  un- 
changeable and  are  felt  by  all  men. 

The  business  of  religion  is  like  geometry. 

The  relation  of  the  sides  to  the  hypotenuse  has  always 

78 


THOUGHTS    AND    APHORISMS  79 

existed,  and  men  always  knew  that  there  was  some  kind 
of  a  relation  between  them  ;  but  Pythagoras  pointed  it 
out  and  proved  it,  and  this  relation  became  the  possession 
of  all  men.  But  to  say  that  the  scheme  of  morahty  is 
not  good,  because  it  excludes  other  schemes,  is  the  same 
as  saying  that  the  theorem  of  the  relation  of  the  sides  to 
the  hypotenuse  is  not  good,  because  it  impairs  the  other 
false  conceptions. 

It  is  not  right  to  reject  Christ's  scheme  (as  they  say), 
or  the  truth  (as  I  say),  on  the  ground  that  it  does  not  fit 
in  with  the  invented  religion  of  humanity  and  excludes 
the  other  schemes  (as  they  express  it),  or  the  lie  (as  I  call 
it) ;  it  can  be  rejected  only  by  proving  that  it  is  not  the 
truth. 

Eeligion  is  not  composed  of  a  conglomerate  of  words 
which  may  act  well  upon  people ;  religion  is  composed  of 
simple,  apparent,  clear,  indubitable  moral  truths,  which 
are  separated  from  the  chaos  of  false  and  deceptive  judg- 
ments ;  and  such  are  the  truths  of  Christ. 

If  I  found  such  truths  in  Katkdv,  I  should  involun- 
tarily accept  them  at  once. 

On  this  lack  of  comprehension  of  what  I,  and  all  other 
religious  men,  consider  religion  to  be,  and  on  the  desire  to 
put  in  place  of  it  a  definite  form  of  a  propaganda,  is  all  mis- 
understanding based. 


What  for  us  forms  the  whole  meaning  of  life,  our  faith, 
is  known  by  many  ;  but,  unfortunately,  very  few  know 
that  this  is  not  merely  the  chief,  but  even  the  only  thing, 
and  that  it  is  not  right  to  speak  of  it  with  adornments 
and  elegance. 

It  is  not  right  to  speak  of  it ;  it  has  to  be  wept  over 
with  tears,  and  when  these  sincere  tears  are  wanting,  it  is 
not  right  to  speak  of  it  on  purpose,  —  it  is  not  right 
to  desecrate  it  with  a  frivolous  touch. 


80  THOUGHTS    AND    APHORISMS 


In  Kingsley  there  is  a  beautiful  philosophical  explana- 
tion of  the  Son,  —  the  idea  of  a  man,  righteous  for 
himself,  for  God.  In  order  to  be  such  a  righteous  man, 
it  is  necessary  to  be  insulted,  tortured,  hanged,  hated  by 
all,  and  yet  righteous. 

4 

(From  the  Vedas) 

Be  they  horses,  cows,  elephants,  —  everything  which 
lives,  walks,  swims,  and  flies  ;  everything  which  even  does 
not  move,  like  the  trees  and  the  grass,  —  all  that  is  the 
eyes  of  Eeason. 

Everything  is  formed  by  Eeason.  The  universe  is  the 
eyes  of  Reason,  and  Eeason  is  its  foundation.  Eeason  is 
the  one  existence. 

Man,  by  surrendering  himself  to  Eeason  and  its  serv- 
ice, leaves  this  world  of  phenomena  and  enters  into  a 
blissful  and  free  world  and  becomes  immortal. 


Confucius  does  not  mention  Mang-Ti,  the  personal  God, 
but  always  speaks  only  of  heaven.  Here  is  his  relation 
to  the  spiritual  world.  He  is  asked,  "  How  are  we  to 
serve  the  deceased  spirits  ? " 

He  said :  "  Since  you  do  not  know  how  to  serve  the 
living,  how  shall  you  serve  the  dead  ?" 

They  asked  him  about  death. 

"  Since  you  do  not  know  life,  why  do  you  ask  about 
death  ? " 

He  was  asked  whether  the  dead  knew  of  our  serving  them. 

He  said  :  "  If  I  answered  that  they  do  know,  I  am 
afraid  that  you  would  ruin  your  lives  serving  them.  If  I 
told  you  that  they  do  not  know,  I  am  afraid  you  would 
entirely  forget  about  them.     You  have  no  cause  to  know 


THOUGHTS    AND    APHORISMS  81 

what  the  dead  know.  There  is  no  need  of  it.  You  will 
know  everything  in  its  proper  time." 

There  were  many  thieves  then.  They  asked  him  how 
to  be  freed  from  them. 

"  If  you  yourselves  were  not  greedy,  you  would  pay  them 
money,  and  they  would  stop  stealing." 

They  asked  him  whether  it  is  right  to  kill  the  bad  for 
the  benefit  of  the  good. 

"  Why  kill  ?  Let  your  wishes  be  good.  The  highest 
is  just  like  the  wind,  and  the  lowest  like  the  grass.  The 
wind  blows,  and  the  grass  bends.  The  whole  question  is 
what  and  whom  to  consider  the  highest. 

"  To  consider  the  highest  is  to  raise,  to  respect  the  good. 

"  To  consider  the  lowest  is  to  drop,  to  despise  the  evil 
without  any  compromise." 


The  uncertainty  as  to  what  awaits  us  ahead,  beyond 
the  limit  of  our  spiritual  vision,  this  uncertainty,  this 
mystery,  is  the  only  possibility  of  our  life,  because  it 
secures  the  forward  movement. 

We  walk,  as  it  were,  through  an  underground  passage 
and  see  ahead  of  us  the  illuminated  point  of  the  exit ;  but 
that  we  may  reach  this  exit,  ahead  of  us,  in  front  of  us 
must  be  an  emptiness. 

The  eternal  life  is  eternal  for  the  very  reason  that 
it  deploys  before  us  infinitely.  If  it  were  completely 
unfolded  before  us,  and  we  could  comprehend  it  here,  in 
our  temporal,  carnal  existence,  it  would  not  be  the  eternal 
life,  as  there  would  be  nothing  left  beyond  it. 


People  generally  think  little  about  the  meaning  of  the 
memory  in  connection  with  the  life  of  the  spirit,  and  yet 
it  hns  a  great,  and  even  a  mysterious  meaning. 


82  THOUGHTS    AND    APHORISMS 

During  his  carnal  life,  a  man  only  occasionally  reaches 
that  elevation  of  comprehension  which  alone  gives  the 
meaning  and  true  joy  of  his  life. 

This  condition  is  not  uninterruptedly  maintained  in 
our  soul.  It  bursts  forth  from  time  to  time  and  illu- 
mines our  path,  as  though  by  disconnected  flashes  of 
another,  higher  life.  Why  is  this  so  ?  Why  do  we  not 
always  maintain  ourselves  on  that  height  of  spiritual 
illumination  to  which  we  have  risen  ? 

This  is  due  to  the  defect  of  memory. 

Something  distracts  our  attention  and  we  forget. 
When  we  again  rise  to  that  lieight,  we  recall  the  former 
occasions  when  we  were  in  the  same  condition,  and  then 
all  the  former  illuminations  of  our  spirit  blend  for  us  into 
the  one,  true  life  outside  time  and  space.  Then  the  of- 
fences of  the  carnal  life  again  distract  our  attention,  and 
we  again  disappear  from  the  sphere  of  the  true  hfe  and 
forget  it.  In  respect  to  the  true  life  we  fall  into  a  state 
of  thoughtlessness,  from  which  we  again  awaken,  when 
with  the  new  elevation  of  the  spirit  memory  returns  to  us. 

Now,  with  our  carnal  existence,  this  phenomenon  pre- 
sents itself  to  us  in  the  form  of  memory ;  but  when  we 
leave  the  limits  of  the  carnal  life,  that  which  is  in  the 
memory  will  be  life  itself. 

8 

Repentance  is  connected  with  spiritual  growth,  just  as 
the  breaking  of  the  shell  is  connected  with  the  hatching 
of  the  birdling. 

The  breaking  of  the  egg  or  the  seed  is  necessary  for 
the  germ  to  begin  to  grow  and  be  subjected  to  the  action 
of  air  and  light.  The  breaking  of  the  egg  is,  at  the  same 
time,  a  consequence  of  the  growth  of  the  germ. 

The  same  is  true  of  repentance. 

If  there  is  no  repentance,  there  is  no  forward  move- 
ment. 


THOUGHTS    AND    APHORISMS  83 

If  there  is  no  advancing  movement,  there  is  no  repent- 
ance. 


We  all  forget  that  Christ's  teaching  is  not  a  teaching 
like  that  of  Moses,  of  Mohammed,  and  like  all  other 
human  teachings,  that  is,  a  doctrine  of  rules  to  be  exe- 
cuted. Christ's  teaching  is  a  gospel,  that  is,  a  teaching 
of  the  good. 

He  who  is  thirsty,  let  him  go  and  drink. 

And  so,  according  to  this  teaching  it  is  impossible  to 
prescribe  to  any  one,  to  rebuke  any  one  for  anything, 
to  condemn  any  one. 

"  Go  and  drink,  if  thou  art  thirsty,"  that  is,  take  the 
good  which  is  revealed  to  us  by  the  spirit  of  truth. 

Can  one  be  ordered  to  drink  ? 

Can  one  be  ordered  to  be  blessed  ? 

Even  so  a  man  cannot  be  rebuked  for  not  drinking,  or 
for  not  being  blessed,  nor  can  he  be  condenmed.  The 
one  thing  that  Christians  can  do,  and  always  have  done, 
is  to  feel  themselves  blessed  and  to  wish  to  communicate 
the  key  of  blessedness  to  other  people. 

10 

Above  all  else,  I  do  not  understand  what  is  meant  by 
the  words,  "  living  Christ." 

We  call  Clirist  a  man  who  lived  and  died  eighteen 
hundred  years  ago,  but  in  respect  to  whom  there  formed 
itself  the  tradition,  as  it  has  been  formed  in  respect  to 
many  other  men,  that  he  arose  from  the  dead.  But  we 
know  that  people  cannot  rise  from  the  dead,  or  fly  to 
heaven,  as  people  tell  of  Christ. 

What,  then,  is  meant  by  tlie  words,  "  living  Christ  ? " 

If  they  designate  this,  that  his  teaching  is  alive,  the 
expression    is   awkward   and  unwonted  (we  do  not  say, 


84  THOUGHTS   AND   APHORISMS 

"  the  living  Socrates,  the  belief  in  the  living  Socrates  "  ), 
and  it  is  one  of  those  expressions  which  ought  to  be 
avoided,  because  with  the  existing  superstition  about 
Christ's  resurrection  this  expression  may  be  taken  in  the 
sense  of  confirming  the  miracle  of  the  resurrection. 

But  if  by  the  words,  "  living  Christ,"  we  are  to  under- 
stand that  he  invisibly,  like  those  spirits  imagined  by  the 
spiritualists,  is  present  in  our  lives,  we  must  define  how 
this  Christ's  spirit  is  to  be  understood,  whether  as  one  of 
many  such  spirits,  or,  as  the  church  theology  understands 
Christ,  as  God,  —  as  the  second  person. 

In  the  first  case,  this  will  be  an  arbitrary  and  useless 
conception ;  in  the  second,  this  will  inevitably  lead  us,  if 
not  to  all,  at  least  to  the  chief  propositions  of  the  church 
theology. 

The  words, "  living  Christ,"  demand  an  explanation  and 
evoke  questions,  to  which  it  is  necessary  to  answer : 

Who  is  he,  God  or  not  God  ? 

If  he  is  God,  in  what  relation  does  he  stand  to  God  the 
Creator  ? 

When  was  he  created  ? 

Why  was  he  made  incarnate  ? 

The  answers  to  these  questions  will  inevitably  bring 
us  to,  "  born,  uncreated  before  all  time,  through  whom  all 
has  been,"  to  the  fall  of  the  angel,  to  the  fall  of  Adam,  or 
to  the  invention  of  one's  own  theology. 

And  I  think  that  you  will  agree  with  me  that  none  of 
these  is  desirable. 

And  why  should  it  be  so  ? 

Why  must  I  imagine  that  a  dead  man  is  ahve,  or  assert 
that  a  man  is  God,  when  I  know  that  this  is  not  only  an 
untruth,  but  also  a  useless  and  senseless  assertion  of  what 
is  impossible,  because  he  who  is  ahve  cannot  be  dead,  and 
a  man  cannot  be  God. 

Will  it  be  easier  for  me  to  attain  the  good  life,  if  I 
introduce  into  my  world-conception  such  an  insipidity  ? 


THOUGHTS   AND   APHORISMS  85 

I  think  the  very  opposite  is  true. 

You  will  ask  me,  "  How  then  are  we  to  understand 
Christ  ?  Are  we  to  understand  him  just  like  any  other 
simple  man  ? " 

"  By  all  means,"  will  I  reply,  "  like  any  other  simple 
man."  This  is  indispensable,  in  the  first  place,  because  it 
is  the  truth ;  in  the  second  place,  because  without  the 
admixture  of  miracles  and  the  assertion  of  the  resurrec- 
tion the  teaching  is  in  itself  so  true,  so  simple,  so  attract- 
ive, so  universal,  that  there  is  no  man,  no  matter  of  what 
nationality  he  may  be,  who  has  any  ground  for  not  accept- 
ing it.  But  with  the  assertion  of  the  resurrection  of  the 
Master,  I,  without  any  necessity,  add  to  a  great  teaching 
a  trite,  contemptible  invention,  which  can  only  repel  the 
majority  of  men  from  it.  In  the  third  place,  it  is  indis- 
pensable for  this  reason  also,  that  Christ's  teachiug  is 
important  and  necessary  as  the  teachiug  of  a  man  who 
is  precisely  like  us ;  it  is  important  to  us  all,  because  he, 
being  precisely  a  man  like  us,  has  shown  us  how  each  of 
us  may  live  well. 

Is  it  possible  that  if  the  Master  has  shown  me  by  exam- 
ple and  by  instruction  how  I  must  live  and  then  has  left 
me,  it  will  be  more  useful  for  me  to  imagine  that  the 
teacher  is  invisibly  present  in  my  life  and  aiding  me,  than 
for  me  to  try  according  to  my  strength  to  live  as  he  has 
shown  me  how  ? 

In  the  fourth  place,  it  is  also  indispensable  for  me  to 
imagine  Christ  as  a  simple  man,  because  the  conception 
of  him  as  a  God  veils,  minimizes,  and  frequently  com- 
pletely obliterates  the  relation  of  man  to  the  one  God  the 
Father,  whereas  in  this  does  the  whole  essence  of  Christ's 
teaching  consist.  Thus,  for  the  sake  of  what  is  superfluous 
to  Christ,  his  exaltation  to  the  dignity  of  God,  I  emascu- 
late his  teaching  and  distort  it,  that  is,  deprive  myself 
of  the  very  thing  in  the  name  of  which  I  extol  him  so 
much. 


86  THOUGHTS   AND   APHOKISMS 

Is  it  possible  that  the  terrible  experience  of  those 
churches  that  recognized  Christ  as  God  and,  in  conse- 
quence of  it,  arrived  at  a  complete  negation  of  the  essence 
of  his  teaching,  is  not  a  sufficient  lesson  for  us,  to  keep 
us  from  blundering  on  the  same  path  ? 

The  main  thing  is,  it  is  an  untruth,  and  all  know 
this. 

Christ  is  for  me,  yes,  pardon  it,  and  for  you,  too,  and 
for  all  men,  not  what  we  have  imagined  him  to  be,  but 
what  he  is  in  reality,  a  great  teacher  of  life,  who  lived 
eighteen  hundred  years  ago,  who  died  on  the  cross  the 
same  real  death  as  all  people  die,  and  who  left  us  a  teach- 
ing which  gives  a  meaning  and  the  good  to  our  life. 

Let  us  feed  on  this  teaching,  let  us  try  deeper  and 
deeper  to  penetrate  its  meaning ;  let  us  make  farther 
deductions  and  applications  from  it. 

No  matter  what  we  may  say,  the  word  "  Christ " 
remains  for  us  what  it  is,  —  a  word  serving  to  designate 
a  man  to  whom  a  certain  teaching  is  ascribed,  and  noth- 
ing else.  Every  ascription  of  another  meaning  to  the 
word  "  Christ "  only  destroys  the  seriousness  and  the  sin- 
cerity of  the  relation  to  Christ's  teaching  and  even  impairs 
its  meaning. 

The  meaning  of  the  teaching  in  its  simplest  expression 
is  for  me  as  follows :  my  life,  which  above  all  else  I  con- 
ceive as  my  own,  given  to  me  for  my  enjoyment,  does  not 
belong  to  me,  but  to  Him  who  has  given  me  the  life  and 
who  has  sent  me  into  this  world  for  the  fulfilment  of  His 
will.  My  life  belongs  to  the  Father,  as  Christ  calls  Him 
who  gives  the  life  to  us  and  to  the  whole  world. 

And  so  the  meaning  of  my  life  does  not  lie  in  my  per- 
sonal good,  but  in  the  fulfilment  of  the  will  of  Him  who 
sent  me,  His  will  consisting  in  increasing  love  in  myself 
and  in  other  men. 

In  this  does  my  life  and  my  good  and  the  life  and  the 
good  of  all  men  consist. 


THOUGHTS    AND    APHOKISMS  87 

My  life  is  not  mine,  but  His ;  from  Him  has  it  come, 
and  to  Him  does  it  go. 

In  this  does  the  meaning  of  the  teaching  consist. 

I  know  who  I  am,  what  I  have  to  do,  and  what  will 
become  of  me.  What  more  do  I  need  ?  I  will  rely  on 
the  Father,  I  will  try  to  do  what  is  imposed  upon  me. 
In  this  do  my  life  and  my  good  consist. 

Such,  in  its  simplest  expression,  is  the  meaning  of 
Christ's  teaching,  as  I  understand  it. 

Why,  then,  should  I  drag  the  living  Christ,  who  has 
risen  from  the  dead,  into  this  teaching  ? 

Of  what  use  is  he  to  me  ? 

You  say,  —  and  many  say  this,  —  that  it  is  impossible 
to  rely  on  one's  own  efforts,  that  it  is  impossible  to  rely 
on  oneself. 

Pardon  me,  but  this  is  only  words,  which  have  no 
meaning  whatsoever  for  me,  nor  for  you,  either.  That 
a  man  must  not  rely  upon  himself  may  be  said  by  a  mate- 
rialist, who  imagines  man  as  a  concatenation  of  mechani- 
cal forces,  which  are  subject  to  laws  that  govern  matter ; 
but  for  you  and  me,  as  for  any  religious  man,  there  is  a 
living  force,  a  divine  spark,  which  is  implanted  in  the 
body  and  lives  in  it.  God  has  sent  this  particle  of  Him- 
self into  my  body,  hoping  that  it  would  do  His  work. 
How,  then,  can  I  help  relying  upon  Him  ? 

God  relies  upon  me,  so  how  can  I  help  relying  upon  Him  ? 

Man's  life  is  his  activity,  —  a  man  may  save  or  ruin 
his  soul. 

Christ's  whole  teaching  is  nothing  but  a  teaching  as  to 
what  a  man  must  do  ;  he  must  not  mutter, "  Lord,  Lord  ! " 
but  do  his  commandments,  be  perfect  as  the  Father  is 
perfect,  be  merciful,  be  meek,  be  self-sacrificing. 

Who  will  do  all  this,  if  man  himself  will  not  ?  But  to 
do  this,  a  man  must  hope  to  be  able  to  do  it. 

If  by  the  words,  "  not  to  rely  upon  oneself,"  is  meant 
that  a  man  should  not  be  sure  that  he  will  do  everything 


88  THOUGHTS    AND    APHORISMS 

he  wishes  to  do,  that  he  will  attain  the  perfection  toward 
which  he  is  striving ;  that  he  should  not  pride  himself  on 
what  he  has  done,  but  should  be  like  a  labourer  who  has 
come  from  the  field ;  if  by  this  we  are  to  understand  that 
everything  good  which  there  is  in  man  is  only  that  which  is 
divine,  then,  in  that  sense,  one  should  not  rely  upon  oneself. 

And  of  what  use  can  such  a  strange  theory  be,  which 
impresses  people  with  the  idea  that  they  should  not  rely 
upon  what  actually  exists  and  of  the  existence  of  which 
they  may  constantly  convince  themselves  through  experi- 
ence :  they  must  not  rely  on  having  efforts  of  their  own 
which  help  a  man  to  move  forward,  but  must  rely  on  what  is 
not  and  never  was,  and  of  the  existence  of  which  no  one  can 
be  convinced,  —  on  the  fantastic  help  of  a  fantastic  being. 

Pardon  me,  if  I,  speaking  thus,  offend  you ;  but  I  do 
not  wish  in  such  an  important  matter  to  keep  from  saying 
the  whole  truth,  as  I  see  it. 

I  write  to  you  with  love,  but  do  not  wish  to  conceal 
what  I  am  thinking. 

I  am  standing  with  one  foot  in  the  grave,  and  I  have 
no  reason  to  feign. 

I  feel  also  like  answering  the  question  which  naturally 
arises  :  "  If  it  is  an  untruth,  whence  comes  this  concep- 
tion of  the  resurrection  of  Christ,  of  his  aid  to  men,  of 
the  resurrection  of  men,  and  so  forth  ? " 

I  think  that  this  is  due  to  the  fact  that  the  essence 
of  Christianity  consists  in  the  establishment  by  each 
separate  man  of  his  relation  to  the  infinite,  to  the  begin- 
ning of  everything,  to  the  beginning  of  my  own  life  also, 
to  God,  to  the  Father. 

Having  come  to  understand  life  as  Christ  has  taught 
us  to  understand  it,  man,  as  it  were,  extends  a  thread 
upwards  from  himself  to  God,  binds  himself  with  Him 
and,  sundering  all  the  collateral  threads  that  united  him 
with  men  (even  as  Christ  commands),  holds  only  by  the 
divine  thread  and  is  guided  by  it  through  life. 


THOUGHTS    AND    APHORISMS  89 

And  so  I  think  that  what  happens  is  that  some  people, 
having  established  their  relation  to  God,  having  united 
with  Him  by  the  thread,  at  the  same  time  are  dissatis- 
fied with  what  God  asks  of  them,  and,  having  by  reflection 
formed  a  conception  of  what  the  true  Christian  life  ought 
to  be,  do  not  place  themselves  in  the  position  in  which 
the  thread  which  unites  them  with  God  has  put  them, 
but  in  that  which  they  imagine  true  Christians  must  take 
up  in  the  presence  of  other  men. 

Such  people,  who  have  generally,  sundered  their  former 
side  threads,  which  unite  them  with  men,  to  maintain  them- 
selves in  this  situation,  which  does  not  result  from  the 
immediate  relation  to  God,  but  which  they  have  imagined 
to  themselves,  get  into  new  relations  with  men,  take  up 
new  collateral  threads,  which  maintain  them  in  their 
chosen  position. 

And  so  it  happens  that  the  divine  thread  weakens  more 
and  more,  and  it  appears  to  men  that  to  continue  the  life 
which  they  have  begun  on  this  height,  which  frequently 
does  not  correspond  to  the  inner  necessity  on  which  they 
have  grounded  their  life,  the  only  immediate  relation  to 
God  is  no  longer  necessary,  but  that  they  need,  on  the 
one  hand,  the  conception  of  "  faith  "  as  something  super- 
natural, special,  which  would  maintain  them  in  the  position 
chosen  by  them ;  but  as  it  is  impossible  for  one  man  to 
believe  in  what  does  not  exist  tliey,  on  the  other  hand, 
need  an  external  union  of  men,  who  should  try  to  believe 
ahke  in  what  is  not,  and  should  support  one  another  on 
the  chosen  path,  encouraging  one  another  by  condemning 
people  for  transgressions  against  given  rules  and  by 
approving  others  for  executing  them. 

Thus  do  I  explain  the  simultaneous  tendency  of  many 
people  toward  mystical  conceptions  and  toward  external 
union. 

September,  1892. 


IL 

god's  work 


What  do  I  do  when  I  want  to  change  a  bristle  into  a 
cobbler's  thread  ? 

How  do  I  treat  these  articles  ? 

With  the  greatest  attention,  care,  tenderness,  almost 
love. 

What  does  the  watchmaker  do  as  he  puts  together  a 
watch,  if  he  is  a  master  and  indeed  knows  how  to  make 
a  watch  ? 

All  his  fingers  are  busy :  some  of  them  hold  a  wheel ; 
others  place  an  axle  in  position,  and  others  again  move  up 
a  peg.  All  this  he  does  softly,  tenderly.  He  knows  that 
if  he  rudely  sticks  one  thing  into  another,  and  even  if  he 
presses  a  little  too  hard  on  one  part,  forgetting  another 
part,  the  whole  will  go  to  pieces,  and  that  he  had  better 
not  attend  to  this  matter,  if  he  cannot  devote  all  his  forces 
to  it. 

I  say  all  this  for  this  purpose : 

At  first  people  live  not  knowing  why ;  they  live  only 
for  their  enjoyment,  which  takes  the  place  of  their  ques- 
tion, "  What  for  ? "  but  later  there  comes  a  time  for  every 
rational  being,  w^hen  it  asks  "  What  for  ? "  and  receives 
that  answer  which  Christ  gave  and  which  we  all  know, 
"  To  do  God's  work." 

Is  it  possible  God's  work  is  less  important,  or  less  com- 
plicated, than  bristles  or  a  watch  ? 

90 


THOUGHTS    AND    APHORISMS  91 

Is  it  possible  God's  work  may  be  done  at  haphazard, 
and  all  come  out  right  ? 

In  a  watch  one  cannot  press  too  hard  upon  a  part 
needed ;  but  the  defenders  of  the  worldly  life  say,  "  What 
is  the  use  of  being  finical:  if  a  thing  does  not  fit  in,  bang 
it  with  the  hammer,  and  it  will  go  in."  It  does  not  mat- 
ter to  them  that  the  rest  will  all  be  flattened.  They  do 
not  see  this. 

It  is  impossible  to  work  over  a  watch  without  giving 
it  full  attention  and,  so  to  speak,  love  for  all  its  parts.  Is 
it  possible  that  one  may  do  God's  work  in  such  a  way  ? 

It  is  all  very  well  for  a  man  to  do  God's  work  at  hap- 
hazard (that  is,  not  to  live  in  love  with  his  brothers),  if  he 
does  not  believe  fully  that  his  work  is  God's  work.  But 
when  he  comes  to  believe  that  the  meaning  of  his  life 
consists  in  nothing  but  cooperating  for  the  union  of  men 
he  cannot  help  but  abandon  himself  to  Him  whose  work 
he  is  doing;  he  can  no  longer  without  attention,  care,  or 
love  treat  all  men  with  whom  he  comes  in  contact,  be- 
cause all  men  are  wlieels,  pegs,  and  cogs  of  God's  work. 

The  difference  between  such  a  man  and  a  watchmaker 
is  only  this,  that  the  watchmaker  knows  what  will  result 
from  all  the  parts ;  but  a  man,  in  doing  God's  work,  does 
not  know,  does  not  see  the  external  side  of  the  work.  A 
man  is  rather  an  apprentice,  wlio  hands,  cleans,  oils,  and 
partly  unites  the  component  parts  of  the  watch,  which  is 
unknown  to  him  in  form,  but  known  in  its  essence  (the 
good). 

I  want  to  say  that  a  man  who  believes  that  his  life  is 
the  fulfilment  of  God's  work  ought  to  labour  until  he 
gets  seriousness,  attention,  care  in  his  relations  with  men, 
—  such  caution  as  will  make  squeaking,  force,  breakage 
impossible,  and  all  will  always  be  soft  and  loving,  not 
for  his  own  pleasure,  but  because  this  is  the  only  condi- 
tion under  which  God's  work  is  possible. 

When  this  condition  is  wanting,  one  or  the  other  is 


92  THOUGHTS    AND    APHORISMS 

necessary,  —  to  attain  this  condition,  or  to  throw  up  God's 
work  and  stop  deceiving  oneself  and  others. 

As  the  watchmaker  stops  his  work  the  moment  there 
is  some  grating  or  squeaking,  so  also  must  a  behever  stop 
as  soon  as  there  is  an  inimical  relation  to  a  man,  and  he 
must  know  that,  no  matter  how  little  important  this  man 
may  seem  to  him,  there  is  nothing  more  important  for 
him  than  his  relation  to  this  man,  so  long  as  there  is  a 
squeaking  between  them. 

And  this  is  so,  because  a  man  is  an  indispensable  wheel 
in  God's  work,  and  so  long  as  he  does  not  enter  amicably 
where  he  ought  to  enter  the  whole  work  comes  to  a 
stop. 

The  relations  among  men  make  it  obligatory  upon 
them  to  find  in  each  of  them  and  in  themselves  "  the  son 
of  man,"  to  unite  with  him,  —  to  evoke  in  themselves  and 
in  him  a  desire  to  approach  him,  that  is,  love. 

I  shall  be  told,  "  this  is  hard  to  find." 

All  you  have  to  do  is  to  act  like  the  watchmaker: 
tenderly,  carefully,  not  for  yourself,  but  for  the  work,  and 
it  will  come  to  you  naturally. 

A  disunion  takes  place  for  no  other  reason  than  that 
I  want  by  force  to  drive  an  axle  into  the  wrong  wheel. 

If  it  does  not  fit  one  way  or  another,  mend  yourself : 
there  is  a  place  for  it,  —  it  is  necessary  and  will  do  the 
work  somewhere. 

As  you  attain  your  aim  and  get  the  better  of  the  work 
in  making  boots  or  watches,  not  by  a  tension  of  strength, 
but  by  care,  by  tenderness  of  treatment,  so  it  is  also  with 
the  treatment  of  men.  And  not  only  is  it  so,  but  as 
many  times  more  so,  as  a  man  is  more  complex  and  more 
delicate  than  a  watch. 

It  is  not  possible  to  work  one's  feelers  out  sufficiently 
well  to  treat  people  with  them.  And  the  longer  and  so 
the  thinner  these  feelers  are,  the  more  powerfully  do  they 
move  people. 


THOUGHTS    AND    APHORISMS  93 

I  wish  that  a  man  who  is  near  to  me  should  not  lead 
an  idle  and  luxurious  life. 

I  can,  with  my  rudeness,  take  away  from  him  the  pos- 
sibility of  luxury  and  compel  him  to  work.  If  I  do  so,  I 
shall  not  advance  God's  work  one  hair's  breadth,  —  I  shall 
not  move  the  man's  soul. 

If  I  extend  my  feelers  more  finely  and  farther  out,  I 
shall  prove  logically  and  incontestably  to  him  that  he  is 
a  dissipated  and  despised  man.  And  with  this  I  shall 
not  advance  God's  work,  but  shall  only  live  with  him  in 
communion,  seeking  out  and  strengthening  everything 
which  unites  us,  and  keeping  away  from  everything  which 
is  foreign  to  me.  And  if  I  myself  do  God's  work  and 
live  by  it,  I  shall  more  certainly  than  death  draw  this 
man  to  God  and  cause  him  to  do  God's  work. 

We  have  become  so  accustomed  in  the  worldly  life  to 
attain  our  aims  by  means  of  the  stick  of  power,  of  author- 
ity, or  even  by  means  of  the  stick  of  logical  thought,  that 
we  want  to  do  the  same  in  God's  work. 

But  one  stick  jumps  upon  another. 

But  God's  work  is  done  with  very  delicate  feelers,  for 
which  there  are  no  obstacles. 


Went  to  see  a  sick  beggar.     Terrible  poverty. 

It  is  remarkable  how  we  have  worked  out  in  ourselves 
methods  of  cruelty.  What  I  ouglit  really  to  have  done 
would  have  been  to  have  remained  there  and  not  have 
gone  away,  until  he  was  made  equal  with  me. 


The  highest  happiness  is  to  give  oneself  to  others. 
And  this  is  confirmed  in   work  —  enduringly  and   in 
the  act  —  with  concentration. 


94  THOUGHTS    AND    APHORISMS 

Yes,  this  is  so,  but  for  this  the  work  must  be  iu  corre- 
spondence with  the  need ;  but  if  the  need  is  higher  than 
the  work,  this  need  will  be  exaggerated,  as  indeed 
it  is. 

Consequently  everything  is  again  in  the  work. 

Our  main  misfortune  is  in  our  needing  more  than  we 
work,  and  so  we  become  entangled  in  life. 

To  work  more  than  we  need  cannot  be  harmful,  —  it 
is  the  highest  law. 


As  the  fire  destroys  the  candle,  so  the  good  destroys 
the  personal  life. 

As  the  wax  melts  before  the  face  of  fire,  so  the  con- 
sciousness of  the  personal  life  is  destroyed  by  participa- 
tion in  the  good. 

You  do  good  only  when  you  renounce  yourself. 

The  scarecrow  of  death  stands  only  before  those  who 
do  not  know  the  good. 

Death  destroys  the  body,  as  the  scaffolding  is  destroyed 
after  the  building  is  up  and  finished.  And  he  whose 
building  is  up  rejoices  at  the  destruction  of  the  scaffold- 
ing and  of  the  body. 

Life  is  for  God  the  erection  of  His  building,  —  the  joy 
of  salvation. 

For  God  there  takes  place  the  work  of  the  illumination 
of  the  world  through  man's  intellect.  For  man  there  is 
the  joy  of  life  which  ascends  higher  and  higher. 


The' world  lives.     In  the  world  there  is  life. 

Life  is  a  mystery  for  all  men. 

Some  call  it  God,  others  say,  "  Force." 

All  the  same,  —  it  is  a  mystery. 

Life  is  diffused  through  everything.     Everything  lives 


THOUGHTS    AND    APHORISMS  95 

together,  and  everytldng  lives  apart :  man  lives,  a  worm 
lives. 

This  separate  Hfe  science  calls  an  organism.  This 
stupid  word  is  obscure. 

What  they  call  an  organism  is  the  force  of  life,  indi- 
vidualized in  time  and  space,  which  irrationally  puts  forth 
the  demand  of  the  common  life  for  its  individuality. 

This  individualization  of  life  bears  a  contradiction  in 
itself.  It  excludes  everything  else.  Everything  else 
excludes  it.  By  its  tendencies  toward  life  it  destroys 
itself. 

Every  step,  every  act  of  life  is  a  dying. 

This  contradiction  would  be  insoluble,  if  there  were  no 
intellect  in  the  world.  But  the  intellect  is  in  man.  It  is 
this  which  destroys  the  contradiction. 

One  man  would  eat  up  another,  if  he  had  no  intellect, 
which  shows  him  that  for  his  good  it  is  better  to  be  in 
love  with  this  man  and  together  with  him  to  kill  animals 
for  food.  The  same  intellect  shows  him  that  it  is  better 
for  him  not  to  kill  animals,  but  to  be  in  a  state  of  love 
with  them  and  to  live  on  their  products.  The  same  intel- 
lect will  further  point  in  this  direction  and  will  destroy 
the  contradiction  of  the  egoism. 

Out  of  the  enormous  world  of  beings  that  devour  one 
another,  man  alone  is  endowed  with  reason  (love  also), 
which  is  to  destroy  all  this  contradiction  of  egoism. 

One  would  think  this  is  so  little  for  so  great  a  matter. 

It  is  the  same  as  though  one  should  say,  "  How  small 
one  spark  is,  to  burn  up  a  whole  forest." 

If  the  fire  spark  is  a  burning  material,  it  is  sufficient, 
no  matter  how  small  it  may  be.  All  that  is  needed  is 
the  burning  material :  it  need  only  exist,  and  must  not 
be  destroyed. 

So  also  the  world  of  the  contradictory  egoism  of  the 
beings,  to  keep  them  from  destroying  another,  is  endowed 
with  one  of  the  egoistical  tendencies,  —  flowering,  fructi- 


96  THOUGHTS    AND    APnORISMS 

fication,  and  iu  man  —  the  lust  of  the  sexual  act.  And 
the  world  lives,  presenting  an  imperishable  material  of  the 
activity  of  reason  —  love,  for  the  activity  which  destroys 
the  egoism  of  the  beings. 

The  world  can  wait :  the  material  is  not  destroyed,  — 
it  will  always  exist,  —  and  there  is  a  spark  of  lire. 

God,  or  Nature,  gives  what  is  indispensable,  but  only 
what  is  indispensable  for  his  aims.  Nature,  or  God,  always 
acts  alike.  He,  or  it,  never  does  what  is  finished,  but  gives 
the  possibility  of  completing,  —  not  a  tree,  but  a  seed. 

For  God,  for  Nature,  there  is  no  time. 

When  there  is  a  possibility  for  something,  there  is 
what  ought  to  be. 

The  same  is  true  with  the  realization  of  the  destruction 
of  the  contradiction  of  the  egoism  of  the  beings  by  means 
of  the  activity  of  reason.  There  is  the  possibility,  and  so 
there  is  the  realization,  there  is  this,  as  the  prophet  says, 
that  the  lion  will  lie  with  the  lamb.  We  may  further  say 
that  not  one  animal  will  crush  an  insect  or  a  plant. 

For  a  man  who  has  not  come  to  recognize  his  rational 
nature  there  is  a  full  satisfaction  in  the  life  of  the  egoisti- 
cal contradiction.  He  then  does  not  see  it.  He  follows 
the  lower  law  of  God,  or  of  Nature ;  but  the  moment  he 
has  come  to  recognize  his  rational  nature,  the  contradic- 
tion of  his  inner  life  poisons  him.  He  cannot  live  by  it, 
and  he  surrenders  himself  to  another  law  of  reason, — 
to  love ;  now  the  aim  of  love  is  the  destruction  of  the 
contradiction.  Having  abandoned  himself  to  this  new 
law,  he  receives  his  full  satisfaction.. 

For  the  rational  being  there  is  no  other  activity,  no 
other  life,  but  the  one  which  has  the  destruction  of  the 
contradiction  for  its  ain).  This  activity  will  bring  him 
out  of  his  personality  and  will  cause  hira  to  renounce  him- 
self ;  it  will  take  him  into  the  common  life,  into  the  ser- 
vice of  that  God,  or  of  that  Nature,  for  which  there  is  no 
time. 


THOUGHTS    AND    APHORISMS  97 

Man's  problem  in  this  life  is  to  renounce  everything 
which  is  in  itself  contradictory,  that  is,  personal,  egoisti- 
cal, in  order  to  be  able  to  serve  reason,  to  destroy  the 
iuner  contradiction  of  life,  in  which  alone  he  finds  satis- 
faction, security,  fearlessness,  and  peace  before  death.  If 
he  does  not  fulfil  this  problem,  he  remains  in  the  inner 
contradiction  of  the  personal  life  and  destroys  himself, 
just  as  any  contradiction  destroys  itself. 

We  talk  of  the  future  life,  of  immortality. 

What  is  immortal  is  only  what  is  not  I. 

EeasoE.     Love.     God.     Nature. 

June,  1886. 


It  is  necessary  that  we  should  have  strength  to  do 
God's  work. 

It  is  necessary  that  there  should  be  a  tree  with  flowers 
and  seeds  for  the  attainment  of  those  infinite  purposes 
which  it  attains,  —  shade,  and  food  for  insects,  and  food 
for  plants,  and  the  continuation  of  its  species. 

Well,  does  God  do  all  these  things  with  His  own  force  ? 

Should  Nature  break  up  into  an  infinite  quantity  of 
forces  for  the  attainment  of  all  its  ends  ? 

No.  In  the  tree  is  implanted,  or  in  the  tree  there  is  a 
force  of  life,  and  it  is  this  which  creates  everything  ;  creat- 
ing itself,  it  attains  all  its  ends.  A  separate,  personal 
force  of  life  is  given  it  for  the  attainment  of  all  its  ends. 

Only  (how  can  I  express  this  more  clearly  ?)  the  decep- 
tion of  its  personal  life  incites  the  tree  to  serve  the  world. 
Intending  to  live  for  itself,  the  tree  works,  grows,  fructi- 
fies, serves  the  world,  and  (so  it  appears  to  us)  does  not 
know  it. 

The  same  is  true  of  all  lives,  —  animals,  men. 

I  do  not  know  how  it  is  with  the  others,  but  I,  a  man, 
and  some  other  people  who  live  with  me  and  have  lived 
before  me,  recognize  this  deception. 


98  THOUGHTS   AND    APHORISMS 

Man  seems  to  be  endowed  with  the  ability  which  re- 
veals the  deception  to  him.  It  is  as  though  God,  or 
Nature,  made  him  a  participant  in  the  secret  and  per- 
mitted him  to  take  a  glance  into  the  mechanism  of  the 
work. 

Man  has  taken  a  glance  into  it,  —  how  can  he  help  it  ? 

How  is  he  to  make  peace  with  his  situation  ? 

His  whole  life  and  his  striving  toward  life  is  a  decep- 
tion. With  all  his  strivings  he  is  nothing  but  an  instru- 
ment for  the  attainment  of  ends  that  are  foreign  to 
him. 

A  commander  sends  an  army  of  soldiers  where  they 
will  certainly  be  killed,  but  he  does  not  tell  them  so.  If 
they  knew  for  sure,  they  would  not  go.  The  commander 
says  that  there  is  a  risk,  but  that  a  great  reward,  a  great 
joy  awaits  them.  They  believe  him,  and  they  go.  But 
in  the  life  of  men  the  situation  is  much  worse.  It  says 
clearly  to  all  of  them  (thinking  men)  that  they  will  inevi- 
tably die  in  great  suffering,  and  that  they  are  only  instru- 
ments for  ends  that  are  foreign  to  them,  and  they  are 
unable  to  believe  in  all  the  rewards,  which  have  been 
promised  them  only  by  feeble-minded  men,  on  account  of 
the  hopelessness  of  their  condition. 

Is  the  condition  of  men  really  so  terrible  ? 

It  is,  for  the  very  reason  that  they  are  given  an  intel- 
lect which  points  out  the  destination  of  their  personal  life 
in  the  world ;  it  is  terrible  for  the  very  reason  that  they 
are  admitted  to  the  mysteries  of  God,  or  of  Nature. 

Reason  lifts  for  us  a  part  of  the  curtain.  We  have 
seen  and  we  see  that  we  do  not  live  for  ourselves.  That 
reason  which  is  admitted  to  the  mysteries  of  God,  or  of 
Nature,  which  is  inseparably  connected  with  that  personal 
life  that  lives  only  by  that  personal  life  and  does  not 
understand  a  life  which  is  not  for  itself,  is  terrified  at  this 
life  as  at  something  foreign  to  it. 

My  reason,  which  is  admitted  to  God's  mysteries,  is  I. 


THOUGHTS    AND   APHORISMS  99 

And  I  am  my  personal  life.  And  both  these  egos  are 
united  into  one. 

I  know  that  I  am  living  for  myself,  and  I  want  to  eat. 

Eeasou  says,  and  it  cannot  help  saying,  because  it  sees 
this  in  everything  living  :  "  I  do  not  live  for  myself." 

The  personal  life  says :  "  But  I  want  to  live  for 
myself." 

Keason  does  not  contradict  the  personal  life,  but 
answers  to  its  demand  for  a  personal  happiness  :  "  Every- 
thing lives  and  seeks  the  personal  good  not  for  itself." 

But  reason  cannot  help  but  see  that  tlie  personal  life 
of  a  tree,  of  an  animal,  and  so  my  own  life,  wants  to  eat, 
and  will  be  only  tools,  means  for  the  attainment  of  the 
greatest  ends  with  the  least  effort  (as  Nature  always 
does),  means  for  the  common  hfe,  the  one  reason  strives 
after. 


"When  the  connection  between  this  life  and  the  other  is 
established,  everything  becomes  easy  and  joyous. 

8 

At  a  certain  stage  of  the  spiritual  development  man 
must  refrain  from  intensifying  in  himself  the  feeling  of 
personal  compassion  for  another  being.  This  feeling  is  in 
itself  of  an  animal  nature,  and  in  a  sensitive  man  it 
always  manifests  itself  in  sufficient  strength  without  arti- 
ficial incitement. 

What  one  ought  to  encourage  in  oneself  is  spiritual 
compassion.  The  soul  of  a  beloved  man  must  always  be 
dearer  to  me  than  the  body.  I  must  remember  that  it  is 
better  that  a  beloved  man  should  now,  in  my  presence, 
die  for  having  declined  to  kill  even  a  mad  dog,  than  that 
he  should  die  after  many  years  from  eating  too  much,  and 
should  outlive  me. 


100  THOUGHTS   AND   APHORISMS 


9 

There  is  no  force  in  books.  The  chief  force  is  in  the 
Christian  life  according  to  the  teaching  of  truth. 

GlorificatioDS,  interpretations,  prayers,  mysteries,  dis- 
cussions, definitions,  divine  services,  —  there  has  been 
enough  of  all  that  and  at  all  times  and  in  all  forms,  and 
people's  teeth  are  set  on  edge  by  it.  Now  another  prob- 
lem begs  for  recognition  in  the  Christian  v7orld,  —  the 
problem  of  the  realization  in  life  of  the  Christian  world- 
conception  ;  questions  of  ownership,  of  war,  of  punish- 
ment, of  power,  of  prostitution  are  now  the  questious  of 
the  day.  For  the  last  twenty  years  it  has  been  noticed 
how  humanity,  burying  itself  in  these  questions,  has  been 
endeavouring  to  answer  them. 

This  solution,  it  seems  to  me,  now  begins  to  be  given. 

Men,  as  it  were,  are  beginning  to  make  attempts  at 
applying  to  life  what  they  confess. 

It  is  these  separate  phenomena  which  interest  me,  and 
to  them  I  intended  to  devote  what  very  small  particle  of 
life  seems  to  be  left  to  me. 

10 

I  am  not  afraid  of  a  candle  that  is  not  burning,  but  of 
one  that  is,  and  not  because  its  fire  is  not  the  real  one, 
but  because  it  is  the  property  of  fire  to  flame  up  and  go 
out. 

11 

Eemember  how  often  Christ  has  said,  "  The  Father  has 
sent  me.  I  am  sent.  I  do  the  will  of  Him  who  has  sent 
me. 

These  words  have  always  been  obscure  to  me. 

God  could  not  have  sent  God,  and  I  did  not  understand 
any  other  meaning,  or  understood  it  obscurely. 

Only  now  has  the  simple,  clear,  and  joyous  meaning  of 


THOUGHTS    AND    APHORISMS  101 

these  words  been  revealed  to  me.  I  arrived  at  the  com- 
prehension of  them  through  doubt  and  suffering.  With- 
out this  teaching  there  is  no  solution  to  those  doubts 
which  torment  every  disciple  of  Christ. 

Their  meaning  is  this,  that  Christ  has  taught  all  men 
the  life  which  he  considered  the  true  one  for  himself. 
But  he  considers  his  life  an  embassy,  a  fulfilment  of  the 
will  of  Him  who  sent  him. 

But  the  will  of  Him  who  sent  is  the  rational  (good) 
life  of  the  whole  world.  Consequently,  it  is  the  business 
of  life  to  carry  the  truth  into  the  world. 

Life  has,  according  to  Christ's  teaching,  been  given  to 
man  with  his  reason  for  no  other  purpose  than  that  he 
should  carry  this  reason  into  the  world,  and  so  man's 
whole  life  is  nothing  but  this  rational  activity  turned 
upon  other  beings  in  general,  and  not  merely  upon  men. 

Thus  Christ  understood  his  life,  and  thus  he  taught 
us  to  understand  ours. 

Each  of  us  is  a  power  which  is  conscious  of  itself,  —  a 
flying  stone  which  knows  whither  it  flies  and  why,  and 
is  glad  because  it  flies  and  knows  that  it  is  nothing,  —  a 
stone,  —  and  that  all  its  meaning  is  in  this  flight,  this 
force  which  has  thrown  him,  —  that  his  whole  life  is 
this  force. 

Indeed,  outside  this  view,  that  is,  that  every  man  is  a 
messenger  of  tlie  Father,  called  into  life  only  for  the  pur- 
pose of  doing  His  will,  —  outside  this  view  life  has  not  only 
no  meaning,  but  is  also  detestable  and  terrible.  And,  on 
the  CQjntrary,  it  is  enough  to  become  well  familiarized  and 
one  with  this  view  of  life,  and  life  not  only  acquires  a 
meaning,  but  also  becomes  joyous  and  significant.  Only 
with  this  view  are  all  doubts,  struggles,  and  terrors 
destroyed. 

If  I  am  God's  messenger,  my  chief  business  does  not 
only  consist  in  fulfilling  the  Ave  commandments,  —  they 
are  only  conditions  under  which  I  must  fulfil  the  ambas- 


102  THOUGHTS   AND   APHORISMS 

sadorship,  —  but  in  living  in  such  a  way  as  to  carry  into 
the  world  with  all  means  given  me  that  truth  which  I 
know,  that  truth  which  is  entrusted  to  me. 

It  may  happen  that  I  shall  myself  often  be  bad,  that 
I  shall  be  false  to  my  mission ;  all  this  cannot  for  a 
moment  destroy  the  meaning  of  my  life  :  "  To  shine  with 
that  light  which  is  in  me,  so  long  as  I  am  able,  so  long  as 
there  is  light  in  me." 

Only  with  this  teaching  are  destroyed  the  idle  regrets 
as  to  there  not  being  or  having  been  what  I  wished,  and 
the  idle  desire  for  something  definite  in  the  future ;  there 
is  destroyed  the  terror  of  death,  and  the  whole  of  life  is 
transferred  into  the  one  present.  Death  is  destroyed 
by  this,  that,  if  ray  hfe  has  blended  with  the  activity  of 
introducing  reason  and  the  good  into  the  world,  the  time 
will  come  when  the  physical  annihilation  of  my  person- 
ality will  cooperate  with  what  has  become  my  life,  —  the 
introduction  of  the  good  and  of  reason  into  the  world. 

The  conviction  of  the  ambassadorship  has  the  following 
practical  effect  upon  me  (I  speak  for  myself  and,  I  know, 
for  others  also) : 

Outside  the  physical  necessities,  in  which  I  try  to  con- 
fine myself  to  the  least,  as  soon  as  I  am  drawn  to  some 
activity,  —  speaking,  writing,  working,  —  I  ask  myself  (I 
do  not  even  ask,  I  feel  it)  whether  with  this  work  I  serve 
Him  who  sent  me.  I  joyously  surrender  myself  to  the 
work  and  forget  all  doubts  and  —  fly,  like  a  stone,  and 
am  glad  that  I  am  flviu" 

But  if  the  work  is  not  for  Him  who  has  sent  me,  it  does 
not  even  attract  me,  I  simply  feel  ennui,  and  I  only  try 
to  get  rid  of  it,  I  try  to  observe  all  the  rules  given  for 
messengers. 

But  this  does  not  even  happen. 

It  seems  to  me  that  a  man  can  live  in  such  a  way  as 
to  sleep,  or  in  such  a  way  as  with  liis  whole  soul,  with 
delight,  to  serve  Him  who  has  sent  liim. 


THOUGHTS  AND  APHORISMS        103 

12 

Christ  has  conquered  the  world  and  has  saved  it, 
because  he  has  suffered  with  love  and  joy,  that  is,  has 
conquered  suffering  and  has  taught  us  to  do  the  same. 

I  know  this,  luit  am  still  unable  to  learn  it,  although 
I  see  for  sure  that  1  am  moving  in  this  direction. 

May  God  help  all  men  to  do  the  common  work,  the 
work  of  love,  by  word,  deed,  abstinence,  effort :  here,  not 
to  speak  a  bad  word,  not  to  do  what  would  be  worse ; 
there,  to  overcome  timidity  and  false  shame,  and  to  do 
what  is  necessary,  what  is  good,  —  what  is  loving. 

All  tiny,  imperceptible  acts  and  words,  —  but  from 
these  mustard-seeds  grows  the  tree  of  love  which  with  its 
branches  shades  the  whole  world. 

This  work  may  God  aid  us  to  do  with  our  friends,  with 
our  enemies,  with  strangers,  in  moments  when  our  mood 
is  the  highest,  and  in  moments  when  it  is  the  lowest. 

And  it  will  be  well  for  us,  and  it  will  be  well  for 
everybody. 


III. 

FORM    AND    EXISTENCE 


Men  cannot  live  without  establishing  for  themselves  a 
form  of  life  to  conform  with  the  degree  of  their  morahty, 
but  every  form  of  life,  from  that  of  an  English  lord  to 
that  of  an  agricultural  peasant,  is  in  itself  not  only  car- 
rion, but  a  hindrance  to  the  true  hfe.  From  this  it  does 
not  follow  that  it  is  necessary  to  live  without  any  definite 
form,  without  a  plan  of  life  (a  man  cannot  do  this),  but 
that  we  must  not  only  refrain  from  esteeming  the  plan, 
but  must  also  fear  it  like  the  fire. 

The  true  life  is  only  in  the  relations  between  men. 

In  the  worldly  life  everything  is  in  the  form,  and  the 
relations  among  men  are  completely  sacrificed  to  form. 

But  even  in  the  most  moral  life  this  temptation  always 
accompanies  man. 

I  want  to  finish  the  exposition  of  this  thought,  and  a 
recruit  comes  to  bid  me  good-bye. 

To  finish  is  the  form,  the  plan ;  and  the  recruit  is  the 
man  and  my  relations  to  him,  —  it  is  true  life.  This  will 
not  interfere  with  my  ending  my  writing,  if  I  am  alive, 
and  so  forth. 

I  shall  look  at  my  life:  how  many  various  forms  of 
life  I  have  established  for  myself ! 

What  is  left  of  them  ? 

Nothing. 

104 


THOUGHTS    AND    APHORISMS  105 

And  what  is  left  of  the  past  life,  —  of  my  relations  to 

men  ? 

For  the  forty  years  of  my  worldly  life  I  established 
hardly  any  relations  to  men,  because  I  lived  for  the  sake  of 
form. 

And  during  the  short  years  when  I  lived  without  form, 
how  many  dear  relations,  with  which  it  is  a  joy  to  live 
and  to  die ! 

November,  1886. 


How  joyous  and  how  contrary  to  all  human  works  is 
this,  that  on  the  divine  path  there  is  no  weariness,  nor 
cooUng  off,  nor,  much  more,  any  return. 

I  see  this  in  the  case  of  all  those  few  men  whom  I 
know  and  who  have  entered  upon  this  path. 

It  is  frequently  hard  and  agonizing,  in  a  worldly  sense, 
and  the  farther  on  the  harder  and  the  more  agonizing. 

There  is  no  hope  of  a  realization  of  anything  in  this 
world,  in  our  lifetime ;  and  never,  not  only  any  question 
as  to  whether  my  path  will  betray  me,  but  even  any  doubt, 
no  waveiing,  no  regrets. 

This  is  that  one,  true,  narrow  path. 

No  matter  where  and  how  comfortably  and  how  agree- 
ably I  may  walk,  there  can  always  be  a  doubt  whether  I 
am  on  the  path.  There  is  none  on  the  one,  true  path. 
On  all  other  paths  there  are  diversity  and  disputes  ;  but  on 
this  one  there  is  complete  unity,  not  only  with  those  who 
think  and  speak  alike,  but  also  with  all  those  who  under- 
stand it,  each  in  his  own  way. 

The  Pashkovians,  Orthodox,  Catholics,  condemn  me  ; 
they,  the  Christians,  frequently,  contrary  to  Christ's  teach- 
ing, cause  me  ])aiM,  but  1  not  only  do  not  condemn  them 
(I  am  not  speaking  for  argument's  sake,  but  sincerely,  for 
I  cannot  feel  otherwise),  but  even  hail  them  on  the  ti-ue 
path,  every  time  when  they  stand  upon  it,  rejoice  at  their 


106  THOUGHTS    AND    APHORISMS 

successes  and  am  unable  to  express  my  feelings  for  them, 
so  much  do  I  love  them. 

Lately  I  read  a  newspaper,  LArinee  du  Salut. 

The  form  of  expression  is  strange  and  incomprehen- 
sible to  me,  but  their  activity,  which  leads  to  abstinence, 
to  love,  to  paying  attention  to  Christ's  teaching,  incites 
love  for  them  and  joy  in  me. 

Lately,  as  I  read  the  articles  in  the  Salvation  Army,  I 
explained  to  myself  their  activity  and  spiritual  condition, 
and  my  relation  to  them. 

They  take  people  who  have  departed  from  Christ  back 
to  him.  It  is  nice  of  them  to  do  so,  and  nothing  more 
can  be  expected  of  them. 

He  who  has  come  to  the  spring  of  living  water  and 
who  has  thirst  will  himself  lind  what  to  do  with  the 
water  and  how  to  drink  it.  Their  mistake  consists  in 
this,  that  they  insist  upon  the  form,  upon  the  necessity 
of  drinking  the  water  in  this  way,  and  not  in  that,  and  in 
such  and  such  a  situation.  And  this  mistake  harms  them 
the  more  since  they  have  never  thought  of  the  methods 
of  drinking  the  water,  and  take  the  long-worn  tradition, 
which  has  proved  inconvenient  in  practice. 

My  relation  to  them  is  awfully  strange.  By  searchings, 
sufferings,  and,  of  course,  above  all  -else,  by  God's  mercy, 
I  was  led  to  the  spring.  I  had  been  dying  and  I  began 
to  live,  and  I  live  by  this  water  alone;  suddenly  men 
come  to  this  spring.  I  hail  them  with  enthusiasm  and 
love,  and  instead,  not  of  love,  but  of  simple  absence  of 
malice,  which  I  had  hoped  to  find,  I  find  condemnation 
and  rejection,  and  the  injunction  that,  before  drinking, 
I  must  pass  through  the  psychological  processes,  which 
are  not  proper  for  me,  Itut  through  which  they  have 
passed,  —  renounce  the  consciousness  of  life  and  of  hap- 
piness, which  the  living  water  gives  me,  and  recognize 
the  fact  that  I  am  doing  it  only  out  of  fear  of  the  pastors 
who  have  called  me  to  the  drinking. 


THOUGHTS    AND    APHORISMS  107 

I  do  not  say  that  they,  or  any  one  else,  ought  to  travel 
on  the  same  path  with  me. 

The  point  is  not  how  I  arrived,  but  what  I  arrived  at. 

If  we  have  come  to  Christ  and  want  to  live  by  him 
alone,  we  will  not  quarrel. 

3 

The  question  of  prayer  and  of  aid  according  to  prayer. 

This  question  has  of  late  interested  me. 

I  now  feel  every  day  the  necessity  of  praying,  of  asking 
God's  aid. 

This  necessity  is  natural  (at  least  to  those  of  us  who 
have  been  accustomed  to  it  from  childhood),  and  I  think 
it  is  natural  to  all  men. 

To  feel  one's  weakness  and  to  seek  outside  aid,  that  is, 
not  merely  through  a  struggle  with  evil,  but  to  try  to 
find  methods  by  which  it  would  be  possible  to  vanquish 
evil,  this  is  called  praying. 

To  pray  does  not  mean  to  employ  methods  which 
deliver  one  from  evil,  Ijut  among  the  methods  which  de- 
liver there  is  also  the  action  which  is  called  prayer. 

The  peculiarity  of  prayer,  as  compared  with  all  other 
methods,  consists  in  this,  that  it  is  agreeable  to  God. 

If  this  is  true,  then,  in  the  first  place,  the  question 
arises  why  prayer,  tlrat  is,  an  action  whicli  is  pleasing  to 
God  and  saves  me  from  evil,  must  be  expressed  in  words 
only,  or  in  obeisances,  which  do  not  last  long,  as  is  gen- 
erally assumed.  Why  can  prayer  not  be  expressed  by 
continuous  motions  of  the  body,  say  of  the  feet  only, — 
the  wandering  of  the  pilgrim  is  a  prayer  of  the  feet, — 
and  if  I  go  and  work  a  whole  day  or  a  whole  week  for  a 
poor  widow,  will  this  be  prayer  ? 

I  think  it  will. 

In  the  second  place,  prayer  is  a  request  for  the  realiza- 
tion of  some  external  or  internal  desire.  For  example,  I 
ask  that  my  children  may  not  die,  or  that  I  may  be  freed 


108  THOUGHTS    AND    APHORISMS 

from  vice,  my  weakness.  Why  shall  I  turn  to  the  incom- 
prehensible and  great  God  with  such  prayers  which  can 
be  fulfilled  by  His  manifestations  upon  earth,  —  by  men, 
who  are  united  in  the  fulfilment  of  His  will  (the  church 
in  the  true  meaning  of  this  w^ord)  ? 

Everything  for  which  I  have  prayed  may  be  fulfilled 
by  men  and  by  me.  I  feel  like  praying,  and  I  pray  with 
words.  But  is  it  not  better  for  me  to  widen  the  concept 
of  prayer  ?  Is  it  not  better  for  me  to  try  to  find  the 
causes  of  this  vice  and  to  find  that  divine  activity,  not  of 
an  hour,  but  of  days  and  months,  which  may  be  that 
saving  activity  that  counteracts  my  vice  ? 

And  I  found  it  for  fnyself. 

I  am  sensuous,  and  I  lead  an  idle,  voluptuous  life,  and 
I  pray.  Would  it  not  be  better  for  me  to  change  my 
godless  life,  to  work  for  others,  to  satisfy  my  body  less,  — 
to  get  married,  if  I  am  not  ?  It  will  turn  out  that  my 
whole  life  is  a  prayer,  and  this  prayer  will  certainly  be 
fulfilled. 

But  more  than  this :  the  very  necessity  of  prayer  — 
of  a  supplication  of  direct  aid  from  a  living  being  —  is 
satisfied  in  the  simplest,  non-supernatural  manner.  I  am 
weak  and  bad,  and  I  know  what  I  suffer  from. 

I  reveal  my  weakness  to  another  and  ask  Him  to  help 
me,  and  He,  at  times  by  His  mere  presence,  serves  as  an 
impediment  to  the  development  of  this  vice. 

I  do  so. 

Prayer  directed  to  God,  I  shall  be  told,  can  that  be 
bad? 

Of  course  not.  I  not  only  do  not  regard  it  as  bad,  but 
myself  from  old  habit  pray,  though  I  do  not  consider  this 
important.  What  is  important  is  what  God  wants  from 
you  and  what  God  has  given  you  tools  for.  And  so  if  I 
had  the  means  for  saving  myself  by  means  of  certain  acts, 
or  by  means  of  other  men,  and  I  did  none  of  these  things, 
and  only  prayed  to  God,  I  should  feel  that  I  did  wrong. 


THOUGHTS    AND    APHORISMS  109 

One  more  thing  about  prayer,  and  the  main  thing. 

Kemember  what  Jesus  said  to  the  Samaritan,  "  Men 
must  worship  God  in  spirit  and  in  truth."  The  true 
translation  for  "  in  truth  "  is  "  by  deeds." 

This  is  one  of  those  texts  which,  as  Arnold  says,  ought 
to  stand  in  the  first  place. 


I  stood  in  the  forest. 

I  began  to  tell  my  fortune  as  I  tore  off  the  petals  of 
a  flower :  "  Immense,  great,  medium,  half-and-half,  small, 
very  small,  insignificant." 

Twice  it  turned  out,  "  Very  small." 

I  have  outlived  this  habit  of  telling  fortunes,  but  this 
"  very  small"  interested  me. 

This  is  certainly  the  best  I  can  wish. 

The  greatest  is  always  very  small. 

For  God  every  act  is  very  small.  And  it  is  the  right 
act. 

One  only  needs  to  do  good  around  oneself,  —  to  give 
joy  to  men  around  oneself,  —  without  any  aim,  —  and  this 
is  a  great  aim. 


I  have  thought  on  the  gradualness  of  the  demands  of 
Nature,  —  of  food  and  labour,  of  the  collecting  of  the  seed 
and  its  return,  and,  as  it  seems  to  me,  of  the  collecting  of 
knowledge  and  its  transmission. 

But  love  does  not  enter  into  this  series,  because  love  is 
life  itself,  which  is  attained  through  the  natural  gratifica- 
tion of  these  demands. 


I  read  Medor's  work  on  civilization.  He  divides  it 
beautifully  into  four  parts:  (1)  the  material,  (2)  the 
physical,  (3)  the  mental,  and  (4)  the  moral. 


110  THOUGHTS    AND    APHOKISMS 

But  civilization  is  the  substitution  of  mental  factors  for 
physical  ones,  and  of  moral  factors  for  mental  ones. 

This  is  confused,  but  it  is  the  truth. 

Civilization  is  a  word,  and  it  is  quite  unnecessary  to 
define  it.  The  truth  is,  that  the  greatest  good  of  men  is 
invariably  attained  by  the  application  to  hfe  of  those  factors 
by  which  the  good  is  acquired  in  the  best  manner  possible. 

As  it  is  stupid  to  lift  up  with  the  hand  what  may  be 
raised  with  a  lever,  so  it  is  stupid  to  maintain  one's  rela- 
tions and  defend  one's  independence  by  means  of  war, 
when  this  very  end  is  attained  by  means  of  a  moral  hfe. 


We  reproach  God,  we  feel  sorrow,  because  we  meet 
obstacles  in  the  realization  of  Christ's  teaching. 

Well,  how  would  it  be  if  all  of  us  were  without 
domestic  disagreements  ? 

"We  should  come  together  and  live  happily  and 
joyously." 

Well,  and  others  ? 

"  Others  would  not  even  know." 

We  want  to  collect  the  fire  in  one  small  heap,  so  that 
it  may  burn  more  easily.  But  God  has  scattered  the  fire 
in  the  wood. 

They  are  busy,  but  we  are  worrying,  because  they  are 
not  burning. 

8 

None  of  us  is  called  to  destroy  all  the  sufferings  of 
men,  but  only  to  serve  men. 

People  always  ask,  ''■  What  is  evil  for  ? " 

What  is  evil  ? 

What  we  call  evil  is  a  challenge  addressed  to  us,  a 
demand  made  upon  our  active  love.  The  man  who  will 
reply  to  these  demands  of  the  activity  of  love  will  see 


THOUGHTS    AND    APHORISMS  111 

precisely  as  much  evil  as  he  needs  in  order  to  provoke  liis 
activity. 

Thus  I  think  and  feel  now,  but  only  lately  I  saw  very 
much  evil,  and  I  was  vexed  and  in  despair,  and  so  I 
prescribe  the  recipe  which  has  helped  me. 

The  moment  you  see  an  evil,  even  the  smallest,  try  to 
mend  it,  to  diminish  it,  and  you  will  never  see  much  evil 
at  once  and  will  not  arrive  at  despair,  and  the  hands  will 
not  drop,  and  you  will  do  much  good. 

January,  1887. 

9 

The  chief  error  of  men  is  this,  that  it  seems  to  each  in 
particular  that  the  guide  of  his  life  is  a  striving  after 
enjoyment  and  an  aversion  to  suffering.  And  a  man,  all 
alone,  without  any  guidance,  surely  renders  himself  to 
this  guide :  he  seeks  enjoyment  and  avoids  suffering, 
and  in  this  does  he  place  the  aim  and  meaning  of  life. 

But  a  man  can  never  live  in  enjoyment,  and  cannot 
avoid  suffering.  Consequently  the  purpose  of  life  does 
not  lie  in  this. 

If  it  did  he  in  this,  —  what  insipidity  ! 

The  purpose  is  enjoyments,  and  they  do  not  exist  and 
cannot  exist. 

And  if  they  did  exist,  the  end  of  life  is  death,  which  is 
always  conjugate  with  suffering. 

If  sailors  decided  that  their  aim  is  to  avoid  the  rise  of 
the  waves,  whither  would  they  sail  ? 

The  end  of  life  is  outside  enjoyments.  It  is  attained 
by  passing  through  them. 

This  transition  from  enjoyments  to  sufferings  is  the 
respiration  of  life,  inspiration  and  expiration,  the  taking 
of  food  and  the  giving  it  back. 

To  set  as  one's  aim  the  enjoyments  and  to  avoid  suffer- 
ing means  to  lose  the  path  which  cuts  through  them. 

August,  1887. 


112  THOUGHTS    AND    APHORISMS 


10 

Where,  then,  and  of  what  character,  is  the  law  under 
which  we  hve  ? 

Do  not  say  that  it  is  the  law  of  this,  that  your 
body  should  fare  well,  —  eat,  drink,  cohabit,  watch  its 
own  children.  This  is  not  a  law,  but  the  demands  of 
the  flesh,  the  very  demands  for  which  a  law  is  needed. 

Cattle  have  no  law  —  they  have  all  the  same  lusts. 

They  all  want  the  same. 

To  avoid  this,  that  men,  wishing  to  eat  the  same,  to 
sleep  with  the  same  woman,  should  kill  one  another 
off,  and  so  should  none  of  them  have  enough,  to  eat 
and  sleep  they  must  divide  up,  must  establish  a  law. 
And  to  divide  up,  lust  must  be  limited.  So  the  law  is 
born  among  men  as  to  how  to  limit  lust. 

As  many  lusts  as  there  are,  so  many  laws  are  there. 

For  a  law  is  nothing  but  a  vanquishing,  a  subjugation 
of  lust  for  the  sake  of  another  man.  And  there  are  many 
such  laws  in  the  heart  of  every  man. 

Cattle  have  no  law,  and  have  no  need  of  it. 

Well  or  ill,  man  cannot  live  without  law :  the  law  is 
written  within  him,  and  there  has  never  been  a  man  with- 
out law. 

When  there  was  but  the  one  Adam  (it  makes  no  differ- 
ence whether  he  existed  or  not),  and  there  was  but  one  man 
on  earth,  he  could  have  hved  without  any  law.  He  alone 
had  lusts,  and  they  did  not  interfere  with  any  one,  but  as 
soon  as  there  were  two  or  three  men,  the  lusts  came  into 
conflict : 

"  I  want  to  eat  this  apple  ! " 

"  And  so  do  I !  " 

One  man  killed  another  with  a  stone ;  a  third  man  ap- 
pears, and  he  will  not  let  the  matter  rest.  His  soul  will 
tell  him  whether  the  man  who  killed  the  brother  did  well 
or  ill. 


THOUGHTS    AND    APHORISMS  113 

Having  found  the  law  in  your  heart,  do  not  say  that 
there  is  no  law.     The  law  is  written  in  your  heart. 

If  you  hved  but  one  day  with  men  and  performed  deeds, 
and  looked  at  their  deeds,  you  would  find  the  law.  And 
even  now  there  is  not  a  human  deed  on  which  you  have 
not  a  judgment  in  your  soul  according  to  your  law,  and 
there  is  not  any  deed  of  yours  for  which  you  do  not  know 
a  law. 

If  you  say,  "  There  is  no  law,"  you  merely  say  that 
there  are  now  so  many  laws,  and  that  they  are  so  sense- 
less that  it  is  impossible  to  make  them  out.  And  there 
are  laws,  and  many  of  them  at  that,  one  of  which  com- 
mands what  the  other  forbids.  There  are,  besides,  statutes 
which  do  not  vanquish  the  lusts,  but  determine  how  the 
lusts  are  to  be  gratified,  and  these  statutes  are  also  called 
laws,  so  that  men  live  in  this  world  of  laws  and  statutes 
at  haphazard,  without  following  any  law,  mixing  up  the 
statutes  with  the  laws  and  living  exclusively  according 
to  the  commands  of  the  lusts. 

Whether  you  live  according  to  the  law  or  according  to 
the  lusts,  do  not  forget  that  there  is  a  law ;  and  not  one 
law,  but  an  infinitude  of  laws,  and  we  follow  thousands 
of  them,  and  without  them  a  man  has  never  lived  and 
could  never  live.  But  there  have  come  to  be  so  many 
laws,  and  we  have  become  so  entangled  in  them,  that  we 
can  live  according  to  the  lust,  selecting  such  laws  as  are 
convenient  to  us,  and  substituting  other  laws  for  such  as 
are  not  conveniei\t  for  us. 

Laws  cannot  help  but  exist. 

Let  two  men  live  together  two  days,  and  they  will  have 
laws,  and  millions  of  millions  have  lived  five  thousand 
years  together,  and  should  they  have  found  no  laws  ? 

All  this  is  foolish,  and  there  is  no  sense  in  talking 
about  it. 

I  now  hve  in  my  house,  the  children  study  and  play, 
my  wife  works,  1  write.     All  this  is  done  only  because 


114  THOUGHTS   AND   APHORISMS 

there  are  laws,  which  are  recognized  by  all  men.  No 
stranger  comes  to  live  in  my  house,  because  it  is  mine, 
and  according  to  the  tenth  commandment  no  one  should 
wish  for  what  belongs  to  another. 

The  children  study  what  I  command  them  to  study,  — 
according  to  the  fourth  commandment. 

My  wife  is  free  from  temptations,  according  to  the 
seventh. 

I  work  as  much  as  I  can,  according  to  the  fourth. 

I  have  quoted  the  commaudments  of  Moses  from  old 
habit,  but  I  could  mention  thousands  of  laws  of  the  civil 
and  of  the  common  law  which  half  confirm  the  same. 

But,  if  I  want,  I  can  at  once  find  even  such  laws  and 
customs  as  abrogate  these. 

I  will  say,  "  Why  have  you  a  house  ?  Christ,  who 
showed  us  an  example  of  life,  did  not  have  a  place  to 
lean  his  head  against.  Why  have  you  a  house,  when 
there  are  poor  people  without  a  home  ?  Why  have  you 
a  house,  since  it  says  that  you  should  have  no  care  ? " 

I  will  say,  "  Why  care  for  the  children  ?  Not  one  hair 
will  fall  from  their  heads  without  the  will  of  the  heavenly 
Father.  What  sense  is  there  in  teaching  them,  since  those 
who  are  poor  in  spirit  are  blessed  ? " 

I  will  simply  say,  "  Why  teach  them  pagan  wisdom, 
since  you  are  a  Christian  ? " 

I  will  say,  "  Why  teach  for  ambition's  sake,  if  it  is 
better  to  work  the  earth  ?  Why  have  you  a  wife,  when 
it  is  better  not  to  get  married  ?  Why  have  you  a  wife, 
when  it  says,  '  He  that  shall  not  forsake  his  wife  is  not 
worthy  of  me '  ? " 

"  Why  do  you  work,  why  write  ?  This  is  contrary  to 
humility,  and  contrary  to  refraining  from  worldly  cares." 

Thus,  if  I  left  my  house,  wife,  children,  work,  I  should 
also  be  doing  according  to  the  di\dne  law  and  should  be 
finding  for  my  confirmation  and  justification  civil  and 
common  laws.     It  is  possible  to  leave  wife  and  children, 


THOUGHTS    AND    APHORISMS  115 

and  to  go  to  a  monastery.  It  is  possible  to  leave  wife 
and  children,  to  get  a  divorce,  to  marry  another,  and  to 
commit  debauchery,  —  and  for  everything  to  find  a  confir- 
mation in  divine  and  civil  laws,  —  thus,  do  whatever  you 
please,  —  and  for  everything  a  law  will  be  found. 

It  is  in  this  condition  that  we  are,  and  that  is  not 
good. 

Not  that  there  is  no  law,  but  that  there  are  now  too 
many  of  them,  and  that  men  have  become  too  painfully 
clever. 

11 

Man  is  flesh,  has  life  and  reason,  and  develops. 

It  is  all  very  well  to  say  that  a  rope  develops,  a  germ 
develops  in  the  egg,  but  it  is  unscrupulous  to  apply  this 
v/ord  to  a  man. 

If  you  are  a  man,  you  live. 

And  so  do  not  go  on  talking  of  development,  but  simply 
look  at  yourself  and  say  what  you  are  doing,  having  life 
and  reason. 

If  you  do  so,  you  will  answer  that  you  are  looking 
for  rational  clioice  among  all  the  demands  of  your 
flesh. 

In  this  alone  does  all  our  life  consist. 


12 

(From  Lao-Tse) 

Wlien  a  man  is  born,  he  is  frail  and  weak ;  when  he  is 
strong  and  powerful,  he  dies. 

When  a  tree  is  born,  it  is  frail  and  tender ;  when  it  is 
dry  and  brittle,  it  dies. 

Strength  and  power  are  the  accompaniments  of  death. 

Frailty  and  weakness  are  the  accompaniments  of  life, 
because  what  is  strong  does  not  conquer. 


116  THOUGHTS   AND   APHOEISMS 

When  a  tree  has  become  strong,  it  is  cut  down. 
What  is  strong  and  great,  is  insignificant. 
What  is  frail  and  weak,  is  great. 


13 

A  Jewish  emigrant  came. 

He  wants  to  find  what  there  is  in  common  between 
Jews  and  Eussians,  which  would  unite  them. 

This  has  long  ago  been  found. 

At  times  I  feel  sorry  because  the  wood  does  not  burn. 
As  though,  if  it  burned  in  my  presence,  at  once,  this 
would  not  serve  as  a  clear  proof,  a  clear  sign,  of  this,  that 
it  is  not  the  wood  that  is  burning,  but  the  kindling ;  but 
the  wood  has  not  yet  caught  fire. 

14 

Where  people  are  angry,  there  it  is  not  good. 

A  child  recognizes  this  instinctively  and  goes  away 
from  such  a  place.  A  child  does  not  become  angry  itself, 
does  not  become  vexed  at  the  manifestation  of  anger  in 
others,  and  its  joys  and  occupations  in  life  are  not  im- 
paired by  it. 

15 

I  have  read  Confucius  and  have  made  notes. 

The  Chinese  religio-rational  explanation  of  power  and 
the  teaching  about  it  has  been  a  revelation  to  me. 

Things  that  were  obscure  are  getting  clearer  and  clearer 
to  me. 

True  power  cannot  be  based  on  violence,  nor  on  tradi- 
tion. It  can  be  based  only  on  the  unity  of  the  recognition 
of  this  height  by  all  men. 

Power  will  be  no  violence  only  when  it  is  recognized 
as  morally  and  rationally  the  highest. 


THOUGHTS    AND    APHORISMS  117 

Power,  as  violence,  arises  when  we  recognize  as  highest 
what  is  not  the  highest  according  to  the  demands  of  our 
heart  and  reason. 

The  moment  a  man  (be  he  a  father  or  a  king,  or  be  it 
a  legislative  assembly)  submits  to  what  he  does  not  fully 
respect,  there  appears  violence. 

When  what  I  consider  the  highest  has  become  not  the 
highest,  and  I  condemn  it,  I  generally  have  recourse  to 
two  methods : 

(1)  T  myself  stand  higher  than  what  was  the  highest, 
—  I  subject  it  to  myself  (the  quarrels  of  sons  and  fathers, 
revolutions). 

(2)  In  spite  of  the  fact  that  the  highest  has  ceased  to 
be  the  highest,  I  purposely  continue  to  consider  it  the 
highest  (Confucianism,  Slavophilism). 

Both  means  are  terrible,  and  the  most  terrible  of  the 
two  is  the  latter,  because  it  leads  up  to  the  first. 

There  is  one  way  out : 

I  do  not  consider  this  or  that  high,  and  so  must  not 
act  in  such  a  way. 

I  consider  this  or  that  the  highest,  and  so  I  must  act 
in  such  a  way. 

16 

A  man  who  does  something  bad  is  not  evil,  but  fre- 
quently  is  even  good  :  kings,  soldiers. 

But  a  man  who  does  something  bad  and  knows  that  it 
is  bad,  a  doubting  man,  —  he  is  bad  indeed. 

These  are  the  only  bad  ones  in  the  world. 


17 

The  ministration  to  others  begins  with  the  ministration 
to  oneself. 

If  we  are  to  believe  that  man's  aim  and  duty  consists 
in  serving  his  neighbour,  we  must  also  arrive  at  this,  how 


118  THOUGHTS   AND   APHORISMS 

we  should  serve  our  neighbour,  —  we  must  work  out  the 
rules  how  we  are  to  serve  in  our  position. 

For  us  in  our  position  to  serve,  we  must  first  of  all 
stop  demanding  other  people's  service. 

It  seems  strange,  but  the  first  thing  we  have  to  do, 
before  anything  else,  is  to  serve  ourselves,  that  is,  to  make 
our  own  fires,  fetch  our  own  water,  cook  our  own  dinners, 
and  wash  our  own  dishes  and  dirty  linen  — 

In  this  way  shall  we  begin  the  ministration  to  others. 

18 

All  acts  performed  by  a  man  may  be  divided  into  three 
categories. 

One  series  of  these  consists  of  those  which  we 
perform  without  asking  ourselves  about  them  whether 
they  are  good  or  bad ;  we  do  them  without  noticing 
them. 

Other  acts  are  such  as  we,  speaking  with  St.  Paul,  con- 
sider bad,  but  none  the  less  perform ;  acts  which  we  wish 
to  perform,  but  do  not  always  perform,  or  do  not  wish  to 
perform,  and  yet  perform  them. 

A  third  class  of  acts  consists  of  such  as  we  wish  to  per- 
form and  always  perform,  or  do  not  wish  to  perform  and 
never  perform. 

The  acts  of  the  first  series  are  those  which  have  not  yet 
fallen  under  the  judgment  of  our  conscience,  but  of  which, 
in  measure  as  our  life  advances,  a  greater  and  ever  greater 
number  fall  under  our  judgment  and  pass  over  to  the 
second  series. 

The  acts  of  the  third  series  are  such  as  have  passed  the 
judgment  of  our  conscience  and,  dividing  up  into  good 
and  bad,  into  desirable  and  undesirable,  have  become  the 
possession  of  our  moral  natures,  —  they  are  our  interest 
of  life,  our  only  wealth,  which  is  acquired  by  life.  It  it 
this,  that  before  this  I  could  fight,  get  drunk,  fornicate. 


THOUGHTS    AND    APHORISMS  119 

and  so  forth,  and  uovv  uot  merely  do  not  wish,  but  am 
unable  to  do  so. 

Thus  the  first  series  is  the  material  for  life's  working 
over.  The  third  ."-eries  is  what  has  already  been  prepared 
by  life,  what  is  lying  in  the  storeroom.  The  second 
series  is  what  is  now  on  the  work-table,  what  is  being 
worked  at. 

And  how  remarkably  happy  and  joyous  is  the  condition 
of  men  !  Whether  men  want  it  or  uot,  this  third  series  is 
being  worked  out  in  life :  a  man  grows  manly,  and  he 
grows  wiser  in  intellect  and  experience ;  he  gi"Ows  older, 
the  passions  weaken,  and  the  work  of  life  is  done. 

But  if  the  whole  meaning,  the  whole  aim  of  life  is  put 
into  this  work,  we  get  constant  joy,  constant  success. 

Now,  it  is  always  possible  to  understand  this  and  to 
recognize  what  acts  belong  to  this  or  to  that  series,  and 
to  strain  every  attention  toward  the  second  series. 

19 

It  is  accepted  to  regard  vexation  at  injustice,  anger 
provoked  by  evil,  as  not  only  a  noble  and  praiseworthy, 
but  even  a  useful  and  necessary  feeling,  as  a  stimulus  for 
a  struggle  with  evil.     But  this  is  a  great  mistake. 

Anger  is  not  at  all  necessary. 

Any  one  may  practically  convince  himself  of  this  from 
the  fact  that  anger  immediately  disappears  the  moment  a 
man  undertakes  to  mend  the  results  of  the  evil. 

When  a  man  is  a  witness  to  some  injustice  or  cruelty,  for 
example  to  a  fight,  in  which  the  weak  are  worsted  by  the 
strong,  he  in  his  soul  experiences  anger  against  the  offend- 
ers. He  need  but  undertake  to  mend  the  consequences 
of  the  evil,  he  need  but  busy  himself  with  the  aim  of 
diminishing  the  sufferings  of  the  victims  of  the  fight, 
he  need  but  begin  to  tend  to  the  wounds  of  the  maimed, 
—  and  immediately  the  feeling  of  anger  is  allayed  and 


120  THOUGHTS    AND    APHORISMS 

gives  way  to  a  feeling  of  inner  satisfaction  and  joy,  which 
always  accompany  every  ministration  to  a  neighbour. 
Thus  it  is  always. 

An  angry  incitement  against  evil  is  a  sign  that  a  man 
does  not  yet  counteract  evil  with  deeds,  does  not  yet 
mend  the  results  of  the  evil,  though  it  may  easily  happen 
with  this  that  he  is  struggling  against  evil  in  the  most 
energetic  manner  possible. 

20 

In  consequence  of  the  comprehension  of  the  spirit  of 
Christianity,  men  are  generally  divided  into  Christians  and 
non- Christians. 

The  grossest  division  consists  in  regarding  only  him 
who  has  been  baptized  as  a  Christian. 

Another  division,  though  less  gross,  consists  in  this, 
that  he  who  on  the  basis  of  Christ's  teaching  lives  a  pure, 
domestic  life,  who  is  no  murderer,  etc.,  is  called  a  Chris- 
tian, in  contradistinction  to  him  who  lives  differently. 

Both  these  divisions  are  equally  incorrect. 

In  Christianity  there  is  no  liue  which  separates  a 
Christian  from  a  non-Christian.  There  is  light,  the 
ideal,  Christ,  and  there  is  darkness,  the  animal.  There  is 
a  motion  in  the  name  of  Christ,  toward  Christ,  along  a 
path  indicated  by  his  teaching. 

And  we  are  all  somewhere,  walking  on  this  path. 

21 

We  frequently  deceive  ourselves,  thinking,  when  we 
meet  revolutionists,  that  we  are  standing  near  each  other, 
in  the  same  row. 

"  There  is  no  country  ! " 

"  There  is  no  country." 

"  There  is  no  ownership  ! " 

"  There  is  no  ownership." 


THOUGHTS    AND    APHORISMS  121 

"  There  is  no  unequality  ! " 

"  There  is  no  unequality,"  and  many  more  things.  It 
seems  to  be  one  and  the  same  thing. 

But  there  is  a  great  difference,  and  there  are  even  no 
people  farther  removed  from  us  than  they  are. 

For  a  Christian  there  is  no  country,  —  for  them 
country  has  to  be  destroyed. 

For  a  Christian  there  is  no  property,  —  and  they  want 
to  annihilate  property. 

For  a  Christian  all  are  equal,  —  and  they  want  to 
abolish  inequality. 

This  is  like  the  two  ends  of  a  snapped  ring.  The  two 
ends  are  side  by  side,  —  they  are  not  farther  removed 
than  all  the  other  parts  of  the  ring. 

It  is  necessary  to  walk  all  around  the  ring,  in  order  to 
connect  what  is  on  the  ends. 


22 

I  fully  agree  with  your  opinion  that  many  people  have 
needed  solitude  and  fasting,  in  order  to  strengthen  and 
try  themselves ;  but  I  think  (no  doubt  you,  too,  think 
so)  that  this  cannot  be  a  rule :  some  need  sohtude  and 
fasting  before  any  other  trials,  others  do  not  need  them. 

With  an  equally  sincere  striving  after  the  good  and 
after  truth,  the  paths  over  which  people  travel  toward 
them  may  be  quite  different. 

It  seems  to  me  that  one  of  the  chief  causes  of  the 
disagreement  of  people  is  this,  that  each,  walking  on  his 
own,  familiar  path  toward  truth,  and  seeing  anotlier  man 
walking  by  another  path  toward  the  same  goal  (and  there 
are  as  many  paths  as  there  are  radii),  is  inclined  to  insist 
that  the  true  path  is  only  the  one  he  is  travelling  upon. 

In  general  the  article  on  the  fasters  was  interesting  to 
me,  because  of  late  I  have  had  occasion  to  read  and  think 
much  about  gluttony,  and  I  think  that  one  of  the  chief 


122  THOUGHTS   AND   APHORISMS 

sins,  the  most  common  one  and  almost  the  radical  one, 
on  which  grows  up  a  mass  of  others,  is  gluttony  and 
belly-madness,  —  the  desire  to  eat  and  drink  for  a  long 
time  and  as  agreeably  as  possible. 

In  the  article  on  fasts  there  is  much  which  is  super- 
stitious and  exaggerated,  and  a  superfluous  motive  of 
fasting,  which  consists  in  the  castigation  of  the  body, 
but  the  hope  through  fasting  to  strengthen  one's  spiritual 
power  seems  untrue  to  me.  But  what  is  important  is 
that  a  man  now  generally  eats  several  times  more  than 
is  necessary  for  the  best  manifestation  of  his  forces  (by 
forces  I  understand  the  most  profitable  relation,  as  far 
as  the  human  activity  is  concerned,  of  his  spiritual  and 
his  physical  forces),  and  that  therefore  fasting,  the  con- 
scious destruction  of  gluttony,  is  useful  for  all  men,  — 
that  is,  the  accustoming  oneself  to  the  least  amount  of 
food,  with  which  the  most  advantageous  correlation 
is  attained. 

Now  the  most  advantageous  correlation  is  attained,  I 
think,  with  the  consumption  of  a  much  smaller  amount 
of  food  than  is  in  general  considered  necessary. 

You  say  that  it  was  most  easy  for  you  to  vanquish  the 
lust  of  feeding,  but  with  me  it  was  the  very  opposite. 
And  I  think  that  the  lust  of  feeding  is  closely  connected 
with  the  sexual  lust  and  serves  as  its  foundation. 

You  will  perhaps  say,  "  What  shall  be  regarded  as  the 
most  advantageous  relation  between  the  spiritual  and 
the  physical  forces  ?  This  concept  is  a  relative  one."  I 
will  not  undertake  to  settle  now  definitely  what  this 
relation  should  be,  but  I  know  it  for  myself,  and  I  think 
that  everybody  knows  it.  I  know  in  myself  the  condi- 
tion which  most  nearly  approaches  the  one  I  should  like 
to  be  in :  a  great  clearness  of  thought,  an  ability  to 
transfer  myself  into  the  condition  of  another  man, — 
to  understand  it,  —  and  physical  lightness,  a  mobility 
an  absence  of  the  consciousness  of  my  body. 


THOUGHTS    AND    APHORISMS  123 

Now  a  certain  amount  of  food  removes  me  from  this 
state,  or  brings  me  near  to  it.  When  I  fast  too  much, 
my  stomach  is  felt  by  me,  —  there  are  no  clear  ideas,  no 
sympathy,  though  there  is  mobility.  When  I  eat  too 
much,  everything  is  lost,  —  clearness  of  ideas,  sympathy, 
and  even  mobility.  And  so  I  will  always  find  that 
amount  which  is  necessary,  and  it  will  always  be  less 
than  the  food  usually  taken  by  the  majority  of  people. 

If  it  shall  seem  to  you  that  I  am  uselessly  talking  of 
such  subjects,  I  must  beg  your  pardon :  I  consider  this 
subject,  from  its  practical  applications  to  life,  unquestion- 
ably most  important. 

I  more  or  less  understand  your  world  conception ;  I  say 
more  or  less,  because  it  is  impossible  completely  to  ex- 
press one's  view  of  Hfe.  We  understand  each  other's 
world  conception,  not  because  we  express  it  in  a  common 
connection,  but  more  in  consequence  of  various  incidental 
expressions  of  a  concordant  sympathy  in  respect  to  all 
kinds  of  questions. 

23 

I  have  several  times  before  expressed  the  idea  that 
union  between  men  can  be  found  only  in  the  union  with 
truth,  with  God ;  but  the  attempts  at  seeking  a  union 
with  men,  with  certain,  chosen  men,  shows  either  that 
men  are  unable,  or  unwilling,  or  too  tired  to  seek  a  union 
with  God,  or  do  not  believe  in  this,  that  the  union  with 
God  will  give  them  a  union  with  men ;  or  it  weakens  the 
striving  after  a  union  with  God,  and  so  is  undesirable. 

Besides,  how  can  I  know  with  whom  I  am  to  be  in  a 
very  close  union  ? 

By  what  signs  shall  I  find  out  that  I  am  to  be  in  a 
union  with  John,  and  not  with  Peter,  or  with  the  monk 
Anthony,  or  with  the  Governor  of  Chernigov,  or  with  the 
Krapivensk  horse-thief  ? 

The  very  project  of  an  external  union  such  as  you  pro- 


124  THOUGHTS    AND    APHORISMS 

pose  is  in  reality  a  project  of  disunion  :  we  must  recognize 
that  in  the  distance  between  Kharkov  and  Tiila  there  are 
but  two  or  three  men  who  can  understand  us,  and  this  Ls 
a  sin,  and  an  untruth,  and  it  is  unnecessary. 

What  unites  us,  and  can  unite  us  more,  is  a  greater 
approximation  to  the  perfection  of  the  Father,  which  we 
are  told  to  seek,  and  I  am  convinced  that  jou,  like  me, 
and  like  all  people,  have  experienced  those  transitions  of 
moods  of  love,  to  which  we  all  are  near,  and  the  union 
has  taken  place  easily  and  joyfully  from  without.  But 
the  external  union  such  as  you  propose  will,  in  all  prob- 
ability, only  disunite  those  who  in  this  manner  will 
attempt  to  unite.  A  union  can  exist  only  if  we  throw 
off  everything  which  disunites,  which  can  give  a  cause  for 
teni[)tation,  as  when,  defending  a  fortress,  the  suburbs  are 
burned,  and  if  we  leave  only  that  wddch  is  eternal,  com- 
mon to  all,  and  first  of  all  necessary  for  us,  and  what  this 
is,  we  all  know. 

And  the  more  sinceiely  we  shall  live  for  the  fulfilment 
of  this,  the  more  eternally  shall  we  be  in  union,  not  only 
with  a  certain  dozen  of  men,  but  with  all  the  men  of  the 
world. 

If  we  do  not  support  one  another,  either  materially,  or 
spiritually ;  if  we  err ;  if  we  go  aw^ay  from  one  another 
and,  above  all,  if  we  have  no  common  aim,  we  cannot 
mend  this  by  an  artificial  joining  and  by  words  said  to 
one  another.  Union  is  possible  only  in  truth,  and  in 
order  to  attain  ti'uth  we  must  do  one  thing,  —  seek  it 
with  a  constant,  unceasing  effort,  "  Knock,  and  it  shall  be 
opened  unto  you,"  and  another  thing:  be  meek,  reject 
pride,  self-love,  your  own  opinion,  and,  above  all  else, 
reject  all  kinds  of  considerations,  such  as,  for  example, 
"  If  I  believe  thus,  I  shall  be  with  the  government,  or 
with  the  people,  or  with  the  holy  fathers,  or  with  the 
church ;  if  I  believe  thus,  I  can  be  justified  before  people 
and  myself,"  or,  that  it  is  a  pleasure  to'  believe  thus.     All 


THOUGHTS    AND    APHORISMS  125 

this  has  to  be  rejected,  and  you  have  to  be  prepared  in 
advance  for  this,  that  the  recognition  of  the  truth  will  be 
disadvantageous  to  you,  will  humble  you. 

Assembling  will  uot  help  in  the  recognition  of  the 
truth ;  the  only  salvation  is  in  an  approach  to  it,  and  in 
this  alone  is  the  means  for  union.  But  an  artificial  union 
can  only  weaken  the  striving  after  truth. 

Then  again,  who  is  to  assemble  for  the  seeking  of  the 
union,  and  who  is  to  be  aided  materially  and  spiritually  ? 

Where  is  that  stamp  by  which  we  recognize  our  people  ? 

Is  it  not  a  sin  to  segregate  ourselves  and  others  from 
the  rest,  and  is  not  this  union  with  dozens  a  disunion 
from  thousands  and  millions  ? 

And  then  again,  the  union  which  you  seek,  the  union 
with  God,  is  accomplished  at  a  depth  which  frequently  is 
not  reached  by  our  vision. 

I  am  convinced  that  if  one  should  ask  an  old  man  on 
his  death-bed,  for  example,  me,  with  whom  I  have  been  in 
a  true,  a  most  real  union,  I  shall  hardly  name  those  whom 
1  should  name  now. 

The  union  with  the  dead  is  frequently  greater  than 
with  the  Hving. 

Let  us  do  what  leads  to  union,  let  us  approach  God, 
but  let  us  not  think  of  union.  It  will  be  in  proportion 
with  our  perfection,  our  love. 

You  say,  "  It  is  easier  in  company." 

What  is  easier  ?  To  plough,  mow,  drive  piles,  yes,  is 
easier,  but  God  can  be  approached  only  singly. 

Only  through  God,  as  through  the  heart,  is  there  a 
communication  between  all  the  parts  of  the  body ;  but 
the  direct  communication,  which  does  not  pass  through 
God,  is  only  seeming.  You  have  no  doubt  experienced 
this,  and  I,  too,  have  experienced  this. 

What  may  seem  strange  is  this,  that  with  people  with 
whom  there  exists  a  real  communion  through  God,  we 
have  no  reason  for  speaking,  and  do  not  feel  like  it ;  but 


126  THOUGHTS    AND    APHORISMS 

we  feel  like  speaking  and  pointing  out  and  making  things 
clear  to  those  with  whom  we  have  not  as  yet  any  divine 
communion ;  with  these  we  try  to  establish  a  communion 
despite  the  heart,  but  this  cannot  be  done  and  is  an  idle 
occupation. 

You  say  that  it  is  better  together,  but  it  seems  to  me 
that  this  cannot  be  said,  cannot  be  determined ;  we  must 
do  what  God  commands :  if  He  brings  us  together,  well 
and  good ;  if  He  scatters  us  in  every  direction,  again 
well  and  good.  But  as  to  what  you  say  about  "  the  farther 
steps,"  I  now  do  not  see  these  farther  steps  in  a  renuncia- 
tion of  self  (this  is  in  your  case  and  in  that  of  many  men 
already  done  in  consciousness),  but  in  doing  precisely  the 
opposite  of  what  you  wish  to  do,  not  in  segregating  your- 
selves, but  in  welding  together ;  do  the  opposite,  find  the 
greatest  means  for  communing  with  the  whole  great  world 
of  all  men ;  find  a  communion  in  which,  without  making 
any  compromises,  you  may  commune,  love,  and  be  loved. 

24 

Principles,  meaning  by  this  word  what  ought  to  guide 
our  whole  hfe,  are  not  to  blame  for  anything,  and  without 
principles  it  is  bad  to  live. 

The  trouble  is  this,  that  frequently  that  is  made  a  prin- 
ciple which  cannot  be  a  principle,  as,  for  example,  the 
principle  of  a  thorough  steaming  in  a  bath-house,  and  so 
forth.  Not  even  the  product  of  bread  labour,  as  Bondarev 
says,  can  be  a  principle. 

We  have  one  common,  fundamental  principle,  —  love, 
not  only  in  word  and  tongue,  but  in  fact  and  truth,  that 
is,  with  a  loss,  a  sacrifice  of  one's  hfe  for  the  sake  of  God 
and  one's  neighbour. 

From  this  common  rule  result  the  particular  principles 
of  meekness,  humihty,  non-resistance  to  evil,  as  the  con- 
secj^uence  of  which  there  will  be  agricultural,  industrial, 


THOUGHTS    AND    APHORISMS  127 

and  even  factory  work  for  which  there  is  the  least  number 
of  competitors  and  the  reward  is  smallest. 

From  all  the  circles  where  competition  is  great,  a  man 
who  keeps  Christ's  teaching  in  fact,  and  not  in  words,  will 
be  pushed  out,  and  he  will  involuntarily  find  himself  among 
the  labourers.  Thus  the  labour  condition  of  a  Christian 
is  the  result  of  the  application  of  a  principle,  —  and  not  a 
principle.  If  people  shall  take  for  their  basal  principle  to 
be  labouring  men,  and  shall  not  fulfil  what  leads  to  it,  this 
will  obviously  lead  to  confusion. 

I  am  fully  agreed  with  you  that  to  live  by  principles 
alone  is  pernicious,  but  I  do  not  agree  with  you  that  it  is 
possible  to  live  without  them,  that  is,  without  a  mental 
activity  which  determines  life. 

It  is  just  as  pernicious  to  live  in  faith  alone,  as  to  live 
by  one  set  of  principles.  One  is  so  much  connected  with 
the  other,  that  they  are  both  parts  of  one  whole,  —  of  the 
moral  forward  movement. 

To  say  that  it  is  useless  or  pernicious  to  make  a  defini- 
tion of  life  and  to  try  to  make  reality  conform  with  it,  is 
the  same  as  saying  that  it  is  useless  and  pernicious  to  put 
one  foot  forward  without  transferring  to  it  all  the  weight 
of  the  body.  Just  as  it  is  impossible  to  walk  without 
putting  a  foot  forward,  and  is  impossible  to  walk  by 
jumping  on  one  foot,  so  it  is  impossible  to  move  in  hfe, 
without  mentally  defining  the  path, —  without  establish- 
ing principles  and  conforming  life  with  them. 

Both,  that  is,  the  principle  determined  in  advance  and 
the  inevitable  consequence,  —  faith,  —  are  indispensable 
for  motion.  It  is  even  difficult  to  separate  one  from  the 
other,  to  say  where  one  begins  and  the  other  ends,  just  as 
in  walking  it  is  difficult  to  say  on  what  foot  I  am  resting 
at  a  given  second,  and  which  foot  is  moving  me. 

August,  1892. 


IV. 

THE   OFFENCES   OF   THE   UNDERTAKINGS  OF   LIFE 


You  have  just  had  time  to  think,  "  I  have  conquered  ! " 
and  are  triumphant,  when  you  are  ready  to  fall  into  the 
ditch. 


The  most  persistent  offence,  from  w^hich  you  will  never 
rid  yourself  and  which  it  is  impossible  to  evade,  but  which 
one  must  know  how  to  direct,  is  the  offence  of  undertaking 
life  in  the  future  external  forms. 

Without  doing  so,  it  seems,  we  cannot  live. 

I  begin  to  write  a  letter  and  I  assume  that  I  shall  end 
it  and  shall  say  this  or  that.  I  build  a  house,  etc.  It  is 
impossible  to  get  along  without  doing  so !  But  how  shall 
we  do  it  ? 

In  such  a  way  that  we  shall  never  lose  sight  of  the  fact 
that  human  relations  are  more  precious  than  the  under- 
taking which  we  have  entered  upon. 

The  writing  of  a  letter  or  a  book,  the  ploughing  of  the 
field,  the  building  of  a  house,  all  these  are  only  forms  of 
life ;  but  life  itself  consists  in  the  complex  play  of  men's 
relations  in  these  forms. 

There  may  be  an  error  in  forms,  but  life,  which  may 
proceed  in  the  most  faulty  forms,  can  always  be  holy, 
full,  and  fruitful. 


November,  1886. 


128 


THOUGHTS    AND   APHORISMS  129 


There  is  one  teacher,  Christ,  and  he  teaches  one  thing, 
the  fultilmeut  of  the  Father's  will,  not  for  the  pleasure  of 
men,  but  in  order  that  we  may  be  with  Him,  consequently 
may  be  happy  and  free. 

The  chief  obstacle  in  this  is  in  the  malice  and  praise  or 
the  condemnation  of  men.  This  obstacle,  if  you  are  the 
least  bit  careless,  takes  the  place  of  the  seeking  of  the  true 
good  in  the  fulfilment  of  God's  will. 


To  tempt  God  means,  not  to  follow  His  law.  His 
command. 

But  God's  laws  and  commands  are  written  on  paper 
and  are  expressed  in  words.  As  regards  these  commands, 
doubt  is  possil)le,  and  great  caution  must  be  observed 
toward  them. 

Other  commands  are  written  in  our  hearts. 

And  we  must  not  believe  all  these  at  once.  Our  hearts 
may  be  corrupt  and  may  give  their  own  commands  out 
for  God's. 

But  there  are  other  commands,  which  are  written  both 
in  books  and  in  our  hearts,  and  in  all  our  beings,  as,  for 
example,  food  and  food-producing  labour,  love  of  parents  and 
children,  and  marital  life  productive  of  these  conditions. 

A  man  may  do  anything  (he  may  even  shoot  himself), 
but  he  never  can  with  impunity  depart  from  the  law,  that 
is,  there  can  be  no  doubt  but  that  with  this  departure 
he  will  make  himself  worse  and  will  not  attain  what  he 
wanted. 


Two  things  became  clear  to  me  yesterday,  —  one  —  of 
no  importance,  the  other  —  of  importance. 


130  THOUGHTS    AND    APHORISMS 

The  first  is  of  no  importance. 

I  was  afraid  to  say  and  think  that  all  men  —  ninety- 
nine  hundredths  of  them  —  are  insane. 

There  is  not  only  no  reason  for  being  afraid,  but  we 
cannot  help  but  say  and  think  so,  if  people  act  madly. 
If  people  lead  a  senseless  city  life,  senselessly  educate 
their  children,  abandon  themselves  to  senseless  luxury 
and  idleness,  they  will  certainly  also  talk  senselessly. 

The  second  is  of  importance. 

If  indeed  I  see  (partially)  by  God's  will,  the  senseless, 
sick  world  cannot  approve  of  me  for  it. 

If  the  world  did  approve  of  me,  I  should  be  ceasing  to 
live  according  to  God's  will,  but  should  be  living  according 
to  the  world's  will. 

I  should  be  ceasing  to  see  and  seek  God's  will. 

Such  was  Thy  will. 


The  struggle  with  evil  by  means  of  violence  is  the  same 
as  an  attempt  to  stop  a  cloud,  in  order  that  there  may  be 
no  rain. 


The  main  Christian  teaching,  the  teaching  of  the  truth, 
has  in  its  application  passed  through  all  the  stages  of 
consciousness,  of  verbal  expression,  and  of  the  excitation  of 
the  religious  sentiment ;  all  this  has  been  done  and  worked 
over,  and  there  is  nothing  new  to  be  said  or  done  here. 

But  the  consciousness  of  truth  only  begins  to  demand 
a  true  vital  application,  and  here  the  teaching,  or  the  dis- 
ciples of  this  teaching,  like  a  mettled  horse  with  a  wagou 
near  a  hill,  perform  all  kinds  of  tricks :  they  toss  to  the 
right  and  to  the  left,  start  back,  rear  on  their  hind  legs ; 
but  there  is  one  thing  they  will  not  do,  and  that  is, — 
they  do  not  wish  to  put  their  necks  into  the  collar  and 
pull  up-hill. 


THOUGHTS    AND    APHORISMS  131 

There  is  but  one  thing  which  they  do  not  do,  the  one  nec- 
essary thing,  —  they  du  not  wish  to  fulfil  the  teaching,  in 
spite  of  the  tension  of  the  work.  And  so  it  is  impossible 
to  make  sufficient  efforts  and  sacrifices,  in  order  from  Chris- 
tian conversations  and  sentiments  to  pass  to  acts,  from 
balking  at  the  foot  of  the  hill  to  walking  in  even  step 
up-hill. 

To  pass  from  talking  to  acting,  we  may  sacrifice  any- 
thing but  what  we  are  pulling  by,  the  traces,  that  is,  the 
good-will  to  men,  the  love  union  with  men. 

8 

The  other  day  a  young  lady  called  on  me,  and  she 
asked  me  how  she  might  live  well. 

So  I  said  to  her,  "  Live  as  you  deem  good.  For,  if  I 
tell  you,  you  will  hve  according  to  my  conscience,  and 
this  is  inconvenient.  Every  person  must  live  by  his  own 
conscience,  and  not  higher  than  his  conscience,  but  a  little 
lower.  The  best  is  to  Hve  in  such  a  way  as  to  fall  a 
little  below  the  conscience,  so  that  one  may  be  able  to 
catch  up  with  the  conscience,  when  it  gets  too  far  ahead. 
This  is  best,  for  then  a  man  is  always  dissatisfied  with 
himself,  does  not  always  fully  answer  the  demands  of  his 
conscience,  repents,  goes  ahead,  '  lives.' 

"  It  is  bad  to  live  too  far  below  one's  conscience,  —  it 
is  hard  to  catch  up  with  it,  for  what  may  happen  to  a 
man  is  what  happened  to  Peter  before  the  threefold  crow- 
ing of  the  cock. 

"  Worst  of  all  is  renunciation,  when  a  man  has  caught 
up  with  his  conscience  and  stops,  for  rest  is  death." 


It  is  impossible  from  Spencer  to  deduce  Christianity, 
that  is,  truth. 


132  THOUGHTS    AND   APHORISMS 

Truth  is  from  God,  through  Christ,  and  there  is  no  other 
path  for  it. 

If  we  were  to  deduce  anything  from  Spencer,  we 
should  get  what  we  did  get :  there  will  be  found  the 
alphabet  of  Christianity,  and  not  of  Christianity  alone, 
but  the  alphabet  of  all  religions,  —  the  love  of  God  and 
of  our  neighbour,  which  was  given  long  ago,  and  has 
always  been  known  to  all  men. 

And  it  seems  to  us  that  we  know  everything ;  and  we 
even  feel  angry  because  Christ  knew  more  and  demanded 
of  us  more ;  and  we  reject,  or  try  to  reject,  what  he  said 
and  gave  us. 

And  even  if  we  do  not  reject,  we  weaken  in  our  hope 
of  discovering  laws,  —  better  laws,  —  because  they  will 
satisfy  our  evil  propensities. 

10 

So  long  as  the  inertia  of  lying  and  of  the  consciousness 
of  truth  act  at  an  angle  which  is  less  than  two  right 
angles,  life  proceeds  along  the  resultant. 

But  when  the  two  forces  will  take  up  positions  opposite 
one  another,  along  the  same  line,  life  will  stop,  either 
of  its  own  will,  or  by  the  will  of  another. 

11 

I  think  that  the  cause  of  the  burden  and  the  struggle 
is  mainly  due  to  this,  that  we  have  not  freed  ourselves 
from  care  for  reputation  among  men,  for  the  opinion  of 
men  about  us. 

Try  to  solve  your  doubts  about  how  to  act,  independ- 
ently of  people's  opinion,  by  imagining  that  no  one  will 
ever  find  out  how  you  acted ;  or  that,  having  acted  in  one 
way  or  another,  you  will  at  once  die ;  or,  what  is  easier 
than  anything  else,  by  putting  yourseK  purposely  before 


THOUGHTS    AND    APHORISMS  133 

meu  in  the  meanest,  lowest  light,  —  so  that,  no  matter 
how  you  may  act,  you  could  not  fall  any  lower :  "  I  am  a 
liar,  and  a  pig,  and  a  boaster ;  I  say  one  thing  and  do 
another ;  I  am  cruel  and  a  cheat."  Do  this,  if  you  have 
the  strength,  in  reality ;  and  if  you  have  not  the  strength, 
at  least  in  imagination. 

Nothing  so  confuses  us  in  our  determinations  and  so 
weakens  us  in  our  acts,  and  provokes  such  a  painful  con- 
sciousness of  struggle  as  the  mixing  up  of  two  motives,  — 
of  an  activity  for  God  and  an  activity  for  people's  opinion. 

You  do  not  know  where  one  thing  begins  and  the  other 
ends.  You  do  not  know  what  really  to  beheve  in, 
whether  you  believe  indeed,  or  only  want  people  to 
think  that  you  believe. 

At  times  it  happens  that  you  think  that  you  believe  in 
what  you  really  do  not  believe  in ;  and  at  times,  again, 
you  think  that  you  do  not  believe  in  w^hat  you  really 
believe.  And  so  my  one  advice  is :  try  with  all  your 
force  to  remove  the  care  as  to  people's  opinion,  in  order 
that  you  may  find  out  what  you  believe  in. 

The  best  and  most  convenient  means  for  this  is  self- 
humiliation. 

And  then  you  can  live  in  conformity  with  what  you 
beheve. 

12 

Your  question  as  to  how  and  when  it  is  best  to  use 
one's  forces  would  be  a  very  difficult  one,  if  it  were  nec- 
essary to  give  one  faultless  solution  for  it ;  but  there  can 
be  as  many  solutions  as  there  are  propositions,  and  all 
can  be,  and  certainly  will  be,  faulty,  Hke  everything  which 
meu  do. 

Yes,  tear  one  fetter  and  tighten  another,  and  so  on 
until  the  grave,  and  die  doing  this. 

And  I  will  tell  you  what  I  think  in  full :  such  is  life, 
beautiful  life,  whicli  is  given  to  us  alone. 


134  THOUGHTS    AND    APHORISMS 

Even  so  have  lived  all  the  best  men,  and  thus  lived 
Christ,  and  thus  he  ordered  us  to  live. 

Life  is  beautiful  in  that,  in  the  first  place,  when  you 
tear  one  fetter,  which  binds  you  most  and  is  most  strong, 
you  tighten  another,  which  is  less  binding  and  strong,  and 
so  march  ahead  toward  liberation,  —  and  in  this  there  is 

Joy- 
But  not  in  this  alone  is  the  whole  matter,  and  it  is  not 

good  and  not  right  to  look  back  at  this.     The  main  thing 

is,  that,  at  the  same  time  with  the  tearing  of  the  fetters 

and  the  slow  retardation  of  motion,  you  feel  that  by  this 

very  thing,  with  the  aid  of  your  own  mind,  you  are  doing 

another  work,  the  work   of  establishing  the  kingdom  of 

God  upon  earth.     And  I  wish  for  nothing  better,  and  do 

not  wish  to  think  of  anything  better,  than  such  a  life. 

Now  I  shall  answer  your  other  questions. 

If  I  were  in  your  place,  I  should  go  to  M ,  not  that 

I  should  arrange  anything  there,  but  I  should  work  with 
him ;  perhaps  something  would  come  of  it :  another  may 
come,  —  and  then  again,  maybe  nothing  would  come  of  it, 
but  that  does  not  interest  me.  I  speak  this  from  a  per- 
sonal feeling.  This  would  be  the  most  agreeable  thing 
for  me.     But  how  is  it  for  you  ? 

In  my  opinion  we  must,  of  two  good,  or  at  least  not 
bad,  things,  always  do  the  one  which  is  the  most  agree- 
able, because  we  shall  do  this  better,  and,  besides,  a  greater 
pleasure  is  partly  a  symptom  of  a  predetermination  by 
God. 

The  other  question  is  as  to  what  I  should  desire  for 
my  sake  that  you  should  do. 

I  should  desire  for  my  sake  that  you  should  go  to  the 
Caucasus  to  help  the  Milkers.  In  my  opinion,  you  are 
able  to  help  and  strengthen  them,  and  enlighten  them, — 
and  this  is  what  I  want. 

Biit  because  I  want  this,  it  has  no  weight  whatsoever. 

The  third  answer  is,  that  we  must  undertake  as  little 


THOUGHTS    AND    APHORISMS  135 

as  possible,  but  should  comply  with  those  demands  which 
are  made  right  here,  at  the  present  time. 

The  fourth  and,  in  my  opinion,  the  most  correct  answer, 
though  it  may  seem  general  and  indefinite,  is,  that  we 
must  serve  God,  not  on  this  or  that  mount,  but  in  the 
spirit  and  in  truth. 

According  to  the  meaning  of  this  answer,  the  whole 
significance  is  in  the  internal  activity,  with  which  every 
external  selection  becomes  indifferent,  and  a  man  inclines 
toward  this,  a  second,  or  a  tenth  act,  that  is,  toward  such 
as  he  has  not  even  foreseen,  or  chosen,  but  does  it  imper- 
ceptibly, naturally. 

February,  1893. 


V. 

RELATION    TO    TKUTH 


Christ's  teaching  does  not  prescribe  any  acts,  —  it 
shows  the  truth. 

But  the  question  as  to  how  to  act  in  a  given  case  is  by 
every  man  decided  in  his  soul,  according  to  the  lucidity 
and  strength  of  his  consciousness  of  truth.  It  is  deter- 
mined not  that  I  want  to  act  according  to  Christ's  teach- 
ing, or  not,  but  that  I  cannot  act  otherwise. 


If  only  those  whose  idle  life  is  supported  by  other 
people's  life  of  labour  understood  that  their  only  justifica- 
tion may  be  found  in  their  being  able  to  use  their  leisure 
for  bethinking  themselves,  —  for  the  work  of  reason  ! 

But  they  carefully  fill  their  leisure  with  vanity,  so  that 
they  have  even  less  time  left  for  thinking  than  the 
labourer  who  is  overcome  by  his  work. 


"  To  do  the  will  of  Him  that  sent  me  is  my  meat." 
What  a  deep  and  what  a  simple  meaning ! 
A  man  may  be  calm  and  always  satisfied,  only  when 
the  aim  of  his  life  is  uot  something  external,  but  the  ful- 
filment of  the  will  of  Him  who  sent  him. 


THOUGHTS    AND    APHORISMS  137 

And  again,  this  clear  expression,  "  This  is  my  meat." 

The  majority  of  men  do  for  themselves  only  what  is 
necessary  for  the  body,  —  they  make  their  food,  and  they 
forget  everything  which  is  for  other  men. 

It  is  of  this  whole  sphere  of  activity,  which  men  do  not 
do  for  themselves,  but  for  the  opinion  of  men,  that  C!hrist 
says  that  we  should  work  in  it,  doing  the  will  of  Him 
who  sent  us,  —  not  for  men's  sake.  And  of  this  activity 
he  says  that  it  is  for  him  like  food,  just  as  indispensable 
and  just  as  independent  of  human  opinion. 

To  do  the  will  of  Him  who  sent  us,  like  eating  and 
drinking,  is  not  for  men,  but  for  our  satisfaction. 

It  is  this  that  is  needed,  and  this  is  possible,  and  this 
is  the  only  path  of  life,  which  always  and  everywhere 
gives  the  good. 


I  have  just  read  mediaeval  and  modern  history  in  a 
brief  text-book. 

Is  there  in  the  world  more  terrible  reading  ? 

Is  there  a  book  which  could  be  more  harmful  for 
young  people's  reading  ?  And  yet  it  is  this  that  is  being 
taught. 

I  read  it  through,  and  for  a  long  time  could  not  get  out 
of  my  feeling  of  dejection  :  murders,  tortures,  deceptions, 
plunderings,  fornication,  —  and  nothing  more. 

They  say  that  it  is  necessary  for  a  man  to  know 
whence  he  came. 

But  has  every  one  of  us  come  from  there  ? 

That  from  which  I  and  every  one  of  us  with  our  world- 
conception  liave  come  does  not  exist  in  this  history,  and 
there  is  no  reason  for  teach  hig  me  this. 

Just  as  I  bear  all  the  physical  features  of  my  ancestors, 
so  do  I  bear  in  myself  all  the  labour  of  thought,  the 
whole  real  history,  —  of  all  my  ancestors. 

1  and  every  one  of  us  have  always  known  this.     It  is 


138  THOUGHTS    AND   APHORISMS 

all  implanted  in  us  through  the  telegraph,  newspapers, 
conversations,  sight  of  cities  and  villages. 

To  bring  this  knowledge  to  consciousness  ?  Yes  ?  But 
for  this  we  need  the  history  of  thought,  which  is  entirely 
independent  of  that  history.  That  history  is  only  a  gross 
reflection  of  the  real  history. 

The  reformation  is  a  rude,  incidental  reflection  of  the 
labour  of  thought  striving  after  the  liberation  of  man  from 
darkness.  Luther,  with  all  the  wars  and  sights  of  St. 
Bartholomew,  has  no  place  by  the  side  of  Erasmus,  Rous- 
seau, and  others. 


We  must  as  frequently  as  possible  remind  ourselves 
that  our  real  life  is  not  that  external,  material  life,  which 
takes  place  here  upon  earth,  in  our  sight,  but  the  inner 
life  of  our  spirit,  for  which  the  visible  life  is  only  a 
scaffolding  necessary  for  the  rearing  of  the  building 
of  our  spiritual  growth.  This  scafiblding  has  in  itself 
but  a  temporary  purpose,  after  the  fulfilment  of  which 
it  is  not  good  for  anything  and  even  becomes  an 
obstacle. 

Seeing  before  himself  the  immense,  towering,  and  firmly 
clasped  timbers,  while  the  building  barely  rises  above  the 
foundation,  a  man  is  inclined  to  make  the  mistake  of 
ascribing  a  greater  significance  to  the  scaffolding  than  to 
the  building  which  is  going  up  and  for  the  sake  of  which 
this  temporary  scaffolding  has  been  put  up. 

We  must  remind  ourselves  and  one  another  that  the 
only  meaning  and  significance  of  the  scaffolding  is  the 
possibility  of  rearing  the  building  itself. 


The   material    form    in   which    the  awakening  of  our 
consciousness  of  the  true  life  finds  us  in  this  world  rep- 


THOUGHTS   AND   APHORISMS  139 

resents,  as  it  were,  the  border  which  limits  the  free  devel- 
opment of  our  spirit. 

Matter  is  tlie  limit  of  the  spirit ;  but  the  true  life  is 
the  destruction  of  this  limit. 

In  this  comprehension  is  contained  the  essence  of  the 
comprehension  of  truth  itself,  that  essence  which  gives  to 
man  the  consciousness  of  the  eternal  life. 

Materialists  take  the  limit  for  the  true  life. 


Every  one  of  us,  having  come  to  know  the  truth,  finds 
himself  in  a  certain  position,  bound  by  worldly  ties,  or 
even  by  the  nooses  of  dead  joys,  of  former  connections 
with  men.  And  a  man  who  has  come  to  know  the  truth 
first  of  all  imagines  that  the  chief  thing  which  he  ought 
to  do  consists  in  getting  at  once,  at  all  cost,  out  of  those 
conditions  in  which  he  found  himself,  and  in  putting  him- 
self under  such  conditions  as  to  make  it  clear  to  people 
that  he  is  living  according  to  Christ's  law ;  and  then  only 
must  he  live  in  these  conditions,  showing  people  an  ex- 
ample of  a  true  Christian  life. 

But  this  is  not  so. 

The  demand  of  reason  does  not  consist  in  finding  him- 
self in  this  or  that  state,  but  in  living  without  violating 
the  love  of  God  and  of  one's  neighbours. 

A  Christian  will  always  strive  after  a  life  that  is  free 
from  sin,  will  always  choose  such  a  life,  if,  to  attain  it, 
lie  shall  not  be  asked  to  do  things  which  impair  this  love. 
But  the  trouV)le  is,  that  a  man  is  never  so  little  connected 
with  his  own  past  sins  and  those  of  others  that  he  is  able, 
without  violating  the  love  of  God  and  of  his  neighbours, 
at  once  to  enter  into  such  an  external  state. 

Every  Christian,  amidst  worldly  people,  finds  liimself 
in  such  conditions  that,  in  order  to  approach  the  desired 
state,  he  must  first  loosen  the  fetters  of  his  former  sins. 


140  THOUGHTS    AND    APHORISMS 

those  fetters  by  which  he  is  tied  to  people ;  and  so  the 
first  and  chief  problem  consists  in  opening  these  fetters. 
in  accordance  with  the  love  of  God  and  of  one's  neigh- 
bours, and  not  to  tighten  them,  and  so  cause  pain  to  him 
with  whom  one  is  bound  up. 

A  Christian's  work  is  not  in  some  certain  state,  but  in 
the  fulfilment  of  God's  will.  But  fulfilling  God's  will 
consists  in  answering  all  the  demands  of  hfe  in  the  way 
in  which  this  is  demanded  by  the  love  of  God  and  of 
men ;  and  so  it  is  impossible  to  determine  the  nearness 
or  remoteness  of  oneself  and  of  others  from  Christ's  ideal, 
by  judging  from  the  state  a  man  is  in,  or  from  those  acts 
which  he  is  committing. 

A  Christian's  turning  away  from  the  worldly  life  will 
always  be  one  and  the  same ;  it  cannot  change,  and  so 
the  acts  of  a  Christian  will  always  incline  toward  getting 
away  from  evil  vanity,  from  luxury,  from  the  cruelty  of 
a  worldly  life,  and  in  coming  to  the  lowest  state,  which 
is  most  despised  in  a  worldly  sense. 

But  the  state  in  which  a  Christian  will  find  himself 
will  depend  on  the  conditions  in  which  he  was  overtaken 
by  the  recognition  of  the  truth  and  on  the  degree  of  his 
sensitiveness  to  the  sufferings  of  others. 

His  acts  may  take  him  to  the  gallows,  to  the  prison, 
to  a  night-lodging  house,  —  but  they  may  take  liim  also 
into  a  palace  and  to  a  ball. 

What  is  important  is  not  the  state  a  man  is  in,  but  the 
acts  which  have  brought  him  to  this  state ;  and  God  alone 
can  be  the  judge  of  these  acts. 

You  will  say,  "  Therefore  a  man,  in  professing  the 
Christian  teaching,  may,  under  the  pretext  of  not  wishing 
to  offend  his  near  friends,  continue  to  live  a  sinful  life, 
justifying  himself  by  his  professed  love  of  God  and  of  his 
neighbours." 

"  Yes,  he  may." 

He  may  as  much  as  a  man,  who  has  prepared  for  him- 


THOUGHTS    AND    APHORISMS  141 

self  a  sinless  state  (or  such  as  seems  to  him  to  be  such), 
the  state  of  the  agriculturist,  may  live  in  it,  only  in 
order  to  boast  of  this  state  before  other  men.  In  either 
case  the  judgment  is  impossible. 

In  either  case  the  peril  is  the  same. 

In  the  tirst  the  peril  consists  in  this,  that,  continuing 
to  live,  for  the  .sake  of  the  love  of  men,  in  the  worldly 
conditions  of  life,  a  man  is  tempted  by  these  worldly  con- 
ditions of  life  and  uses  them,  not  because  he  cannot  help 
using  them,  but  because  of  his  weakness,  —  I  have  fre- 
quently experienced  this  myself. 

For  the  second  the  peril  is  this,  that,  having  at  once 
placed  himself  under  those  conditions  of  life  which  are 
considered  righteous,  a  man  lives  in  these  conditions, 
without  trying  to  walk  on  toward  the  perfection  of  love, 
and  priding  himself  on  his  state,  hates  and  despises  all 
those  who  are  not  in  the  same  state  with  him,  —  I  have 
experienced  this,  too,  only  not  so  often. 

The  path  is  narrow  in  both  cases,  and  only  he  who 
walks  on  it  and  God  know  whether  he  is  on  that  path. 
It  is  impossible  for  one  to  judge  of  another,  both  on 
account  of  the  difference  of  their  positions,  and  still  more 
on  account  of  the  difference  in  the  degree  of  the  spiritual 
sensitiveness. 

One  man,  by  forsaking  his  wife,  or  mother,  or  father, 
by  offending  and  angering  them,  almost  commits  no  bad 
act  by  it,  because  he  does  not  feel  the  pain  he  is  causing ; 
another,  who  has  done  the  same  act,  has  committed  a 
mean  act,  because  he  fully  appreciates  the  pain  which  he 
is  causing. 

We  can  judge  of  the  wealth,  the  beauty,  the  strength 
of  men,  but  of  the  degree  of  their  morality  we  are,  not 
exactly  prohibited,  but  unable  to  judge.  And  this  is  a 
great  good.  If  we  were  able  to  judge,  we  could  not  love 
certain  people,  and  since  we  cannot  judge,  we  have  no 
obstacle  against  loving  all. 


142  THOUGHTS    AND    APHORISMS 

All  we  know  is  what  is  said  in  the  sixth  chapter  of 
Matthew : 

"  The  condition  in  which  people  praise  a  man  is  not 
more  advantageous  for  him  than  that  in  which  they  curse 
him." 

In  the  first  case  under  our  observation  the  desire  for 
human  praise  may  be  mixed  in  with  the  work  of  God ;  in 
the  second,  if  anything  is  done  for  God,  it  is  done  only 
for  Him. 

A  man  is  walking  off  the  road ;  he  walks  across  fields 
and  is  suffering,  and  finally  finds  the  road ;  he  walks  on 
it  himself,  and  shows  it  also  to  other  men.  Is  it  possible 
that  the  men  who  have  been  put  on  the  road,  upon  notic- 
ing that  the  man  who  indicated  the  road  to  them  is  again 
walking  across  fields,  are  able  to  imagine  that  the  man 
who  has  shown  them  the  road  has  had  some  misgivings 
as  to  preferring  the  road  to  trackless  fields  ?  Is  it  possible 
they  themselves  can  have  any  misgivings  as  to  this,  that 
it  is  better  to  walk  along  the  road,  when  they  see  that 
he  who  has  led  them  out  on  the  road  is  not  walking 
on  it? 

Is  it  possible  that  those  who  have  been  brought  out  on 
the  road  will  not  go  ?  And  what  of  it,  if  he  who  brought 
them  out  is  still  walking  across  the  fields  ?  There  must 
be  some  invisible  cause  for  it,  —  a  ravine  or  a  brook. 

8 

Last  night  the  plashing  of  the  water  in  the  basin  awoke 
me.  I  called  my  wife,  thinking  that  she  was  washing 
herself.  She  was  asleep :  it  was  a  mouse  that  had  fallen 
into  the  basin  and  was  struggling  to  get  out. 

We  have  had  conflicts  before  on  account  of  mice,  and 
these  conflicts  have  caused  me  to  reflect.  It  would  happen 
that  a  mouse  would  get  into  a  mouse-trap,  which  some- 
body else  had  set. 


THOUOnTS    AND    APHORISMS  143 

■  I  take  it,  to  carry  it  out,  and  to  let  the  mouse  out  in 
the  yard. 

My  wife  says,  "  You  had  better  not  touch  it :  I  will 
take  it  out  myself  and  will  have  it  killed." 

I  leave  it  to  her,  knowing  that  the  mouse  will  be 
kiUed. 

But  to-day,  as  I  was  lying  and  wanting  to  go  to  sleep, 
I  heard  this  tiny  creature  struggle  as  it  was  drowning, 
and  I  understood  that  it  was  not  right,  and  that  I  had 
done  wrong,  when  1  had  permitted  the  mice  to  be  killed, 
when  I  had  had  the  chance  to  save  them.  I  saw  that  I 
did  not  do  it  in  order  not  to  violate  love,  but  in  order 
to  avoid  a  small  unpleasantness. 

This  is  bad  in  our  situation :  we  permit  not  mice,  but 
men  to  perish,  doing  other  people  a  pleasure,  only  to 
avoid  a  small  unpleasantness. 

It  is  this  that  we  should  remember  and  not  forget  for 
a  minute. 


The  rule,  "  Always  tell  the  truth,"  cannot  be  put  on  a 
par  with  the  other  commandments  of  Christ. 

This  rule,  as  a  rule,  stands  very  much  lower  and,  as 
a  rule,  cannot  even  be  expressed.  But  as  an  absolute 
condition  of  serving  God  it  is  no  longer  a  rule,  but  tlie 
very  essence  of  the  teaching,  and  stands  even  higher  than 
the  five  commandments.  "  I  am  the  life,  the  way;  and 
the  truth." 

And  so  a  Christian  cannot  depart  from  the  truth.  The 
truth  is  the  conditio  sine  qua  nan  of  his  life.  And  so, 
when  we  speak  of  truthfulness,  as  of  a  practical  rule, 
there  results  a  misunderstanding  from  it. 

It  is  the  same  as  though  we  should  say,  "  You  must 
always  breathe."  The  moment  this  is  said,  instead  of  the 
confirmation  that  you  cannot  live  without  breathing,  there 


144  THOUGHTS    AND    APHORISMS 

may  at  once  arise  the  questions,  "but  how  when  I  am 
choking  or  when  I  am  listening  intently,  —  must  I  breathe 
then,  or  not  ?  " 

Truth,  truthfulness,  is  the  teaching  itself,  and  so,  he 
who  lives  by  the  teaching  will  strive  toward  the  truth 
and  will  be  afraid  of  every  departure  from  it.  But  this 
rule  cannot  compel  him  to  be  truthful. 

10 

Diseases  and  sins,  —  these  are  the  same  as  motion  and 
heat :  one  passes  into  the  other. 

Diseases  are  for  the  most  part  consequences  of  sin,  and 
to  free  ourselves  from  them,  we  must  free  ourselves  from 
sin,  —  error.  Living  in  error,  we  must  know  that  we  live 
in  disease,  which,  if  it  has  not  yet  appeared,  will  inevi- 
tably make  its  appearance. 

What  is  also  important  is  this,  that  every  man,  in  sub- 
jecting himself  to  diseases,  bears  the  responsibility  for  the 
errors  of  others,  —  for  his  ancestors  and  his  contempora- 
ries ;  and  that  everybody  who  hves  in  error  introduces 
disease  and  suffering  among  others,  —  his  contemporaries 
and  his  descendants.  But  every  one  who  lives  without 
disease  is  under  obligation  for  it  to  others,  and  every  one, 
in  freeing  himself  from  error,  cures  not  himself  alone  (one 
cannot  cure  oneself  alone)  but  also  his  descendants  and 
contemporaries. 

11 

I  wish  to  say  something  about  the  meaning  of  science, 
which  destroys  superstition,  false  concepts,  —  namely, 
about  the  meaning  of  this  activity  of  science. 

Science  destroys  false  concepts, —  that  is  true,  but  it 
is  not  possible  on  its  path  to  get  along  vtdthout  false  con- 
cepts, without  superstition.  There  will  be  no  vault  of 
heaven,  there  will  be  no  devil,  there  will  be  no  personal 


THOUGHTS    AND    APHORISMS  145 

God ;  but,  instead,  there  will  be  the  imponderable,  but 
elastic  ether ;  there  will  be  the  forces  of  spiritism  aud 
many  things  more. 

A  man  who  recognizes  the  heavens  to  be  a  firm  vault, 
who  recognizes  the  devil  and  the  miracles  of  the  saints, 
aud  a  man  who  recognizes  the  atoms  and  spiritism,  in  no 
way  differ  in  their  receptiveness,  in  their  adaptability  for 
the  recognition  of  truth  and  for  a  moral  activity.  They 
differ,  so  to  speak,  according  to  their  mental  age.  One  is 
a  grown  man ;  the  other  is  a  child  or  youth.  But  as  a 
youth  may  be  beautiful,  so  also  may  a  man ;  and  it  is 
as  incorrect  to  assert  that  young  people  are  better  than 
the  old  as  to  assert  that  science  (a  greater  degree  of 
knowledge)  makes  men  better,  as  also  that  it  contributes 
to  their  deterioration.  Science  (a  greater  degree  of  knowl- 
edge) is  inevitable,  like  age.  It  cannot  be  defended,  nor 
attacked.  No  matter  what  you  may  do,  it  will  come,  like 
age. 

There  exists  in  man  the  ability  of  an  inner  effort  toward 
the  good,  toward  truth,  which  the  believer  calls  grace. 
There  exists  the  possibility  of  this  effort,  and  this  effort 
may  be  directed  towanl  goodness  and  truth,  but  it  cannot 
be  directed  toward  science. 

The  scientific  acquisitions  take  place,  like  everything 
else,  including  the  striving  after  truth  and  goodness, 
ac(3()rding  to  the  laws  of  necessity.  Aud  the  great  mis- 
take of  the  direction  of  this  small  circle  of  men,  called 
the  intellectuals,  is  this,  that,  busying  themselves  with 
science,  they  imagine  that  they  are  doing  exactly  what  is 
demanded  of  a  man  who  is  able  at  will  to  make  efforts  for 
the  attainment  of  goodness  and  truth. 

The  occupations  with  the  sciences  are  special  occupa- 
tions, which  lill  a  man's  leisure  and  which  serve  for  the 
advantage  of  other  men,  —  just  such  occupations  as  the 
making  of  tarts,  or  of  lamps,  or  of  anything  you  please. 
But  our  unfortunate  youth  ascribes  to  these  occupations 


146  THOUGHTS    AND    APHORISMS 

the  meaning  of  a  moral  activity.  This  is  where  the 
trouble  is. 

The  occupations  themselves  do  not  lighten  the  moral 
activity  one  hair's  breadth.  Amidst  peasants  who  are 
sectarians  there  are  many  sensitive  moral  personalities, 
and  their  ignorance  of  science  does  not  hurt  them.  And 
there  are  among  the  masses  many  personalities  who  are 
not  sensitive,  who  are  coarse,  —  and  they  will  not  go  be- 
yond Iberian  relics,  and  so  forth. 

The  same  is  true  of  the  intellectual  classes :  some  are 
not  kept  by  the  highest  knowledge  from  seeing  wherein 
Hes  man's  true  activity,  while  others  (no  matter  how  you 
may  expand  for  them  the  sphere  of  knowledge)  will  stick 
fast  in  atoms  and  forces,  as  in  the  Iberian  image  and  in 
the  relics,  and  they  think  that  in  them  is  everything,  and 
that  there  is  nothing  else  to  do  but  to  know  how  to  place 
a  taper  before  the  Virgin  of  the  Iberian  chapel  and  how 
to  study  matter. 

But  if  the  question  is  put  like  this,  "  Need  men  know 
what  they  know  now  ? "  the  answer  will  be,  "  Of  course, 
they  need  to  know  it,  just  as  one  has  to  be  grown  and 
cannot  remain  a  child." 

But  it  is  impossible  to  preach  science,  which  is  precisely 
what  is  attempted  among  us,  just  as  it  is  impossible  to 
preach  that  a  man  should  have  a  beard  growing  before  the 
time  for  it  has  come. 


VI. 

LIFE    AND    METAPHYSICS 


In  proportion  as  we  begin  to  understand  the  vital,  that 
is  the  true,  teaching  of  Christ,  the  metaphysical  questions 
recede  farther  and  farther  from  us,  and  when  the  vital 
significance  becomes  absolutely  clear,  the  possibility  of 
any  interest  in  them  is  completely  removed,  and  so  also 
the  possibility  of  any  disagreement  in  metaphysical 
questions. 

There  are  so  many  direct,  imperative,  ever-present,  and 
vastly  important  affairs  for  a  disciple  of  Christ,  that  he  has 
no  time  to  busy  himself  with  metaphysics. 

As  a  good  workman  certainly  does  not  know  all  the 
details  of  his  master's  life,  while  the  lazy  workman  dilly- 
dallies in  the  kitchen  and  finds  out  all  about  it,  —  how 
many  children  the  master  has,  and  what  he  eats,  and  how 
he  dresses,  —  and  in  the  end  none  the  less  gets  all  mixed 
up  and  finds  out  nothing  of  importance,  but  only  misses 
his  work,  —  even  such  is  the  difference  between  meta- 
physicians and  Christ's  true  disciples. 

What  is  important  is  to  recognize  God  as  a  master  and 
to  know  what  He  demands  of  me,  but  what  He  Himself  is 
and  how  He  lives,  I  shall  never  find  out,  because  I  am 
not  a  match  for  Him. 

I  am  a  labourer,  and  He  is  the  master, 

147 


148  THOUGHTS    AND    APHOEISMS 


Who  will  deny  that  it  is  God  who  is  doing  everything 
good  in  me  ? 

But  the  question  whether  He  is  external  is  dangerous. 

I  cannot  say  anything  about  it. 

He  is  everything ;  I  am  not  everything,  hence  He  is 
in  me.  But  I  know  Him  only  because  there  is  in  me 
something  divine. 

But  this  is  a  dangerous  and,  I  am  afraid,  blasphemous 
metaphysics. 

3 

Lately  a  thought  which  braces  me  up  has  become  clear 
to  me. 

The  moral  law,  Christ's  law,  his  five  commandments, 
—  this  is  the  eternal  law  which  will  not  pass,  because  it 
will  be  fulfilled. 

It  is  as  indispensable,  inevitable  a  law  as  the  law  of 
gravity,  the  laws  of  chemical  combinations,  and  other 
physical  laws. 

It  must  be  assumed  that  those  physical  laws  have 
wavered  just  as  much,  have  not  been  common  to  all  the 
phenomena,  have  been  worked  out ;  but  all  these  laws 
have  not  changed  so  long  as  everything  has  not  changed, 
and  finally  they  became  a  necessity. 

The  same  is  true  of  the  moral  law  :  it  is  worked  out  by  us. 

We  toss  hither  and  thither,  and  after  billions  of  false 
paths  find  the  one  true  path,  and  this  path  is  established. 

And  so  we  know  through  reason  that  this  must  be  so, 
and  we  feel  this  with  our  whole  being. 

The  time  will  come  that  this  will  be  so,  and  this  will 
be  just  as  firm  as  all  the  other  laws  of  Nature.  Then 
there  will  be  worked  out  new  laws. 

I  am  very  much  pleased  with  this  thought,  —  it  gives 
me  great  force  and  firmness. 


THOUGHTS    AND    APHORISMS  149 


There  is  one  means  for  doing  something,  and  that  is,  to 
prepare  the  tools  of  work,  to  introduce  order  into  it: 
feed  the  horse,  harness  it  nicely,  don't  jerk  it,  but  drive 
smoothly,  and  then  it  will  take  you  a  long  distance. 

The  same  is  true  of  one's  work : 

(1)  To  feed,  that  is,  to  feed  on  faith,  —  religion,  the 
thought  of  the  common  life  and  personal  death. 

(2)  To  find  an  apphcation  for  one's  activity. 

(3)  Not  to  be  restive,  not  to  be  in  haste,  and  not  to 
stop. 

This  much  in  regard  to  the  question  of  activity. 

And  not  to  do  a  thing  there  is  one  means,  —  elsewhere 
to  let  out  the  water  which  tears  down  the  dam. 

In  life  this  water  is  strong  desire,  —  and  then  work  at 
the  agreeable,  incessant  work. 


If  an  ear  skips  the  machine,  it  is  an  ear. 

When  it  gets  into  the  machine,  it  is  a  grain,  then  flour, 
then  bread,  then  blood,  then  nerves,  then  thought,  and 
as  soon  as  it  is  thought,  it  is  all,  that  is,  no  longer  an  ear, 
but  that  from  which  is  rye,  and  bread,  and  the  swine,  and 
the  tree,  and  everything,  that  is,  God. 

It  gets  into  the  brain,  and  from  there  it  may  find  its 
way  into  God,  into  the  source  of  everything. 

In  man,  in  his  life,  in  the  brain,  in  reason,  is  the 
source  of  everytliing.  Not  the  source,  but  the  part  which 
unites,  which  blends  with  the  beginning  of  all. 

Every  vital  phenomenon,  every  impression,  which  a 
man  receives  may  pass  through  man  as  through  a  con- 
ductor, and  may  reach  liis  pith  and  there  unite  with  its 
beginning. 

Man's  problem  and  fortune  is  to  form  of  himself  an 


150  THOUGHTS    AND    APHORISMS 

endless,  free,  primary  centre,  and  not  a  secondary,  organic 
enslaved  conductor. 

This  is  not  clear  for  other-s,  but  it  is  for  me. 


It  is  possible  correctly  to  solve  an  equation  with  one 
unknown,  only  when  by  x  we  actually  mean  one  abso- 
lutely unknown  quantity,  which  is  to  be  determined  in 
the  solution  of  the  equation. 

If  a  man,  in  solving  this  equation,  should  arbitrarily 
determine  the  quantity  of  the  real  number,  he  naturally 
would  not  be  able  after  that  freely  and  correctly  to  solve 
the  equation,  but  would  bend  all  his  operations  on  the 
figures  and  all  his  considerations  to  one  end,  —  to  prove 
that  X  precisely  equals  the  quantity  which  he  has  deter- 
mined in  advance. 

The  same  is  true  with  the  questions  of  life.  It  is  pos- 
sible correctly  to  solve  every  vital  question  that  arises, 
only  in  case  a  man  really  is  conscientious  in  recognizing 
this  question  as  open  to  him,  and  is  sincerely  prepared  to 
receive  any  solution  to  which  he  may  he  brought  by  the 
free,  unbiassed  indications  of  his  conscience  and  reason. 

And  yet,  as  frequently  in  such  cases,  a  man,  sometimes 
even  without  noticing  it  himself,  has  in  advance  deter- 
mined in  what  sense  the  question  has  to  be  solved,  and 
then  only  picks  out  in  himself  such  motives  and  consider- 
ations as  would  exactly  bring  him  to  the  predetermined 
solution  of  the  question. 

Such  solutions  of  the  equations  with  predetermined  ic's 
are  met  with  at  every  step. 


VIL 

DOUBT 


How  can  one  ask,  "  Can  I  ?  Can  I  serve  men  ?  Can  I 
live  ? " 

This  is  the  one  thing  which  each  of  us  can  do. 

If  love  and  the  desire  to  serve  men  moves  man,  he  can 
do  everything,  —  he  can  give  his  life  for  others,  —  that  is, 
he  can  reach  the  limits  of  infinite  ministration. 

But  the  question  as  to  whether  I  can  give  this  or  that 
signifies  only,  "  In  so  far  as  I  err,  doing  this  or  that." 

Now  the  error  is  due  to  this,  that  in  place  of  the  legit- 
imate mover  of  life  there  has  come  to  stand  some  kind  of 
an  abomination ;  that  here  and  there  the  lie  has  roiled 
my  love. 

Who  can,  outside  of  myself,  find  out  how  much  dirt, 
lie,  and  real  force  there  is  in  my  moving  force  ? 

I  alone  know  this  of  myself,  and  everybody  knows  this 
only  of  himself. 

If  there  is  any  doubt,  there  is  dirt. 

And  if  there  is  dirt,  it  has  to  be  thrown  out.  And  to 
the  extent  to  which  the  dirt  has  been  thrown  out,  every 
one  of  us  is  powerful  to  do  everything  in  the  service  of 
men. 

June,  1887. 


"We  all  know  what  we  need,  and  we  know  where  to  look 
for  explanations,  if  there  is  something  we  do  not  know. 

151 


152  THOUGHTS    AND    APHOPJSMS 

In  your  questions  the  answers  are  included.  "  You  will 
learn  from  me,  because  I  am  meek  and  humble,  everything 
is  good  and  easy  for  me." 

We  believe  that  for  an  humble  and  meek  man  every- 
thing is  easy  and  good. 

We  believe  it,  but  we  begin  to  live,  and  we  feel  that 
our  yoke  is  not  good  or  our  burden  light. 

What  does  this  mean  ? 

One  or  the  other:  either  it  is  not  true  that  for  the 
humble  and  meek  man  everything  is  good  and  everything 
light,  or  else  we  are  not  sufficiently  meek  and  humble. 
Not  that  we  do  not  wish  to  be  such,  but  because  behind 
us  hangs  the  ballast  of  past  years  and  the  habit  of  error. 

It  is  this  that  I  answer  in  reply  to  the  question : 
"  Should  we  suffer  and  keep  quiet,  or  suffer  and  seek  a 
remedy  ? " 

Suffer,  if  you  have  not  learned  to  rejoice,  and  learn  to 
rejoice. 

This,  in  my  opinion,  answers  all  three  questions. 

November,  1887. 


There  cannot  help  but  be  an  agreement  with  truth  and 
its  recognition,  —  it  is  in  all  men,  even  in  those  who  call 
it  names  and  go  counter  to  it. 

That  we  have  all  been  and  shall  be  in  agreement,  there 
is,  thank  God,  no  longer  a  moment  of  doubt,  —  what  gives 
pleasure  is  when  men  stop  struggling  in  vain  against  truth, 
and  find  happiness  in  it. 

4 

There  are  moments  when  a  man  stops  believing  in  the 
life  of  the  spirit. 

This  is  not  unbelief,  but  periods  of  belief  in  the  life  of 
the  flesh. 

Suddenly  a  man  begins  to  fear  death. 


THOUGHTS    AND   APHORISMS  153 

This  always  happens  when  he  is  distracted  by  some- 
thing, and  he  again  begins  to  believe  in  this,  that  the 
carnal  hfe  is  the  Hfe,  just  as  in  the  theatre  one  can  forget 
oneself  and  come  to  believe  that  what  one  sees  on  the 
stage  is  taking  place  in  reality,  and  become  frightened  at 
what  one  sees  on  the  stage. 

The  same  happens  in  Hfe. 

Only  after  a  man  has  come  to  understand  that  his  hfe 
is  not  on  the  stage,  but  in  the  pit,  that  is,  not  in  the 
personality,  but  outside  it,  it  sometimes  happens  that, 
from  old  habit,  he  again  falls  into  the  temptation  of  the 
illusion,  and  he  feels  ill  at  ease. 

But  these  minutes  of  the  illusion  cannot,  however, 
convince  me  that  what  is  taking  place  in  front  of  me 
(with  my  carnal  hfe)  is  taking  place  in  reality. 

During  such  periods  of  dejection  of  spirit  one  must 
treat  oneself  as  a  sick  man,  —  one  must  not  stir. 


The  seed  recognizes  its  integument  as  its  real  ego,  and  is 
worried  and  weeps,  because  it  will  perish. 

But  it  grew  out  of  a  seed,  fell  out  of  an  ear,  and  again, 
perishing  and  throwing  up  its  integument,  produces  an  ear, 
which  is  full  of  seeds. 

"  The  seed  shall  not  come  to  life  unless  it  perish." 


VIII. 

DISSATISFACTION 


Dissatisfaction  is  a  sign  of  people  who  are  walking  on 
the  road  and  not  standing  still,  as  we  should  Hke  to. 

A  joyous  sensation  !  | 

September,  1886.  I 

A  bad  ploughman  (who  is  unreliable  for  the  kingdom 
of  God)  is  he  who  looks  back,  and,  we  may  add,  he  who 
looks  forward,  and  not  at  his  furrow. 

To  think  what  I  could  do,  if  it  were  so  and  so,  and 
I  were  there  or  there,  or  how  much  I  have  done,  weakens 
me  for  life  as  much  as  to  think  in  advance  of  what  I  can 
do,  and  of  how  important  will  be  what  I  shall  do. 

It  is  necessary  to  throw  out  of  our  heads  the  comparison 
of  our  present  life  with  any  preceding,  or  with  the  subse- 
quent hfe,  for  the  simple  reason  that  there  is  no  subsequent 
and  no  preceding  life,  but  only  a  concept  of  it ;  there  is 
only  the  present  life,  and  it  alone  is  important  and  sacred. 

To  ask  for  a  higher  essence  with  fancies,  and  to  subject 
this  essence  to  fancies  is  a  great  mistake  (sin). 

Octoler,  1886. 


Dissatisfaction  with  oneself,  the  consciousness  of  the 
incompatibility  of  life  with  the  demands  of  the  heart,  I 

154 


THOUGHTS    AND    APHORISMS  155 

know  in  my  own  case,  and  I  ask  you  for  this  one  thing, 
do  not  speak  of  it,  do  not  think  of  it,  do  not  mention  it 
even  to  yourself. 

It  is  the  same  as  though  a  pilgrim  who  is  going  to 
Jerusalem  should  be  constantly  thinking  of  how  much  he 
has  marched  already,  and  of  how  much  walking  there  is 
ahead  of  him. 

These  thoughts  can  only  weaken  his  energy. 

We  must  think  of  the  nearest  stop,  if  we  must  think  of 
the  future  at  all. 

Of  course,  this  has  reference  only  to  those  who  go  the 
right  way. 

Even  if  it  should  happen  that  one  of  them  should  lose 
his  way  and  find  himself  again  in  the  old  place,  from 
which  he  had  started,  this  ought  by  no  means  to  dis- 
courage him.  He  will  know  the  road  better,  and  wiU 
still  continue  to  walk. 

The  Chinese  wisdom  says,  "  Renovate  thyself  every  day 
from  the  beginning,  and  again  from  the  beginning." 

I  like  this  very  much,  and  I  try  to  do  so,  and  for  me  it 
is  sufficient  to  know  that,  by  looking  back,  I  see  that  I 
am  advancing,  and  not  retreating.  This  knowledge  is 
sufficient  for  me,  to  make  me  live  cheerfully,  with  the 
assurance  that  I  am  on  the  right  road. 

How  much  do  I  walk  in  a  day  ?  This  is  another  ques- 
tion. I  try  to  walk  as  much  as  possible,  but  it  frequently 
happens  that  I  walk  less  and  lose  time,  rest,  —  1  rest 
often,  —  and  stand,  when  I  might  walk. 

Don't  feel  bad  about  the  letliargy,  —  it  has  to  be,  like 
sleep. 

There  must  be,  it  seems  to  me,  dissatisfaction  with 
oneself,  and  not  with  others,  and  I  frequently  console 
myself  with  the  thought  that  I  am  not  yet  entirely  lost, 
because  I  am  constantly  dissatisfied  with  myself.  But  I 
know  what  I  am  dissatisfied  with, —  with  my  definite 
abomiuations,  in  the  liberation  from   which  nobodv  can 


156  THOUGHTS    AND    APHORISMS 

help  me,  and  the  work  over  which  forms  my  whole  life. 
But  I  do  not  worry  about  the  circle  in  which  I  live,  about 
the  external  conditions  of  my  life,  because  I  know  through 
experience  that  this  or  that  circle,  these  or  those  condi- 
tions of  life  result  from  my  greater  or  lesser  nearness 
to  Christ  and  truth. 

I  live  as  I  live,  not  because  the  enlightenment  found 
me  in  grievous,  oppressive  conditions  (as  I  used  to  think), 
but  because  I  am  bad.  In  proportion  as  I  am  and  shall 
be  better,  the  circle  and  the  external  conditions  will  be 
better.  If  I  were  a  saint,  the  circle  and  the  external 
conditions  would  be  ideal,  I  should  be  living  as  I  present 
to  myself  tlie  lives  of  Christ's  disciples,  that  is,  as  a  mendi- 
cant, a  vagrant,  a  servant  of  all  men,  and  I  do  not  de- 
spair even  now,  because  this  is  none  the  less  in  my  power. 

It  is  just  as  impossible  to  stand  better,  nearer  to  the 
truth  in  consequence  of  external  conditions,  as  it  is  to  sit 
astride  a  stick,  take  hold  of  it  with  both  hands,  and  raise 
oneself. 

The  external  conditions  of  life,  the  forms  of  life,  union, 
all  these  are  consequences  of  the  internal  perfection, 
approach  to  Christ. 

Seek  the  kingdom  of  God,  wliich  is  within  you,  and  His 
righteousness,  and  all  these  things  shall  be  added  unto 
you. 


Most  stupid  dejection !  I  feel  bad  because  the  seeds 
sown,  not  mine,  but  God's,  are  hidden  in  the  ground  and 
grow  up  in  it,  and  do  not  come  to  the  surface,  as  I,  in  my 
stupidity,  wish  that  it  should  be,  so  that  I  may  see  that 
the  seeds  are  intact. 

5 

It  seems  to  me  that  a  man  must  make  it  his  first  rule 
to  be  happy  and  satisfied ;  he  must  be  ashamed,  as  of  a 


THOUGHTS    AND    APHORISMS  157 

bad  act,  of  his  dissatisfaction,  and  should  know  that  if 
anything  is  not  going  right  with  a  person,  he  has  no  time 
to  talk  about  it,  but  must  at  once  mend  what  presses 
or  is  not  going  right. 

How  are  that  form  and  those  conditions  to  be  found 
which  are  best  ? 

If  all  the  greatest  sages  of  the  world  were  called 
together,  they,  too,  would  be  unable  to  find  those  forms 
even  for  one  best  known  man. 

There  is  one  thing  which  I  have  noticed,  namely  this, 
that  the  longer  a  man  lives,  the  more  he  comphes  with 
the  demands  made  on  him,  the  less  he  is  interested  in  the 
arrangement  of  life,  and  the  more  disgusting  is  the  ar- 
rangement itself. 

6 

All  people  are  assailed  by  bad  minutes,  which  for  the 
most  part  have  a  physical  cause. 

Above  all,  it  is  necessary  to  avoid  for  the  condition  of 
general  sadness  and  irritation  substituting  causes  for  this 
sadness  and  this  irritation. 

"  I  feel  sad,  I  am  irritated  " 

"  Why  ?     At  what  ? " 

When  a  man  has  reached  the  point  when  he  sincerely 
answers  himself,  "  At  nothing,  for  no  reason,  I  simply 
feel  sad  and  irritated,"  the  sadness  and  irritation  will  pass 
at  once. 

August,  1886. 


IX. 

DISAGREEMENTS 


Do  you  know  how  picture-blocks  are  put  together  ? 

One  will  make  out  the  picture  from  one  pair  of  blocks, 
another  from  another  pair.  Let  him  just  put  up  the  first 
pair,  and  he  will  put  together  the  rest. 

I  know  from  experience  and  am  able  now  to  distinguish 
people  who  put  the  blocks  together  at  haphazard  from 
those  who  have  sensibly  put  together  two,  and  so  will 
certainly  find  out  the  picture,  —  they  will  find  it  out, 
if  not  to-day,  certainly  to-morrow,  and  it  will  be  all  the 
time  the  same  one  and  eternal  picture. 

And  so  I,  reading  your  disagreements  with  me,  am  not 
G\^en  agitated,  for  I  know  in  advance  that  we  have  one, 
inevitable,  and  eternal  picture. 

And  so  I  agree  with  you  in  everything,  not  because  I 
purposely  want  to  agree,  but  because  our  disagreement  is 
only  due  to  this,  that  you  bring  together  the  blocks  from 
one  side,  and  I  from  another.  But  the  blocks  are  the 
same. 

But  with  those  who  have  not  yet  begun  to  bring  the 
blocks  together  and  who  assure  us  that  they  see  this 
or  that,  I  disagree  in  advance.  And  I  feel  pained  in  the 
company  of  those  who  say  in  advance  that  notliing  will 
come  of  it,  or  can  come  of  it ;  I  feel  like  being  angry  with 
them,  and  I  restrain  myself. 

153 


ll 

ll 


THOUGHTS    AND    APHORISMS  159 


The  disagreement  of  people  is  exceedingly  painful,  es- 
pecially so  because  a  man  thinks  of  himself  that  he  has  not 
his  own  opinion,  but  only  holds  to  the  truth ;  and  sud- 
denly it  turns  out  that  the  truth  is  not  only  not  under- 
stood, but  that  it  even  offends  people,  and  drives  them 
away  from  him. 

There  is  something  wrong  here,  1  am  to  blame  for 
something,  I  have  in  some  way  offended  truth. 

This  is  terrible,  and  it  torments  me. 


If  there  is  a  disagreement  in  words,  we  must,  not  add 
words,  but  avoid  them,  that  is,  avoid  that  from  which  the 
disagreement  originates,  and  help  one  another  as  best  we 
can. 

We  are  all  not  only  not  pure  Christians,  but  full  of 
sin,  and  so  we  frequently  do  and  say  what  we  ought  not. 
But  at  the  same  time  we  all  wish,  and  cannot  help  wish- 
ing, and  speak,  and  do  what  is  necessary,  because  in  this 
alone  does  our  life  consist. 

If  we  fail,  it  is  from  weakness  and  former  errors,  and 
so  we  have  nothing  to  prove  to  one  another,  but  must  only 
help  one  another. 

This  I  ask  of  others,  and  this  I  wish  others. 

May,  1888. 


He  fmd  they  think  that  it  is  very  wdse  to  say,  "  I  do 
not  know  this,  this  cannot  be  proved,  I  do  not  want 
this." 

It  is  assumed  that  to  say  this  is  a  sign  of  intellect  and 
culture,  whereas  it  is  a  sign  of  ignorance. 

I  do  not  know  any  planets,  nor  axes,  around  which  the 


160  THOUGHTS   AND    APHORISMS 

earth  turns,  nor  any  incomprehensible  ecliptics ;  I  do  not 
want  to  take  all  this  on  trust,  —  I  see  the  sun  is  moving, 
and  the  stars  are  somehow  moving. 

Indeed,  it  is  very  hard  to  prove  the  turning  of  the 
earth,  and  the  path  of  the  celestial  luminaries,  and  the 
equinox,  and  many  things  in  this  sphere  still  remain 
obscure  and,  above  all,  incomprehensible.  The  advantage 
is  this,  that  everything  has  here  been  reduced  to  unity. 

The  same  is  true  in  the  moral  and  spiritual  sphere. 
The  question,  "  What  to  do  ? "  has  to  be  reduced  to 
unity. 

What  shall  we  know  ?     What  hope  for  ? 

All  humanity  struggles  to  reduce  these  questions  to 
unity. 

And  suddenly  it  appears  to  people  that  there  is  some 
merit  in  disuniting  what  has  already  been  reduced  to 
unity,  and  they  pride  themselves  on  this  their  activity. 

They  have  carefully  been  taught  ceremonies  and  relig- 
ion, though  it  was  known  in  advance  that  this  will  not 
lead  to  anything  and  would  not  stand  the  proof  of  their 
mental  maturity.  They  have  been  taught  a  mass  of 
sciences,  which  are  in  no  way  connected,  and  they  all 
remain  without  unity,  with  disunited  sciences,  and  they 
think  that  this  is  an  acquisition. 


Some  are  affected  only  by  complete  sincerity,  and  sin- 
cerity is  attained  only  when  a  man  lays  open  his  soul  and 
is  guided  in  his  display  hy  his  own  motives  only. 


Jesus  said  at  the  end  of  his  sermon  (Matt.  vii.  24-27) : 

"  Therefore  whosoever  heareth  these  sayings  of  mine,  and 

doeth  them,  I  will  liken  him  unto  a  wise  man,  which 


THOUGHTS    AND    APHORISMS  161 

built  his  house  upon  a  rock :  and  the  rain  descended,  and 
the  floods  came,  and  the  winds  blew,  and  beat  upon  that 
house ;  and  it  fell  not :  for  it  was  founded  upon  a  rock. 

"  And  every  one  that  heareth  these  sayings  of  mine,  and 
doeth  them  not,  shall  be  likened  unto  a  fooHsh  man, 
which  built  his  house  upon  the  sand :  and  the  rain 
descended,  and  the  floods  came,  and  the  winds  blew,  and 
beat  upon  that  house ;  and  it  fell :  and  great  was  the  fall 
of  it." 

What  were  the  words  which  he  said,  that  if  a  man 
shall  hear  and  do  according  to  his  words,  he  will  thus 
build  a  house  on  the  rock ;  and  a  man  who  hears  and  does 
not  do  so,  will  build  a  house  on  the  sand,  and  the  house 
will  perish  ? 

What  are  the  words,  of  which  he  said,  as  he  began  to 
say  them  (Matt.  v.  19), "  Whosoever  shall  break  one  of  these 
least  comuiaudments,  and  shall  teach  men  so,  he  shall  be 
called  the  least  in  the  kingdom  of  heaven :  but  whosoever 
shall  do  and  teach  them,  the  same  shall  be  called  great  in 
the  kingdom  of  heaven." 

What  are  these  words,  and  what  are  these  command- 
ments ? 

Everything  a  man  needs  to  know  and  everything  he 
needs  to  do  is  said  in  these  words.  And  we,  the  Chris- 
tians, say  that  we  believe  in  him  who  has  said  these 
words,  and  that  we  believe  in  his  words. 

But  why  do  we  not  hear  his  words  and  do  according  to 
his  words  ? 

In  these  words  it  says,  "  Every  man  who  is  angry  with 
another  man  is  guilty,  and  if  he  calls  another  man  names, 
he  is  still  more  guilty." 

Thus  it  says  in  Jesus'  sermon,  but  let  us  look  around 
at  Christian  people,  and  on  all  sides,  in  the  city,  in  the 
country,  we  shall  see  tliat  people  do  not  stop  being  angry 
with  one  another ;  on  all  sides  do  we  hear  scolding  and 
cursing.     Not  only   strangers,   but   even  relatives,  scold 


162  THOUGHTS    AND    APHORISMS 

and  curse  one  another.  Brother  quarrels  with  brother, 
father  with  son,  husband  with  wife.  They  scold  and  curse 
one  another  and  invent  the  most  stinging  epithets,  and 
boast  of  their  scolding,  as  though  they  did  not  understand, 
or  could  not  do,  what  Jesus  said. 

It  is  impossible  not  to  understand  him.  It  says  simply 
and  clearly,  "  Do  not  call  each  other  names." 

And  there  is  no  cunning  and  no  difficulty  in  what 
Jesus  said. 

If  there  were  anything  cunning,  well,  we  might  find 
some  excuse ;  but  what  can  there  be  easier  than  not  to 
call  names  ? 

We  certainly  do  not  call  the  authorities  any  names. 

Not  a  single  peasant  ever  scolds  the  rural  judge  to  his 
face.     Why  does  he  scold  his  brother,  son,  wife  ? 

Because  he  does  not  dare  to  scold  the  rural  judge, — 
he  is  afraid  of  him. 

How  does  he  dare  to  scold  his  wife,  son,  brother  ?  God 
has  forbidden  this. 

Consequently  he  is  less  afraid  of  God  than  of  the  rural 
judge,  or  he  does  not  believe  in  God. 

It  is  said  that  a  man  cannot  bring  a  gift  before  God  if 
he  is  at  war  with  his  brother.  It  says  that,  before  going 
into  the  temple,  he  must  make  his  peace  with  his 
brother. 

So  it  says,  and  all  the  churches  are  full  of  people,  all 
pray  to  God,  and  is  there  among  them  one  among  a  thou- 
sand who  does  not  have  at  least  ten,  hundreds  of  brothers, 
with  whom  he  has  not  made  his  peace  ? 

They  quarrel,  hate  one  another,  and  make  no  peace,  as 
though  they  did  not  understand  what  is  said. 

But  it  is  impossible  not  to  understand,  —  it  says  so 
plainly  and  so  simply,  "  First  be  reconciled  to  thy  brother, 
and  then  come  and  offer  thy  gift." 

And  about  the  same  thing  it  says  even  more  clearly, 
in  the  same  sermon,  "  But  if  ye  forgive  not  men  their 


THOUGHTS    AND    APHORISMS  163 

trespasses,  neither  will  your  Father  forgive  your  tres- 
passes"  (Matt.  vi.  15). 

It  is  impossible  not  to  understand  this.  If  we  do  not 
forgive  our  brother  his  trespasses,  if  we  are  not  recon- 
ciled with  him,  God  will  not  receive  any  prayer. 

And  what  Jesus  commands  is  not  difficult. 

It  is  not  difficult  for  us  to  go  to  church,  to  dress  our- 
selves up,  place  tapers,  stand  through  divine  service ;  it  is 
not  difficult  every  day  to  tear  oneself  away  from  work 
and  kneel.  Why,  then,  is  it  difficult,  before  doing  so,  to 
go  to  a  brother  and  ask  his  forgiveness,  and  make  peace 
with  him  ? 

Evidently  we  do  not  wish  to  do  what  God  commands 
us  to  do. 


X. 

PKOSELYTISM 


The  conversation  of  others  is  effective  and  complete 
only  when  it  is  the  consequence  (almost  unconsciously) 
of  one's  own  confirmation  and,  therefore,  improvement. 


I  frequently  reproach  myself  (in  bad  moments)  for  not 
having  insisted  on  my  opinion,  but  I  have  never  been  able 
to  insist,  not  only  in  fact,  but  even  in  words. 

The  moment  I  saw  that  my  acts  or  words  caused  suf- 
fering, I  stopped,  or,  if  I  did  not  stop,  I  regretted  them.  I 
could  not  do  otherwise,  because  my  aim,  as  professed  by 
me,  is  the  good  of  others.  If  evil  results,  I  am  naturally 
to  blame,  and  evidently  I  am  doing  something  wrong. 

More  than  that :  I  have  convinced  myself  that  the 
words,  "  No  one  comes  to  me  except  he  whom  the  Father 
draws,"  are  the  most  exact  definition  of  reality. 

How  this  regeneration,  this  resurrection  to  the  true  life, 
is  accomplished  is  a  mystery,  which  is  taking  place  under 
our  eyes,  and  it  is  impossible  to  comprehend  its  process. 

It  is  God's  mystery,  —  His  relation  with  every  man. 

It  is  not  right  —  it  is  a  sin  —  to  mix  up  in  this 
affair. 

No  one  is  ever  able  to  attract,  to  convert,  another,  and 

the  desire  to  attract,  to  convert,  another  man,  namely,  a 

certain  man  or  men,  is  the  cause  of  terrible  evils. 

164 


THOUGHTS    AND    APHOKISMS  165 

It  is  the  sacred  business  of  our  life  to  shine  with  the 
light  which  is  in  us,  before  people,  before  all  people. 

This  is  very  difficult  at  first,  but  later  gives  greater 
power  and  rest. 

Not  my  will  shall  be  done,  but  His ! 

I  feel  like  serving  these  men,  and  He  wants  His  own, 
and  I  cannot  interfere  with  His  arrangement. 

It  is  my  business  to  seek  His  will  and  to  fulfil  it. 

But  His  will  is  the  love  of  all,  of  all  those  who  are 
nearest  to  me,  submission  to  Him,  and  humility  before 
oneself. 


I  am  very  glad  that  in  the  last  three  years  every  vestige 
of  proselytisni,  which  had  been  very  strong,  has  vanished. 

I  am  so  strongly  convinced  that  tliat  which  for  me  is 
a  truth,  is  a  truth  for  all  men,  that  the  question  as  to 
when  and  as  to  what  people  will  arrive  at  does  not  inter- 
est me. 

Yesterday  I  ground  some  coffee,  and  now  and  then  I 
watched  to  see  when  a  particular  bean  which  I  had 
observed  would  come  between  the  cogs. 

Apparently  this  is  an  idle  and  even  a  dangerous  occu- 
pation, because,  wliile  busying  myself  with  the  coffee- 
bean,  I  stopped  grinding  and  moved  the  bean  nearer  to 
the  mouth. 

All  will  be  ground  up,  if  we  continue  to  grind,  and  we 
cannot  help  grinding,  because  not  we,  but  God  carries  on 
this  grinding  process  through  us  and  through  the  whole 
spiritual  world. 


We  must  do  what  we  can  under  existing  conditions,  — 
but  we  must  tliink  and  express  our  thoughts  independ- 
ently of  existing  conditions. 


166  THOUGHTS    AND   APHORISMS 

This  frequently  cou fuses  me  for  my  own  sake  and  for 
the  sake  of  others. 

How  if  we  do  not  give  the  reins  to  our  thought  and 
expression,  in  view  of  existing  conditions  ? 

This  is,  indeed,  the  most  sinful  suicide ! 

We  must  do  things  independently  of  existing  condi- 
tions. 

There  are  many  such  very  important  thoughts  of  yours, 
and  for  this  reason  we  eighteen  hundred  years  after 
Christ  live  in  such  darkness  that  these  existing  condi- 
tions are  taken  by  men  for  something  which  might  arrest 
thought. 

What  I  have  sowed  will  come  up,  though  not  in  my 
time. 

We  must  sow,  forgetting  about  the  conditions. 

We  must  do  the  internal  and  the  external  work :  com- 
municate our  thoughts  and  express  them. 

The  consciousness  of  the  illegality  of  war  and  violence, 
and  their  incompatibility  with  Christianity,  has  so  ma- 
tured everywhere  that  a  coarse  advocacy  of  barbarism  is 
needed,  in  order  to  support  this  deception. 


I  want  and  I  think,  I  want  and  I  believe,  and  I  will 
work. 

Not  I  shall  see  it,  but  others,  —  but  I  will  do  my  work. 

An  excellent  thought  that  the  moral  law  is  similar  to 
the  philosophical  thought,  —  only  it  is  un  Werden.  It 
is  more  than  im  Werden,  —  it  is  cosnized. 

Soon  it  will  be  wroug  to  put  in  prisons,  men  will  not 
wage  war,  glut  themselves,  take  away  from  the  hungry, 
even  as  now  it  is  not  permitted  to  devour  men  or  trade 
in  them. 

What  happiness  to  be  a  worker  in  the  clearly  defined 
divine  work  ! 


THOUGHTS   AND   APHORISMS  167 


If  you  love  God's  good,  love  it,  that  is,  live  by  it,  you 
also  see  happiness  and  life  in  it.  But  you  also  see  that 
the  body  hampers  the  true  good,  not  your  good,  but  it 
keeps  you  from  seeing  the  good  and  its  fruits. 

Let  us  look  at  the  fruits  of  the  good,  —  and  we  shall 
stop  doing  the  good.  More  than  that :  by  looking,  you 
spoil  the  good,  you  glory,  you  lose  courage. 

Only  then  will  what  you  do  be  a  true  good,  when  you 
shall  not  exist,  to  spoil  it. 

Prepare  more :  sow,  knowing  that  not  you,  the  man, 
will  reap. 

One  sows,  another  reaps.  You,  the  man,  are  the  sower, 
—  you  will  not  reap. 

If  you  shall  not  only  reap,  but  also  weed,  —  you  will 
ruin  the  wheat. 

Sow  and  sow !  And  if  you  sow  what  is  God's,  there 
can  be  no  doubt,  —  it  will  grow  up. 

What  before  appeared  cruel,  namely,  that  I  am  not 
allowed  to  see  the  fruits,  —  it  is  now  clear  to  me,  —  is 
not  only  not  cruel,  but  good  and  scnsille. 

How  could  I  distinguish  the  true  good,  God's  good,  from 
what  is  not  true,  if  I,  the  carnal  man,  could  make  use  of 
its  fruits  ? 

N')W  it  is  clear:  what  you  do,  without  seeing  any  re- 
ward, what  you  do  lovingly,  is  certainly  God's  work. 

Sow  and  sow,  and  God  will  make  it  grow  and  will  reap 
what  is  His,  not  what  you,  the  man,  sow,  but  what 
within  you  sows. 


I  am  sad,  because  my  work  is  not  growing  as  I  wish. 

This  is  the  same  as  being  sad  because  what  has  been 
sowed  does  not  come  up  at  once,  because  the  kernel  can- 
not be  seen. 


168  THOUGHTS    AND    APHORISMS 

It  is  true,  there  is  no  watering. 

If  there  were  watering,  there  would  be  works  that  are 
firm  and  clear,  in  the  name  of  the  teaching. 
They  are  not  so,  because  God  does  not  wish. 

8 

In  the  teaching  of  the  twelve  apostles  it  says,  "  Arraign 
some,  pray  for  others,  and  others  again  love  better  than 
thyself." 

In  this  I  see  something  like  a  guidance. 

At  least  it  so  happens  with  me :  at  first  I  arraign,  that 
is,  express  my  views,  and  so  become  angry ;  then,  in  order 
not  to  continue  the  anger,  I  stop  arraigning,  I  merely  ex- 
press uiy  views  directly,  wishing  (praying)  that  they  may 
understand ;  but  those  who  understand  I  sincerely  love, 
without  any  effort,  more  than  my  own  soul. 

Here,  it  seems  to  me,  is  the  second,  the  most  important,  5 

the  most  difficult  stage,  which  occurs  more  frequently  than 
any  other. 

As  soon  as  the  disagreement,  the  mental  distortion,  is 
cleared  away,  in  consequence  of  which  it  seems  that  reason 
is  not  obligatory  for  your  interlocutor,  —  what  is  to  be 
done  ? 

In  my  opinion,  we  must  pray,  wish  with  all  our  soul, 
but  not  speak,  not  use  that  means  which  has  already 
proved  inefficient. 

We  must  with  all  our  hearts  wish  these  people 
good. 

What  does  this  mean  ? 

It  means,  to  love  them,  love  them  in  deed. 

September,  1887. 


We  can  and  should  know  the  truth  and  on  its  basis 
measure  all  human  affairs.,  if,  as  always  happens,  the  sub- 


THOUGHTS   AND   APHORISMS  169 

ject  of  the  writing  has  reference  to  human  affairs.  In  the 
direct  commuuiou  with  men,  in  judging  small,  private  acts 
which  always  are  the  result  of  more  complex  conditions  of 
life,  wliich  are  connected  with  the  private  life,  it  is  an  en- 
tirely different  matter. 

I  am  something  different  in  those  moments,  the  best 
moments  of  my  life,  when  I,  alone  with  God,  strive  with 
all  the  power  of  my  soul  to  understand  Him,  when  I  have 
rejected  in  so  far  as  I  was  able  everything  personal  and 
live  by  my  divine  part  alone. 

I,  when  I  write,  and  when  I  am  in  communion  with 
men,  submit  to  their  effect  upon  me,  when  in  me  arise  all 
the  mean  qualities  of  my  XJersonality,  when  I  have  no 
time  to  give  an  account  to  myself  of  who  I  am  and  of 
why  I  speak  or  do  what  I  speak  or  do. 

These  are  two  beings  which  do  not  at  all  resemble  each 
other  as  to  their  worth,  —  one  stands  on  the  highest  rung 
of  the  ladder  of  the  perfection  which  is  accessible  to  me, 
tlie  other  —  on  the  lowest. 

I  am  not  the  least  sorry  because  people  are  angry  at 
me  and  scold  me,  for  expressing  the  truth ;  but  in  my 
personal  intercourse  I  feel  that  in  the  majority  of  cases  I 
am  myself  bad,  myself  a  contemptible  vessel,  which  soils 
its  contents. 

When  we  write,  we  try  to  conceal  ourselves,  not  because 
such  a  method  is  accepted,  but  because  we  know  that  what 
is  sacred  and  true  is  not  we,  as  a  personality,  but  what  this 
personality  comprehends. 

When  we  are  read  (if  we  are  able  to  conceal  ourselves), 
it  is  not  we,  but  the  truth,  that  is  loved  or  hated,  and  it  is 
not  our  fault. 

But  in  our  intercourse  the  personality  of  the  interlocutor 
at  once  makes  its  appearance,  and,  no  matter  how  careful 
we  may  be,  he  infects  you  ;  your  personality  comes  to  the 
surface  and  loses  the  possibility  of  correct  judgment,  cor- 
rect valuation,  and  what  generally  happens  is  this,  that  I, 


170  THOUGHTS    AND    APHORISMS 

loving,  want  to  transmit  to  another  what  I  theoretically 
and  practically  know  as  the  truth,  which  gives  the  good ; 
the  truth,  which  is  so  indubitable  that  sages  and  children 
even  cannot  help  but  agree  in  it,  —  and  suddenly  it  turns 
out  that  my  interlocutor  is  angry,  has  not  only  failed  to 
understand  me,  but  during  the  conversation  with  me  has, 
in  my  very  sight,  thought  out  a  still  more  msipid  sophism 
(which  conceals  the  good  from  us)  than  the  one  he  had 
before,  and  goes  away  from  me  with  this  new  in- 
sipidity, and  with  anger,  directed  not  only  against 
me,  but  also  against  the  direction  in  which  I  wished  to 
lead. 

How   can   one   remain   indifferent   to   such    a  strange 

phenomenon  ? 

In  the  Gospel  it  says,  "  Cast  not  a  pearl  —  " 

But  this  is  cruel,  and  how  understand,  and  how  dare 

determine,  who  are  the  swine  ? 
September,  1887. 

10 

When  you  see  that  a  man  whom  you  love  is  sinning, 
you  cannot  help  but  wish  that  he  should  repent ;  but  I 
must  remember  with  this,  that  under  the  best  circum- 
stances, that  iSj  with  the  most  unconditional  sincerity,  he 
can  repent  only  within  the  limits  of  his  conscience,  and 
not  within  the  limits  of  mine. 

The  demands  of  my  conscience  from  me  may  be  much 
higher  than  the  demands  of  his  conscience  from  him,  and 
it  would  be  quite  senseless  on  my  part  mentally  to  foist 
on  him  the  demands  of  my  conscience. 

Besides,  in  these  cases  it  must  not  be  forgotten  that,  no 
matter  how  guilty  a  man  may  be,  no  quarrels  with  him, 
nor  arraignments,  nor  admonitions  are  in  themselves  able 
to  make  him  repent,  because  a  man  can  only  repent  him- 
self, while  another  cannot  repent  him. 


THOUGHTS    AND    APHORISMS  171 


11 

Formerly  I  was  agitated  by  quasi-retorts,  but  now  they 
do  not  agitate  me,  nor  even  interest  me  in  the  least. 

Let  them  prove,  either  on  the  basis  of  Christ's  teaching, 
or  on  the  basis  of  reason,  that  we  must  kill,  sit  in  judg- 
ment, and  punish,  that  we  must  beheve  in  the  church, 
and  so  forth.     How  can  I  dispute  with  them  ? 

Do  you  know  those  mathematical  quibbles,  by  means 
of  which  it  is  proved  that  a  part  is  greater  than  the  whole, 
or  that  two  is  equal  to  three  ?  If  I  am  busy,  I  cannot  in 
the  least  be  interested  in  the  solution  of  such  a  quibble ; 
but  I  can  have  no  doubt  as  to  a  part  being  less  than  the 
whole,  or  two  being  equal  to  two. 

Even  so  it  is  now. 

I  see  that  I  have  disputed,  proved,  unravelled  sophisms, 
only  because  I  myself  was  confused  and  did  not  see  what 
is  obvious. 

Now  the  solution  of  quibbles  does  not  interest  me. 
Besides,  I  see  the  uselessness  of  this  occupation,  since 
there  can  be  an  endless  number  of  such  quibbles. 

One  has  no  time  to  attend  to  them. 


XL 

OWNERSHIP 


Ownership  is  a  fiction,  —  an  imaginary  something, 
which  exists  only  for  those  who  believe  in  Mammon,  and 
so  serve  him. 

The  believer  in  Christ's  teaching  is  freed  from  owner- 
ship, not  by  some  act,  not  by  the  transfer  of  his  property 
at  once  or  by  degrees  into  other  people's  hands  (in  not 
recognizing  the  significance  of  ownership  for  himself,  he 
cannot  recognize  it  in  the  case  of  others),  but  internally, 
through  the  recognition  that  it  does  not  exist,  and  cannot 
exist,  but  mainly,  that  it  is  not  indispensable  for  him  or 
for  others. 

How  will  a  true  Christian  act  ?  He  will  live,  comply- 
ing in  godly  fashion  with  the  demands  of  life,  which  will 
present  themselves  to  him,  being,  naturally,  guided  by  his 
ties  with  the  past,  but  in  no  case  will  he  build  his  activ- 
ity on  the  relations  of  ownership. 

Pupils  want  to  continue  studying  in  an  industrial 
school,  or  a  peasant,  who  has  had  his  hut  burned  down, 
begs  for  money  for  another  hut. 

A  Christian  has  nothing,  and  can  have  nothing,  but 
they  ask  of  him,  because  he  is  a  proprietor. 

What  is  to  be  done  ? 

He  must  fulfil  what  they  ask  of  him,  if  this  is  not 
contrary  to  Christ's  commandments. 

172 


THOUGHTS    AND    APHORISMS  173 

If  he  is  considered  to  be  a  proprietor  and  they  ask  him 
for  something,  he  fulfils  the  prayer. 

Thus  I  think,  and  thus  I  decide  in  my  own  case,  but  I 
do  not  at  all  insist  that  this  is  a  solution  for  all  men. 

Of  course,  it  is  better  to  give  than  to  receive  and  hoard 
(although  even  here  it  is  hardly  better,  if  vanity  is  added), 
but  in  general  there  can  be  nothing  good  in  the  giving  of 
money. 

It  is  something  like  the  game  of  Old  Maids. 


I  am  still  unable  to  explain  to  myself  what  it  is. 

Ownership,  as  it  now  is,  is  an  evil. 

Ownership  in  itself,  as  a  joy  at  what  I  did  and  how 
and  wherewith  I  did  it,  is  a  good. 

And  it  became  clear  to  me. 

There  was  no  spoon,  but  there  was  a  billet  of  wood, 
I  reasoned  it  out,  took  the  trouble,  and  cut  out  a  spoon. 
What  doubt  is  there  that  it  is  mine,  like  the  nest  of  this 
bird,  —  its  nest,  which  it  uses  when  and  how  it  pleases  ? 

But  ownership  which  is  protected  by  violence  (by  a 
policeman  with  a  revolver)  is  an  evil. 

Make  a  spoon  and  eat  with  it,  and  that,  too,  so  long  as 
another  person  does  not  need  it,  —  that  is  clear. 

The  question  is  diliicult,  because  I  have  made  a  crutch 
for  my  lame  fellow,  and  the  drunkard  takes  it  to  break 
the  door  with  it. 

The  drunkard  has  to  be  asked  to  give  up  the  crutch, 
and  it  is  unquestionable  that,  the  more  men  there  are, 
who  will  ask,  the  more  certainly  will  the  crutch  remain 
with  him  who  needs  it. 


We  can  count  as  little  on  any  kind  of  work,  which 
may  support  us  in  a  certain  manner,  as  on  the  right  of 


174  THOUGHTS    AND    APHORISMS 

the  ownership  of  land  or  of  capital,  and  even  less,  because 
he  who  counts  on  the  right  of  ownership  counts  directly 
on  violence  and  does  not  neglect  it,  while  he  who  counts 
on  constant  work  seems  to  deny  violence. 

But  we  are  all  so  spoiled  and  weak  that  for  every  one 
of  us  there  is  a  minimum  of  comfort's  of  life,  below  which 
we  cannot  descend  without  suffering,  and  by  which  our 
abihty  to  be  useful  is  impaired,  and  yet  it  is  impossible 
to  make  work  secure. 

Here  enters  the  tragical  element. 

If  I  have  not  one  hundred  thousand  in  the  bank,  I 
shall  not  be  angry,  but  if  I  have  no  work  which  pro- 
vides me  with  the  minimum,  I  shall  consider  all  guilty. 

A  Christian  cannot  get  away  from  living  for  Christ's 
sake. 

There  is  but  one  legitimate  life,  —  to  receive  alms,  for 
Christ's  sake,  from  him  who  gives,  whoever  it  may  be, 
and  to  give  his  labour  to  anybody,  without  casting  his 
accounts,  but  only  feehng  his  guilt,  constantly  wishing 
to  give  more  than  he  takes,  assuming  life  to  consist  in 
this,  —  this  is  the  only  legitimate  form  of  life. 

A^pril,  1888. 


Ownership  with  the  right  to  defend  it  and  with  the 
duty  of  the  government  to  secure  and  recognize  it,  is  not 
only  not  a  Christian,  but  an  anti-Christian,  invention. 

For  a  Christian  one  thing  is  important,  —  not  to  hve 
in  such  a  way  as  to  be  served,  but  to  serve  others. 

This  rule,  if  it  be  recognized  in  its  simplest  sense,  must 
be  referred  to  the  simplest  and  clearest  and  most  obvious 
things  and  must  be  understood  in  this  sense,  that  not 
others  are  to  serve  me  at  the  table,  but  I  am  to  serve 
others ;  the  horse  is  not  to  be  harnessed  for  me,  but  I  am 
to  harness  it  for  others ;  clothes  and  boots  are  not  to  be 
made  for  me,  nor  soup,  coffee  to  be  prepared  for  me,  wood 


THOUGHTS    AND    APHORISMS  175 

chopped,  stoves  heated  for  me,  but  I  am  to  do  all  this  for 
others. 

From  the  fact  that  a  man  cannot  do  everything  him- 
self and  that  there  is  a  division  of  labour,  it  does  not 
follow  at  all  that  I  must  do  nothing,  except  mental 
labour,  which  is  expressed  in  my  physical  idleness  and 
the  work  with  tongue  and  pen  alone. 

Such  a  division  of  labour,  in  which  some  people  have 
to  do  work  above  their  strength,  all  without  exception, 
old  men  and  childreu,  stupid  and  talented  people,  while 
also  without  exception,  every  one  of  them,  stupid  and 
clever  people,  must  busy  themselves  with  playing  the 
piano,  or  dehveriug  lectures,  or  reading  books,  or  sermons, 
—  such  a  division  of  labour  cannot  be  and  has  never 
been ;  it  is  slavery,  the  oppression  of  one  class  of  people 
by  another,  that  is,  a  most  anti-Christian  business. 

And  so  the  most  spiritual-mental  work  for  a  Christian 
consists  in  not  cooperating  in  this ;  in  depriving  himself 
of  the  possibility  of  exploiting  the  work  of  others,  and  in 
consciously  placing  himself  in  the  position  of  those  who 
serve  others. 

At  one  time  I  wrote  about  Peter  the  First,  and  I  had 
a  good  explanation  of  Peter's  character  and  all  his  rascali- 
ties in  his  having  constantly  been  very  busy,  —  he  built 
boats,  and  turned  wood,  and  travelled,  wrote  decrees,  and 
so  forth. 

Idleness  is  the  mother  of  all  vices,  —  this  is  a  truism, 
but  that  a  feverish,  hurried  activity  is  a  constant  concom- 
itant of  dissatisfaction  with  oneself  and,  above  all,  with 
all  people,  —  this  all  people  do  not  know. 


Every  man  can  sin,  and  everybody  is  sinful,  but  the 
trouble  is,  wiien  a  man  judges,  he  is  pulling  the  wool  over 
his  own  eyes. 


176  THOUGHTS   AND    APHORISMS 

"  If  the  light  which  is  iu  you  be  darkness,  what  is  the 
darkness  ? " 

"  Ye  cannot  serve  God  and  mammon." 

The  question  as  to  the  relations  to  men  has  long  ago 
been  decided,  not  only  in  the  abstract,  but  also  in  the 
practical  sense. 

"  Woe  unto  the  rich.  A  rich  man  cannot  pass  into 
tlie  kingdom  of  God.  Give  to  him  who  asks.  Sell  your 
possessions  and  distribute  them,"  and  so  forth. 

A  Christian  cannot  distribute  any  property,  and  so  he 
must  have  no  surplus,  and  there  is  no  question  as  to  how 
to  divide  the  surplus.  If  there  is  a  surplus,  I  must,  before 
being  able  to  judge  of  the  deserts  of  him  with  whom  I  am 
to  divide,  judge  myself,  and  judge  myself  severely,  for 
having  a  surplus,  and  recognize  that  I  am  sinful  and 
guilty. 

There  can  be  no  question  for  a  Christian  as  to  how  he 
shall  do  good  with  his  surplus,  but  there  is  only  the 
question  as  to  how  to  free  himself  from  that  sin  which  has 
evoked  in  him  the  desire  to  collect  and  preserve  this 
surplus. 


Act  upon  people  v/ith  all  the  powers  given  you  by  God, 
and  of  these  powers  the  chief  is  not  property,  but  that 
degree  of  renunciation  of  the  personal  life  which  you 
have  attained. 

If  you  simply  threw  away  your  property,  without  giving 
anything  to  any  one  (of  course,  without  tempting  people,  in 
order  to  get  rid  of  it  on  purpose),  and  showed  that  you  are 
not  only  just  as  joyous,  quiet,  good,  and  happy,  without 
the  property,  as  with  it,  but  even  more  so,  you  would 
affect  people  much  more  powerfully,  and  would  be  doing 
them  more  good,  than  if  you  enticed  them  by  the  division 
of  your  surplus. 

I  do  not  say  that  we  must  not  act  upon  others,  help 


THOUGHTS    AND    APHORISMS  177 

them ;  on  the  contrary,  I  consider  life  to  be  in  this.  But 
aid  must  be  given  with  pure  means,  and  not  with  impure 
means,  with  property. 

But  to  be  able  to  help,  the  main  thing  is,  while  we  are 
ourselves  not  pure,  —  to  purify  ourselves. 


XTL 

FAMILY   KELATIONS 


There  is  in  all  of  us  a  strange  feature  in  our  relations 
between  parents  and  children,  and  vice  versa. 

There  is  great  love  and  there  is  not  sufficient  attention 
to  their  lives. 

There  is  far  from  being  the  same  serious  comprehension 
of  the  life  of  a  father,  a  daughter,  that  there  is  of  that  of 
a  complete  stranger,  and  I  struggle  for  my  own  sake  with 
this  error,  which  I  meet  everywhere. 


It  is  remarkable  how  exacting  the  men  who  them- 
selves are  opposed  to  Christ's  teaching  are  to  those  who 
wish  to  live  in  conformity  with  this  teaching. 

It  is  enough  only  once  in  the  presence  of  these  people 
to  express  the  idea  that,  strictly  speaking,  it  would  be 
necessary  to  act  so  and  so  in  Christian  fashion,  for  them 
later  to  be  sure  always  to  demand  from  the  followers  of 
the  Christian  teaching  precisely  such  a  behaviour,  and  no 
other.  Without  themselves  sharing  the  Christian  con- 
ception, they,  none  the  less,  make  on  a  Christian  the 
highest  demands  to  which  his  consciousness  is  able  to 
rise. 

In  general,  imperfect  and  feeble  men  demand  of  others 
the  manifestation  of  perfection,  especially  from  those  who 

178 


THOUGHTS    AND    APHORISMS  179 

are  nearest  to  them,  as  though  instinctively  making  de- 
mands on  the  convexity  of  others,  which  precisely  corre- 
spond to  their  own  concavities. 

For  a  man  who  wishes  to  follow  Christ's  teaching,  the 
constant  intercourse  with  such  spiritually  feeble  men  is 
very  useful,  as  a  constant  verification  and  reminder. 

The  demands  which  are  made  on  him  cover  the  whole 
surface  of  his  life  as  though  with  a  layer  of  sulphuric  acid, 
which,  penetrating  into  all  the  minutest  indentations  and 
chinks,  burns  out  of  them  the  last  remainders  of  foreign 
substances. 

One  cannot  imagine  any  better  conditions  for  purifying 
oneself  from  one's  blemishes. 


It  is  evident  that  the  university  courses  and  the  ruling 
science  are  a  holiness  for  the  believers.  Put  your  hand 
on  science,  and  there  will  rise  sentiments  which  resemble 
those  that  would  be  evoked  in  an  Orthodox  at  the  profa- 
nation of  images. 

One  is  permitted  to  put  his  hands  on  ladies  with  locks 
and  on  all  other  kinds  of  ladies,  but  the  class  of  young 
ladies  who  study  is  sacred.  In  offending  this  science, 
which  is  sacred  to  them,  absolutely  everything  is  forgotten. 


XIII. 

VAKIA 


The  answer  to  this  assertion  is  so  simple ; 

"  For  the  common  good,  courts,  etc.,  are  needed." 

"  Very  well." 

I  am  not  called  to  establish  this  common  welfare ;  even 
though  I  may  think  of  the  common  welfare,  I  caunot  think 
of  it  differently  than  Christ  has  taught  me  to  think  of  it, 
that  is,  as  of  a  condition  of  the  kingdom  of  God. 

Since  I  am  not  called  to  establish  this  welfare,  my  only 
duty  in  this  respect  will  be  to  live  in  such  a  way  as  not 
to  impair  the  common  welfare ;  but  I  cannot  live  thus 
otherwise  than  by  never  and  in  no  form  doing  any  harm 
to  others.  But  to  condemn  a  man  to  prison  is  an  evil  for 
that  man  and  for  his  relatives. 

This  is  so  clear  and  so  simple  to  me,  that  I  marvel  how 
people  can  find  an  answer  to  it. 


If  we  all,  agreeing  in  the  fundamental,  the  rational 
things,  should  also  agree  in  the  details,  some  one  of  us 
would  have  no  reason  for  living,  —  he  would  have  to  die : 
we  should  be  repeating  each  other  and  could  not  work 
out  anything  real  for  ourselves  and  for  others. 

Such  an  agreement  would  be  a  lie,  as  would  be  tlie 

180 


THOUGHTS    AND    APHORISMS  181 

agreement  of  all  men  as  to  what  a  horse  represents  to 
him  who  looks  at  it  in  front  or  behind :  one  would  say 
that  it  has  a  long  tail  between  its  legs,  while  another 
would  say  that  it  has  a  short  tail  between  its  eyes.  If 
we  know  what  a  horse  is,  we  shall  not  deny  that  we  see 
the  same  horse,  that  we  see  its  various  sides. 

This  is  like  the  assertion  that  a  melon  which  is  cut 
lengthwise  or  across  is  not  the  same  melon.  If  a  whole 
is  composed  of  all  its  parts,  a  full  melon,  no  matter  how 
it  may  be  cut,  is  one  and  the  same  melon.  All  that  is 
necessary  is  for  it  to  be  full  and  one  whole. 

The  same  thing  may  be  cut  from  different  sides,  with- 
out impairing  its  entirety,  —  and  if  this  is  possible,  it  is 
only  a  cause  for  joy. 

There  are  related  minds  of  one  type  of  character.  And, 
no  matter  how  a  man  may  begin  to  cut  (think),  no  matter 
from  what  side  he  may  begin,  he  will  find  predecessors, 
who  have  done  the  same  and  who  make  his  work  easier. 

October,  1887. 


Before  me  is  a  sensible  being,  loving  by  nature,  which 
can  be  happy  only  in  the  consciousness  of  this  its  loving, 
rational  nature.  I  see  that  this  being  is  unhappy,  and  I 
want  to  help  it. 

A  liorse  lias  become  entangled  in  the  reins,  —  I  want  to 
disentangle  it,  but  the  horse  will  not  let  me. 

Shall  I  pull  at  the  reins,  and  get  it  worse  entangled? 

It  is  evident  that  I  shall  not  do  so. 

A  man  does  not  let  me,  —  he  thinks  that  I  want  to  do 
worse. 

Shall  I  continue  what  he  does  not  want,  not  because  he 
does  not  want  the  good  for  himself,  but  because  he  does 
not  beheve  that  I  want  his  good  ? 

It  is  just  as  witli  the  horse,  when  I  pat  it. 

Reason  is  expressed  in  love.     And  so,  where  reason  is 


182  THOUGHTS    AND    APHORISMS 

dimmed,  it  cannot  be  reestablished  through  itself,  but  only 
through  its  consequence,  love. 

It  is  impossible  to  verify  reason  by  reason,  but  it  is 
possible  to  do  so  by  love,  its  consequence. 

With  dimmed  mind  a  man  does  not  believe  in  mind  ;  as 
he  has  not  the  true  mind,  he  does  not  know  which  is  the 
true  one,  and  which  not.  But  even  without  knowing  any 
proofs  of  reason,  if  a  man  sees  that  its  consequence  is  love, 
he  recognizes  that  what  has  produced  this  love  is  rational, 
and  then  only  will  his  contorted  reason  be  mended,  and 
coincide  with  the  true  reason. 

Every  child  and  every  naive  man  considers  that  man 
wise  who  loves  him,  and  those  causes  rational  by  which 
he  is  loved. 

Only  by  the  love  of  a  rational  man  for  him  does  another 
recognize  the  rational  foundations  of  the  love. 

If  I  had  such  a  love  for  those  people  to  whom  I  com- 
municate my  rational  foundations  of  life,  a  love  like  the 
one  which  a  mother  has  for  her  child,  no  one  would  doubt 
the  veracity  of  these  foundations. 

A  rational  consciousness  of  the  truths  which  are  re- 
vealed to  us  in  our  soul  and,  besides,  by  Christ,  is  a  great, 
a  very  great  good ;  but  we  are  inclined  to  ascribe  to  this 
consciousness  too  great  a  significance.  We  rejoice  too 
much  at  it,  and  we  stop,  as  though  we  have  reached 
everything  we  need. 

It  is  indeed  an  enormous  step,  in  comparison  with  that 
darkness  in  which  we  have  Hved ;  but  still  this  is  only  a 
step,  and  even  a  tiny  step,  after  which  must  follow  the 
procession  on  that  vast  path  which  is  opened  up  to  us  in 
the  application  of  this  consciousness  to  life  and  love.  It 
does  not  at  once  take  the  place  of  our  cruel,  bestial,  bihous 
life,  with  its  habits  and  passions,  by  which  we  have  been 
living,  but  is  poured  into  our  soul  by  drops.  That  love, 
which  by  its  essence  demands  an  endless  growth  of  trans- 
port, fills  our  soul  but  slowly. 


THOUGHTS    AND    APHOEISMS  183 

My  work  over  this  is  only  beginning. 

In  this  sense  I  rebuke  myself  for  not  being  able  to 
convince  or  vanquish  people  by  means  of  that  invincible 
love  which  is  given  us. 

You  walk  about  alone  and  think  and,  as  it  were,  feel  in 
yourself  the  conception  of  this  force.  It  seems  that  I 
shall  meet  a  man  and  shall  at  once  drench  and  cover  him 
with  this  invincible  force  which  is  being  conceived  in  me ; 
but  I  come  to  the  affair,  I  meet  the  man,  and  instead  of 
the  indestructible  sword,  which  I  thought  I  was  holding 
in  my  hand,  it  turns  out  to  be  a  frail,  brittle  sprout,  which 
I  break  at  the  first  encounter,  and  throw  away,  and  tread 
underfoot. 

And  again  I  grow  and  wait. 

September,  1887. 


You  say :  "  Defend  the  truth  against  men  who  attack 
it." 

But  if  it  is  the  truth,  what  can  the  attacks  of  the  lie  do 
to  it  ?  The  fact  that  it  is  being  attacked  is  the  best  proof 
that  it  is  the  truth.  And  if  you  are  persecuted,  rejoice 
and  be  merry,  —  prophets  of  the  lie  thus  have  always  per- 
secuted, and  always  will  persecute,  the  prophets  of  the 
truth. 

There  is  a  period  (a  degree  of  faith,  of  course),  during 
which  the  persecutions  make  many  men  doubt  the  truth  ; 
then  there  comes  such  a  certitude  that  there  is  manifested 
indifference  to  the  persecution,  and  then  the  persecutions 
give  pleasure,  showing  obviously  the  weakness  of  the  lie, 
which  is  recognized  by  the  lie  itself. 

"  Jesus,  son  of  David,"  shout  the  representatives  of  the 
lie,  although  he  does  not  touch  them,  "  go  away  from  us, 
—  why  hast  Thou  come  to  torment  us  ? " 

And  having  shouted  thus,  they  run  away,  not  as  fast  as 
we  should  like  them  to,  —  but  still  they  run  away. 


184  THOUGHTS    AND    APHOEISMS 


I  have  read  M^dov's  work  on  China.  He  is  entirely 
devoted  to  the  Chinese  civilization,  like  every  sensible, 
sincere  man  who  knows  Chinese  life. 

In  nothing  is  the  significance  of  ridicule  seen  better 
than  in  the  case  of  China.  When  a  man  is  unable  to 
understand  a  thing,  he  ridicules  it. 

China,  a  country  of  360  millions  of  inhabitants,  the 
richest,  'most  ancient,  happy,  peaceful  nation,  lives  by 
certain  principles.  We  have  ridiculed  these  principles, 
and  it  seems  to  us  that  we  have  settled  China. 


Generally  something  mystical  is  seen  in  our  view  of 
life  and  death.     But  there  is  nothing  of  the  kind. 

I  like  my  garden,  I  like  to  read  a  book,  I  like  to  pet 
my  children.  Dying,  I  am  deprived  of  all  this,  and  so  I 
do  not  want  to  die,  and  I  am  afraid  of  death. 

It  may  happen  that  my  whole  life  is  composed  of  such 
temporal,  worldly  desires  and  their  gratification.  If  so,  I 
cannot  help  but  fear  that  my  desires  will  come  to  an  end. 
But  if  these  desires  and  their  gratification  have  been 
changed  in  me,  giving  way  to  other  desires,  —  to  fulfil 
God's  will,  to  surrender  myself  to  Him  in  the  form  in 
which  I  am  now  and  in  all  the  possible  forms  in  which  I 
may  be,  then,  the  more  my  desires  have  changed,  the  less 
death  is,  not  only  terrible  to  me,  but  the  less  even  does  it 
exist  for  me. 

But  if  my  desires  will  be  completely  changed,  there  is 
nothing  but  life,  and  there  is  no  death. 

To  exchange  the  worldly,  the  temporal,  for  the  eternal, 
this  is  the  path  of  life,  and  we  must  walk  on  it. 

Each  of  us  knows  how  this  is  in  his  soul. 

May,  1886. 


THOUGHTS    AND    APHOKISMS  185 


A  writer,  an  artist,  needs,  besides  his  external  talent, 
two  other  things,  —  the  tirst,  to  know  positively  what 
ought  to  be ;  the  second,  so  to  beHeve  in  what  ought  to 
be  as  to  be  able  to  represent  what  ought  to  be  as  though 
it  were,  as  though  I  lived  amidst  it. 

With  the  incomplete  (unprepared)  artists  there  is  one 
of  the  things,  but  not  the  other.  One  has  the  ability  to 
see  what  ought  to  be,  as  though  it  were,  but  he  does  not 
know  what  ought  to  be.  With  another  it  is  the  other 
way. 

The  majority  of  uu talented  productions  belong  to  the 
second  kind ;  the  majority  of  so-called  artistic  productions 
belongs  to  the  first  kind. 

People  feel  that  they  must  not  write  what  is,  and  that 
this  will  not  be  art,  but  they  do  not  know  what  ought  to 
be,  and  they  begin  to  write  what  was  (historic  art),  or,  in- 
stead of  writing  what  ought  to  be,  they  write  what  pleases 
them  or  their  circle. 

March,  1887. 

8 

Life  must  be  guided  by  three  commanders  (it  submits 
to  them  involuntarily),  but  for  the  personal  question  there 
arises  the  question  :  To  what  demands  and  to  what  extent 
must  a  man,  for  his  good,  surrender  himself  when  all  de- 
mands are  made  at  the  same  time  ? 

He  wants  to  eat,  and  so  to  go  after  the  potatoes,  to 
invent  the  best  constructed  tool  for  digging  them  out  and 
to  make  the  calculations  and  the  drawing  for  it,  and  to  go 
and  wipe  off  the  wet  and  freezing  child  and  so  take  him 
into  the  house. 

The  whole  of  life  consists  of  such  trilemmas. 

What  is  one  to  be  guided  by  in  them  ? 


186  THOUGHTS   AND   APHORISMS 

God's  will  is  manifested  in  three  ways :  to  whicli  of 
these  manifestations  is  he  to  submit  more  especially  ? 

It  is  not  possible  to  determine  this  gradually,  —  it  has 
to  be  decided  at  once. 

The  chief  mover  (the  only  one  in  my  opinion)  is  the 
service  of  men.  This  service  may  be  accomplished  in  two 
ways  :  through  mental  and  through  material  work. 

But  the  determination  which  at  a  given  moment  is 
preferable,  more  lawful,  is  again  decided  only  by  the  high- 
est mover,  which  is  not  love  alone,  but  love  and  compre- 
hension, that  is,  comprehension  which  has  risen  to  love,  or 
love  which  is  enhghtened  by  the  comprehension. 

Octoher,  1887. 


I  have  convinced  myself  that  a  man  cannot  be  benef- 
icent if  he  does  not  lead  an  absolutely  good  life,  and 
much  less  if  he  leads  a  bad  life.  By  making  use  of  the 
conditions  of  a  bad  life,  for  the  purpose  of  taming  this 
bad  life,  you  make  excursions  into  the  sphere  of  benefi- 
cence. 

I  have  convinced  myself  that  beneficence  can  satisfy 
itself  and  others  only  when  it  shall  be  an  inevitable 
consequence  of  a  good  life,  and  that  the«demands  of  this 
good  life  are  very  far  from  those  conditions  in  which  I 
live. 

I  have  convinced  myself  that  the  possibility  of  benefi- 
cence to  people  is  the  crown  and  precious  reward  of  a 
good  life,  and  that,  in  order  to  attain  this  aim,  there  is 
a  long  ladder,  on  the  first  rung  of  which  I  have  not  yet 
thought  of  stepping. 

A  man  can  do  good  to  people  only  if  others,  and  he 
himself,  do  not  know  that  the  good  is  being  done,  so  that 
the  right  hand  may  not  know  what  the  left  is  doing, — 
as  it  says  in  the  Teaching  of  the  Twelve  Apostles,  that 


THOUGHTS   AND   APHOEISMS  187 

the  alms  may  leave  thy  hands,  without  thy  knowing  to 
whom  thou  art  giving. 

You  can  do  good  only  when  your  whole  life  is  a  service 
of  the  good. 

Beneficeuce  cannot  be  an  aim,  —  it  is  inevitably  the 
consequence  and  fruit  of  a  good  life.  What  fruit  can 
there  be  ou  a  dry  tree,  which  has  no  live  roots,  nor  live 
bark,  nor  branches,  nor  buds,  nor  leaves,  nor  flowers  ? 

We  can  stick  on  fruits,  as  apples  and  oranges  are  at- 
tached to  the  Christmas  tree  by  means  of  ribbons,  but  the 
Christmas  tree  will  not  come  to  life  through  it,  and  will 
not  bring  forth  oranges  and  apples. 

Before  thinking  of  the  fruit,  the  tree  has  to  be  rooted, 
grafted,  and  grown  large.  But  to  root,  graft,  and  grow 
the  tree  of  the  good,  we  have  to  think  of  many  things  and 
labour  over  many  things,  before  we  can  rejoice  at  the 
fruits  of  the  good,  which  we  shall  give  to  others. 

It  is  possible  to  distribute  strange  fruits,  hung  up  on  a 
dry  tree,  but  there  is  in  that  nothing  which  resembles  the 
good. 

10 

A  marvellous  night.  It  was  so  clear  to  me  that  our 
life  is  the  fulfilment  of  a  duty  imposed  upon  us.  And 
everything  is  done  so  that  the  fulfilment  may  be 
joyous. 

Everything  is  bathed  in  joy. 

Sufferings,  losses,  death,  —  all  this  is  good. 

Sufferings  produce  happiness  and  joy,  as  labour  pro- 
duces rest,  pain  —  the  consciousness  of  health,  the  death 
of  near  friends  —  the  consciousness  of  duty,  because  this 
is  the  one  consolation. 

One's  own  death  is  a  calming. 

But  the  reverse  cannot  be  said.  Rest  does  not  produce 
fatigue,  health  —  pain,  the  consciousness  of  duty  — 
death. 


188  THOUGHTS    AND    APHORISMS 

Everything  is  joy,  so  long  as  there  is  the  consciousness 
of  duty. 

Man's  life  is  to  us  a  familiar  wave,  which  is  all  clothed 
in  splendour  and  joy. 

11 

It  is  frequently  said  (I  used  to  say  so)  that  the  censor- 
ship, violence  in  general,  attains  the  opposite  results. 

This  is  frequently  said  as  a  paradox  ;  but  this  is  the 
real  truth,  the  obvious  truth,  just  as  indubitable  as  this, 
that  by  closing  the  shutter  in  the  stove  you  help  the  com- 
bustion of  the  fuel. 

If  the  censorship  grieved  us,  this  would  prove  that  we 
are  just  as  near-sighted  as  they. 

They  work  for  the  same  God,  only  we  can  believe  that 
we  are  willing  workers,  while  they  are  unwilling  ones. 

I  remember,  the  other  day  I  tried  to  count  up  those 
who  shared  our  view,  and  I  counted  them  all  on  my 
fingers ;  now  I  see  that  we  must  not  count  by  men,  but 
by  different  phenomena. 

Now  there,  now  here,  amidst  the  darkness,  sparks  burn 
up. 

I  see  them,  and  I  rejoice  at  them. 

12 

It  seems  to  me  that  the  terror  of  death  is  physical,  a 
physical  ailment,  like  the  toothache,  rheumatism,  and  that 
we  must  act  toward  this  condition  precisely  as  toward 
physical  suffering,  without  ascribing  to  it  a  hair's  worth 
more  significance. 

Well,  you  have  a  toothache  or  a  stomach-ache,  or  you 
are  assailed  by  sadness  and  your  heart  is  pained.  Let  it 
pain  me,  what  is  that  to  me  ?  Either  it  will  pain  me  and 
pass,  or  I  shall  indeed  die  from  this  pain.  In  either  case 
there  is  nothing  bad  about  it. 


THOUGHTS    AND    APHORISMS  189 

It  seems  to  me  that  it  is  possible  not  to  be  afraid 
of  one's  pain ;  when  one  knows  it  from  experience,  this 
means,  to  take  away  from  it  what  is  tormenting. 

This  is  physical  pain,  and  to  vanquish  it,  to  make  it  in- 
offensive, we  must  agree  with  it,  and  not  think,  as  we  do, 
of  a  struggle  with  it.  Else  we  prepare  ourselves  for  the 
struggle,  and  in  our  imagination  we  exaggerate,  are  intimi- 
dated by  it. 

Of  course,  the  chief  means  of  security  is  the  habit  of 
thought,  the  conception  of  the  carnal  death. 

If  we  represent  death  to  ourselves  and  evoke  in  our 
soul  what  destroys  its  terror  (there  is  only  the  terror, 
and  not  death  itself),  what  you  evoke  is  more  than  suffi- 
cient to  destroy  all  the  carnal  terrors  of  madness  and  of 
solitary  confinement. 

Twenty-five  years  of  madness  or  of  solitary  confinement, 
in  any  case,  only  seem  a  prolongation  of  agony ;  but  in 
reality  there  is  no  prolongation,  because  before  the  true 
life  which  is  given  us,  an  hour  and  a  thousand  years  are 
one  and  the  same. 

13 

If  we  remember  and  believe  "  Thy  will  be  done," 
everything  is  easy,  everything  is  good ;  but  if  we  do  not 
remember,  do  not  believe,  everything  is  difficult,  every- 
thing is  bad. 

When  I  was  a  child,  we  had  a  simpleton,  Grishka,  for  a 
gardener.  In  my  childhood  we  used  to  go  in  the  dark  to 
hear  him  pray  in  the  greenhouse.  After  the  prayers  and 
the  verse  about  the  righteous  on  the  right  hand,  he  began 
to  converse  with  God : 

"  Thou  art  my  master,  my  feeder,  my  doctor,  my  apoth- 
ecary "  (if  he  had  been  a  woman,  he  would  have  said, 
"  my  midwife  "). 

And  no  matter  what  doctors,  apothecaries,  and  mid- 
wives  there  may  be.  He,  His  law,  none  the  less  remains 


190  THOUGHTS    AND    APHORISMS 

the  chief  thing  above  us,  and  He  will  do  as  He 
pleases. 

From  this  it  does  not  follow  that  we  must  not  make 
use  of  what  has  been  done  by  man  for  the  alleviation  of 
his  material  hfe.  We  must  make  use  of  everything,  but 
within  the  limits  of  reason,  that  is,  of  what  is  clear, 
indubitable. 

It  is  unquestionably  necessary,  when  waiting  for  one's 
wife  to  give  birth  to  a  child,  to  call  in  a  man  who  is 
expert  in  childbirth ;  also,  to  make  use  of  everything  for 
the  alleviation  of  the  incipient  sufferings ;  but  in  advance 
to  invent  means  for  the  alleviation  of  sufferings  which  have 
not  yet  come,  is  doubtful,  the  more  so  since  the  means  is 
not  in  common  use. 

I  am  absolutely  against  chloroform  and  laughing-gas. 
God  gives  the  childbirth,  God  will  also  give  the  strength, 
but  to  add  strength  — 

There  is  a  view  about  medicine,  which  is  also  ascribed 
to  me,  that  medicine  is  e^dl  and  that  we  must  free  our- 
selves from  it  and  in  no  case  make  use  of  it. 

This  view  is  incorrect. 

Tliere  is  another  view,  which  is,  that  a  man  does  and 
suffers,  not  because  this  is  proper  for  him,  but  only 
because  the  doctor  did  not  come  in  time,  or  was  mistaken 
in  the  diagnosis,  or  did  not  find  the  proper  medicine,  or 
because  medicine  has  not  yet  invented  the  right  thing, 
though  it  will  do  so  in  a  trice. 

This  view  is  unfortunately  very  common  :  it  is  preached 
by  the  doctors.  It  is  at  the  same  time  the  most  inju- 
rious. 

From  the  first  mistake  the  body  suffers  at  times,  but 
from  the  second  the  spirit  suffers  always. 

My  relation  to  medicine  will  always  be  like  tliis :  I 
will  not  seek  in  advance  any  help  against  menacing 
death  and  sufferings,  because,  if  I  shall  do  so,  all  my  life 
will  pass  in  it,  and  yet  my  aim  will  not  be  attained ;  but 


THOUGHTS   AND    APHORISMS  191 

I  will  make  use  of  those  means  for  protecting  myself 
against  death  and  suffering  which  are  applied  by  men 
who  are  specially  occupied  with  this  matter,  and  who 
involuntarily  make  their  way  into  my  life,  but  only  in 
the  limits  of  what  is  confirmed  to  me  by  the  obviousness 
of  its  action,  by  experience,  by  its  diffusion,  and  by  its 
accessibihty,  that  is,  by  those  means  the  use  of  which 
does  not  impair  my  moral  necessities. 

Here  there  constantly  arise  dilemmas,  and  their  solu- 
tions are  in  the  heart  of  each  man. 

I  am  convincing  myself  more  and  more  that  the  less  a 
man  divines,  and  the  more  he  surrenders  himself  to  cir- 
cumstances and  provocations,  the  more  happy  he  is,  and 
the  more  fruitful  is  his  activity. 

14 

How  often  a  man  will  make  a  clever  statement,  and 
this  clever  saying  will  make  him  ridiculous  ! 

He  wanted  to  get  married,  but  this  witticism  resulted 
in  his  being  rejected. 

A  jester  in  the  church  cried,  "  Fire !"  and  the  result  of 
this  jest  was  seven  dead  persons. 

Is  the  jester  to  blame  ?     He  wanted  only  to  jest. 

If  a  man,  loading  a  gun,  accidentally  kills  another, 
he  will  feel  sorry  and  he  will  after  that  load  his  gun  more 
carefully  ;  but  he  will  have  no  feelings  of  regret,  no  con- 
sciousness that  he  has  acted  wrongly. 

If  a  jester,  without  considering  the  consequences,  calls 
out  "  Fire  !  "  in  a  Catholic  church,  and  the  frightened  sup- 
plicants crush  several  people  to  death,  the  jester  will  feel 
more  sorry  still,  and  he  will  never  jest  so  again,  but  he 
will  have  no  repentance,  no  consciousness  of  a  bad  act. 

But  if  a  man,  hating  or  despising  another,  makes  fun  of 
him,  puts  him  in  a  ridiculous  situation,  pulls  a  chair  away 
from  under  him,  and  the  other,  in  falling,  hurts  his  head, 


192  THOUGHTS    AND    APHORISMS 

grows  sick,  and  dies,  there  will,  in  addition  to  pain  and 
compassion,  appear  also  repentance,  not  because  the  man 
was  killed,  but  because  the  motive  of  the  act  was  con- 
tempt, hatred,  mahce  toward  a  man.  "  By  thy  words 
shalt  thou  be  justified,  and  by  thy  words  shalt  thou  be 
condemned.  For  every  idle  word  that  people  shall  say, 
they  will  be  made  to  answer." 

What  a  profound  truth  this  is ! 

At  first  it  seems  that  this  is  far  removed  from  practical 
life,'  something  unnecessary,  but  it  is  something  very 
near,  very  necessary  for  writers,  publicists,  and  all  of  us, 
who  are  constantly  committing  similar  sins. 


15 

You  ask  me  about  the  Buddhistic  conception  of  Karma. 

This  is  what  I  thought  lately. 

In  a  dream  we  live  almost  as  in  waking.  Pascal,  I 
think,  says  that  if  we  saw  ourselves  in  a  dream  always  in 
one  position,  and  in  waking  in  several,  we  should  consider 
the  dream  to  be  reality,  and  reality  a  dream. 

This  is  not  quite  corrsct. 

Eeality  differs  from  a  dream  in  that  it  is,  above  all 
else,  more  real,  more  true,  so  that  I  should  say :  if  we 
did  not  know  life  to  be  more  real  than  a  dream,  we  should 
consider  dreaming  to  be  all  life,  and  should  never  doubt 
but  that  it  was  real  Hfe. 

Now,  our  whole  life,  from  birth  to  death,  with  its 
dreams,  is  it  not  in  its  turn  a  dream  which  we  take  to 
be  reality,  —  real  life,  —  and  in  the  reahty  of  which 
we  do  not  doubt,  only  because  we  do  not  know  a  more 
real  life  ? 

I  do  not  so  much  think,  as  I  am  convinced,  that  this 
is  so. 

As  dreams  in  this  life  are  a  condition  during  which  we 
live  by  the  impressions,  feelings,  thoughts  of  the  preceding 


THOUGHTS   AND   APHORISMS  193 

life  and  gather  strength  for  the  subsequent  life,  even  so 
our  whole  present  life  is  a  condition  during  which  we 
live  by  the  karma  of  the  preceding  more  real  life,  during 
which  we  gather  strength,  work  out  the  karma  for 
the  subsequent,  more  real  life,  from  which  we  have 
emerged. 

As  we  have  thousands  of  dreams  in  this  life,  so  this 
our  life  is  one  of  thousands  of  svich  lives,  into  which  we 
enter  from  this  more  real,  actual,  true  life,  from  which 
we  emerge,  entering  into  this  life,  and  to  which  we  return, 
when  we  die. 

Our  life  is  one  of  the  dreams  of  that  more  real  life, 
and  so  forth,  ad  infinitum,  up  to  the  one,  last,  real  life, — 
the  hfe  of  God. 

The  birth  and  appearance  of  the  conceptions  about  the 
world  is  a  falling  asleep ;  and  the  sweetest  dream,  death, 
is  an  awakening. 

Early  death,  —  a  man  has  been  awakened,  he  has  not 
had  his  full  sleep. 

Late  death,  —  he  has  had  his  full  sleep  and  was  sleep- 
ing feebly,  when  he  was  awakened. 

Suicide,  —  this  is  a  nightmare,  which  is  destroyed  by 
recalling  that  you  are  asleep,  and  you  make  an  effort,  and 
you  wake  up. 

A  man  who  lives  by  this  life  alone,  who  does  not  antic- 
ipate any  other,  —  this  is  a  heavy  sleep. 

The  heaviest  sleep,  without  dreams,  is  a  semi-animal 
condition. 

To  feel  in  sleep  what  is  going  on  around  yon,  to  sleep 
lightly,  to  be  ready  at  any  moment  to  awaken,  —  this  is 
to  recognize,  though  dimly,  that  other  life,  from  which 
you  have  come  and  to  which  you  return. 

In  sleep  a  man  is  always  an  egoist  and  hves  alone, 
without  the  participation  of  others,  without  any  connection 
with  others. 

In  that  life  which  we  call  real  there  is  more  connection 


194  THOUGHTS    AND    APHOPJSMS 

with  others,  there  is  something  resembhng  the  love  of 
our  neighbours. 

But  in  the  one  from  which  we  have  emerged  and 
whither  we  go,  this  connection  is  closer  still :  love  is  no 
longer  anything  wished  for,  but  real. 

In  that  other  life,  for  which  even  this  is  a  preparation, 
the  connection  and  the  love  is  even  closer  and  greater. 
And  in  this  dream  we  feel  all  that  may  be  and  will  be 
there. 

The  foundation  of  everything  is  already  in  us  and 
penetrates  all  dreams. 

I  beheve  in  it,  see  it  indubitably,  know  it,  and,  dying, 
shall  be  glad  that  I  am  awakening  to  that  more  real 
world  of  love. 

Decemher,  1891. 

16 

I  have  transferred  myself  in  thought  to  your  situation 
and  have  suffered  with  you  for  that  guard,  who  loads  his 
gun  against  people,  and  is  ready  to  kill  and  at  the  same 
time  understands  Christ's  teaching. 

I  feel  this  with  particular  vividness,  because  I  have 
for  two  years  without  interruption  tried  to  grasp  this 
mystery  and  to  comprehend  its  phenomena,  and  I  have 
lived  in  them. 

The  other  day,  as  I  was  on  my  way  to  Byegich^vka,  I 
fell  in  with  a  special  train  of  soldiers  with  rods  and  full 
cartridges,  who  were  travelling  to  pacify  those  starving 
people  with  whom  we  had  lived  the  year  before.  They 
were  all  like  your  guard,  with  this  difference  only,  that 
they  understand  what  they  are  doing :  this  can  be  seen 
by  their  fugitive  eyes  and  because  they  themselves 
acknowledge  that  it  is  a  shame. 

The  kingdom  of  God  is  near,  —  at  the  door. 

I  cannot  help  but  think  so,  and  I  shall  live  and  die 
with  this  consciousness ;  the  main  thing  is,  that  the  time 


II 


THOUGHTS   AND   APHORISMS  195 

that  I  have  left  to  live  I  want  to  live  in  such  a  way  as 
to  cooperate  with  this  realization. 

It  is  very  likely  that  I  am  not  doing  what  I  ought 
to  for  this  purpose,  —  maybe  I  am  in  error;  but  I  know 
that  only  in  a  hfe  which  realizes  the  kingdom  of  God,  in 
the  search  of  the  kingdom  of  God  and  of  truth,  does  for 
me  the  whole  meaning  of  life  consist.  I  know  that  it  is 
the  same  with  you,  and  when  I  see,  as  now,  that  you, 
seeking  the  realization  of  the  kingdom  of  God  and  of  His 
truth,  do  not  enter  into  struggle  (there  is  no  struggle  for 
one  who  walks  on  the  Christian  path,  —  everything  steps 
aside  before  him),  but  subject  yourself  to  the  whole  force 
of  temptation,  I  am  agitated  for  you,  I  love  you  with  a 
special,  ecstatic  love. 

The  temptations  are  from  two  sides :  to  weaken,  to 
renounce  (I  am  not  afraid  of  this  in  your  case),  and 
to  become  proud  of  your  strength.  I  know  that  you  know 
this  temptation  better  than  I  and  look  out  for  it,  but  I 
say  what  I  think  and  what  I  feel  for  you. 

The  strength  with  which  we  conquer  and  will  conquer 
is  not  ours,  but  the  Father's,  and  the  more  we  remove 
ourselves,  the  more  real  is  this  strength. 

January,  1891. 

17 

All  the  time  I  was  reading  his  letter  I  kept  saying, 
"Amen." 

What  surprises  me  is  how  a  man,  who  so  profoundly 
and  so  soberly  understands  Christ's  teaching,  as  he  does, 
can  expect  anything  from  violence  and  its  servants.  This 
is  a  terrible  deception !  Something  like  the  deception 
of  money.  It  seems  that  the  Tsar  and  money  can  do 
everything. 

If  a  man,  wlio  has  no  clear  conception  as  to  what  the 
good  is,  were  told  that  neither  the  Tsar  nor  money  can 
do  any  good,  he  would  think  it  strange. 


196  THOUGHTS    AND    APHORISMS 

"  What  ?  A  man  had  no  bread  and  he  bought  it  for 
money  and  stilled  his  hunger.  Or,  —  people  were  sitting 
in  prison,  and  the  Tsar  commanded  that  they  be  let  out,  — 
is  this  not  good  ?  " 

It  is  not,  because,  if  there  were  no  money,  nor  every- 
thing which  is  connected  with  it,  a  man  could  not  help  but 
have  bread ;  and  if  there  were  no  Tsar,  nor  that  which  is 
connected  with  him,  nobody  would  be  sitting  in  a  prison. 

How  wonderful !  If  I  had  still  any  doubt  as  to  it  be- 
ing possible  by  means  of  money  to  do  good,  I  should  have 
been  fully  convinced  now,  when  I  am  buying  corn  for 
money  and  feeding  several  thousand  people  with  it,  that  it 
is  impossible  with  money  to  do  anything  but  evil. 

You  will  say,  "  Why,  then,  do  you  continue  doing  it  ? " 

Because  I  cannot  tear  myself  away,  and  because  I  do 
not  experience  anything  but  the  most  oppressive  sensa- 
tion, and  so  I  think  that  I  am  not  doing  it  for  the  grati- 
■fication  of  my  personality. 

The  burden  is  not  in  the  labour,  —  the  labour,  on  the 
contrary,  is  joyous  and  attractive,  —  nor  in  the  occupation, 
for  which  I  have  no  heart,  but  in  the  constant  internal 
consciousness  of  shame  before  myself. 

Please  do  not  seek  in  these  words  of  mine  for  any  gen- 
eral meaning,  —  I  write  simply  au  courant  de  la  plume, 
to  a  spiritually  congenial  man,  who,  I  know,  will  under- 
stand me  from  hints,  who  will  understand  what  I 
feel. 

It  makes  me  feel  bad,  or  rather,  awkward,  when  fre- 
quently men  well  disposed  to  me  take  me  seriously,  seek- 
ing and  demanding  a  complete  correspondence  between 
my  words  and  my  acts. 

"  But  how  is  it  that  you  say  one  thing,  and  do 
another  ? " 

I  am  no  saint,  and  I  have  never  given  myself  out  for 
a  saint ;  I  am  a  man  who  am  carried  away  and  sometimes, 
or,  more  correctly,  always,  say,  not  fully  what  I  think  and 


THOUGHTS   AND   APHORISMS  197 

feel,  not  because  I  do  not  want  to  say  it,  but  because  I 
cannot,  frequently  exaggerate,  and  simply  err. 

This  is  so  as  regards  words.  As  regards  acts  it  is 
even  worse. 

I  am  an  absolutely  weak  man,  with  vicious  habits,  who 
wishes  to  serve  the  God  of  truth,  but  who  keeps  constantly 
getting  off  the  road. 

The  moment  I  am  looked  upon  as  a  man  who  cannot 
err,  every  mistake  of  mine  appears  either  a  lie  or  a  bit 
of  hypocrisy. 

But  if  I  am  understood  to  be  a  weak  man,  the  disa- 
greement between  my  words  and  my  acts  will  be  a  sign 
of  weakness,  and  not  of  lying  and  hypocrisy.  And  then 
I  shall  appear  as  what  I  really  am :  bad,  but  sincerely, 
with  my  whole  soul,  always,  and  even  now,  wishing  to  be 
absolutely  good,  that  is,  a  good  servant  of  God. 

February,  1892. 


LETTERS   ON   THE   FAMINE 

1892 


TRANSLATOR'S  NOTE 

The  "  Letters  on  the  Famine "  appeared  in  Eussia  in 
the  years  1891  and  1892,  and  later,  in  1895,  in  Switzer- 
land ;  in  the  latter  edition  many  passages  omitted  or  cor- 
rupted by  the  censor  are  given  in  full,  but  evidently  other 
variants  are  due  to  a  revision,  no  doubt  by  Tolstoy  him- 
self. The  letters  are  here  translated  from  the  Swiss  edi- 
tion ;  but  all  noteworthy  divergent  readings  in  the  Eussian 
edition  which  are  not  obviously  due  to  the  censor  are  given, 
when  short,  in  brackets  in  the  text,  otherwise  at  the  foot 
of  the  page,  and  are  in  either  case  followed  by  the  letter 
E.  The  Swiss  edition  is  preceded  by  the  following  intro- 
tion : 

" '  The  Letters  on  the  Famine '  were  written  by  Lev 
Nikolaevich  Tolstoy  in  Byegich^vka,  during  the  very  heat 
of  his  activity  in  arranging  free  eating-houses  for  the 
starving. 

"  At  first,  this  article  in  a  brief  extract,  thanks  to  the 
conditions  of  the  censorship,  appeared  in  the  Weekly 
Books ;  then  it  appeared  in  an  Enghsh  translation,  and 
only  later,  in  a  translation  from  the  English,  in  the 
columns  of  the  Moscow   Gazette. 

"  The  question  as  to  how  this  exploit  of  the  Moscow 
Gazette  happened  remains  unexplained,  but  the  conse- 
queuce  of  the  appearance  of  the  article  '  On  the  Famine ' 
was  this,  that  the  administration  of  the  city  of  Moscow 
was  for  some  reason  very  much  provoked  by  it,  and  began 
to  threaten  to  expel  Lev  Nikolaevich's  family  from 
Russia. 

201 


202 


LETTERS    ON    THE    FAMINE 


"  Under  the  influence  of  these  threats,  Countesses  Sdfya 
Andr^evna  and  Tatyana  Lvovna  begged  their  husband 
and  father  to  give  the  administration  the  statement  de- 
manded of  him,  and  upon  this  occasion  Lev  Nikolaevich 
wrote  his  wife  the  letter  which  is  given  below." 


TOLSTOY'S  LETTER   TO   HIS  WIFE 

I  SEE  from  your  tone  that  I  am  guilty  of  something 
and  that  I  have  to  justify  myself  before  somebody. 

This  tone  must  not  be  permitted. 

I  have  for  twelve  years  been  writing  what  I  think  and 
what  can  please  neither  the  government  nor  the  ruling 
classes,  and  I  have  not  been  vn-iting  this  accidentally,  but 
consciously,  and  I  not  only  do  not  intend  to  justify  my- 
self in  this,  but  even  hope  that  those  who  want  me  to 
justify  myself  will  themselves  try,  if  not  to  justify  them- 
selves, at  least  to  clear  themselves  of  what  not  I,  but 
their  whole  life  accuses  them  of. 

In  this  particular  case  this  is  what  is  taking  place :  the 
government  establishes  an  insipid,  illegal  censorship,  which 
keeps  people's  thoughts  from  appearing  in  their  real  light, 
and  so  the  involuntary  result  of  it  is  that  they  appear 
abroad  in  a  distorted  form. 

The  government  becomes  agitated  and,  instead  of  hon- 
estly and  openly  investigating  the  matter,  hides  itself 
behind  the  censorship,  at  the  same  time  pretends  to  be 
insulted,  and  takes  the  Hbcrty  of  accusing  others,  and  not 
itself. 

Now  what  I  have  written  in  the  article  about  the 
famine  is  a  part  of  w^hat  I  have  been  writing  and  saying 
in  every  manner  possible  for  the  last  twelve  years,  and 
what  I  will  say  to  my  very  death,  and  what  everybody 
who  is  enlightened  and  honest  in  the  whole  world  has 
been  saying  with  me,  what  the  heart  of  every  uncorrupted 

203 


204        LETTEKS  ON  THE  FAMINE 

man  says,  and  what  that  Christianity  says  which  those 
profess  who  are  horrified. 

It  is  possible  to  keep  quiet.  Or,  if  not  to  keep  quiet,  it 
is  possible  to  accuse,  not  the  Moscow  Gazette,  which  is  not 
in  the  least  interesting,  and  not  men,  but  those  conditions 
of  life,  with  which  everything  is  possible,  which  is  pos- 
sible with  us. 

Observe  also  that  my  writings,  in  which  my  views  are 
expressed,  exist  in  thousands  of  copies  in  all  kinds  of 
languages,  and  suddenly,  as  the  result  of  some  mysterious 
letters  which  have  appeared  in  an  English  newspaper,  all 
have  suddenly  come  to  understand  what  kind  of  a  bird  I 
am ! 

This  is  simply  ridiculous ! 

Only  those  ignorant  people,  of  whom  the  most  igno- 
rant are  those  who  constitute  the  court,  can  fail  to  know 
what  I  have  been  writing  and  thinking ;  only  they  can 
think  that  such  views  as  mine  can  change  in  one  day  and 
become  revolutionary. 

All  this  is  ridiculous,  and  it  is  degrading  and  offensive 
for  me  to  discuss  matters  with  such  people. 

I  am  afraid  I  shall  be  accused  of  pride,  but  that  is 
unjust.  It  is  not  my  pride,  but  those  foundations  by 
which  I  live  that  cannot  bend  to  the  demands  of  non- 
Christian  men. 

I  do  not  defend  myself  and  do  not  feel  insulted  for  my 
own  sake,  but  for  those  foundations  by  which  I  live. 

I  write  the  statement  and  sign  it,  because,  as  Grote 
justly  writes,  the  truth  must  always  be  established,  if 
that  is  necessary. 

But  those  who  tear  portraits  have  had  no  business  to 
possess  them.  Lev  Tolstoy. 


LETTERS   ON   THE   FAMINE 


FoK  the  last  two  months  there  has  not  been  a  book,  a 
periodical,  a  number  of  a  newspaper,  in  which  there  were 
not  any  articles  about  the  famine,  describing  the  condi- 
tion of  the  starving,  who  are  making  appeals  for  public  or 
governmental  assistance  and  who  rebuke  the  government 
and  society  for  their  indifference,  slowness,  and  apathy. 

To  judge  from  what  is  known  through  the  newspapers 
and  what  I  know  directly  about  the  activity  of  the  admin- 
istration and  of  the  County  Council  of  the  Government 
of  Tula,  these  reproaches  are  unjust.  There  is  not  only 
no  slowness,  no  apathy,  but  it  can  rather  be  said  that  the 
activity  of  the  administration,  of  the  County  Council,  and 
of  society  has  been  carried  to  such  a  high  degree  of  ten- 
sion that  it  can  only  weaken,  and  not  grow  stronger. 
Everywhere  a  boiling,  energetic  activity  is  going  on.  In 
the  highest  administrative  spheres  there  have  been  going 
on  uninterrupted  labours  which  have  for  their  end  the 
prevention  of  the  expected  calamity.  Sums  are  assigned 
and  given  out  for  the  distribution  of  assistance,  for  public 
works,  and  arrangements  are  made  for  the  distribution  of 
fuel.  In  the  affected  Governments  supply  conmiittees 
and  especial  Government  and  county  assemblies  meet, 
means  are  devised  for  the  collection  of  provisions,  infor- 
mation is  collected  about  the  condition  of  the  peasants,  — 

205 


206        LETTERS  ON  THE  FAMINE 

through  the  County  Council  chiefs  for  the  administra- 
tion, through  the  members  of  the  County  Council  for 
the  County  Council  itself,  —  and  means  for  affording 
assistance  are  discussed  and  devised.  Rye  has  been  dis- 
tributed for  seed  and  measures  have  been  taken  for 
saving  seed-oats  for  the  spring  and,  above  all  else,  for 
supplying  them  during  the  winter.  Besides,  in  the  whole 
of  Russia  contributions  are  taken  up  in  society  circles,  in 
connection  with  the  churches,  a  certain  percentage  is 
deducted  from  official  salaries,  contributions  are  being 
collected  by  newspapers  and  periodicals,  and  private  indi- 
viduals and  institutions  contribute  also. 

In  all  of  Russia  have  been  opened  divisions  of  the  Red 
Cross,  and  the  Governments  which  are  not  affected  have 
been  set  aside,  one  or  several  to  every  Government  af- 
fected, to  collect  within  their  boundaries  contributions 
for  the  affected  Governments. 

If  the  results  so  far  attained  by  this  activity  are  less 
than  what  could  have  been  expected,  the  cause  does  not 
lie  in  the  insufficiency  of  the  activity,  but  in  that  relation 
to  the  masses  under  which  this  activity  takes  place,  and 
with  which,  I  think,  it  is  very  difficult  in  the  present 
calamity  to  assist  the  masses. 

I  will  tell  later  what  I  mean  by  the  relation  to  the 
masses. 

Up  to  the  present,  two  things  might  have  been  done : 
seed  might  have  been  distributed  for  sowiug,  and  wood 
for  fuel  might  have  been  cut  in  the  Crown  forests. 

These  two  things  have  not  in  our  locality  been  done 
very  successfully.  In  our  Government  the  peasants  have 
everywhere  sowed  almost  entirely  their  own  seeds.  What 
has  been  distributed  has  been  either  little  or  too  late,  while 
in  some,  indeed  in  many  localities,  seeds  were  needlessly 
distributed  to  people  who  had  no  use  for  them,  so  that  in 
many  counties  the  distributed  seeds  were  sold  and  the 
proceeds  spent  in  drink. 


LETTEES    Ol!i    THE    FAMINE  207 

Another  thing  which  ought  to  have  been  attended  to 
this  autumn  is  the  preparation  of  fuel.  From  the  first  of 
September,  it  was  decreed  that  wood  shoukl  be  distributed 
from  the  Crown  forests  to  those  peasants  who  had  suffered 
from  the  failure  of  crops.  About  September  20th,  they 
made  out  the  lists  of  townships  belonging  to  certain 
forest  districts,  and  the  announcement  was  sent  out  by- 
townships  that  it  was  permitted  to  collect  fuel  without 
any  pay.  The  townships  which  were  listed  with  certain 
forest  districts  are  from  forty  to  fifty  versts  distant  from 
them,  so  that  the  hauling  of  brushwood  in  the  fall,  while 
there  is  yet  green  fodder  to  be  had,  presents  no  difficulties. 
And  yet  I  know  for  certain  tliat  on  October  14th,  that  is, 
for  the  period  of  almost  a  month,  tliere  had  not  been  a  single 
peasant  in  our  suburban  forest  district,  and  similarly  no 
wood  had  been  distributed  in  the  Krapivensk  forest 
district.  If  we  take  into  consideration  that  only  in  the 
fall,  so  long  as  green  fodder  may  be  had,  it  is  possible  for 
a  peasant  to  travel  a  distance  away  for  wood,  and  that  it 
is  only  in  the  fall  that  the  brushwood,  which  is  not  yet 
covered  with  snow,  may  be  collected,  and  that  now  almost 
any  day  we  may  have  a  fall  of  snow,  —  it  may  be  boldly 
said  that  this,  the  second  thing,  has  been  done  unsuccess- 
fully. 

Thus  had  the  matters  of  seed  and  fuel  been  attended  to, 
but  both  these  matters  form  but  one-tenth  of  that  busi- 
ness of  provisioning  which  is  before  us ;  so  that,  judg- 
ing from  the  imperfect  manner  in  which  that  which  has 
been  done  has  been  carried  out,  it  is  hard  to  expect  that 
the  enormous  matter  before  us  will  be  done  better. 

All  we  know  from  the  newspapers,  and  all  that  is 
directly  known  to  me  about  the  outlook  in  the  carrying 
out  of  this  matter,  does  not  promise  anything  better.  As 
the  administration,  so  the  County  Councils,  so  far  know 
in  relation  to  this  matter  of  the  provisioning  of  the  masses 
absolutely  nothing  as  to  how  they  are  going  to  do  it.    This 


208  LETTERS    01^   THE   FAMINE 

indefiniteness  is  complicated,  chiefly,  by  the  discord  which 
everywhere  exists  between  the  two  main  organs,  the  ad- 
ministration and  the  County  Council. 

Strange  to  say,  the  question  as  to  whether  there  is  a 
calamity  which  calls  for  activity,  that  is,  as  to  whether 
there  is  a  famine  or  not,  and  if  there  is,  in  what  dimen- 
sions, is  one  which  has  not  yet  been  decided  between  the 
administration  and  the  County  Councils.  Everywhere 
the  County  Councils  demand  large  sums,  while  the  ad- 
ministration considers  them  exaggerated  and  superfluous, 
and  cuts  them  down  or  completely  disallows  them.  The 
administration  complains  that  the  County  Councils  are 
carried  away  by  the  general  mood  and,  without  entering 
into  the  merits  of  the  case,  without  establishing  the  mo- 
tives, write  lackadaisical  literary  descriptions  of  the  popular 
want  and  demand  large  sums,  which  the  government  can- 
not grant,  and  which,  if  granted,  would  produce  more  evil 
than  good. 

"  It  is  necessary  for  the  masses  to  know  their  need  and 
themselves  to  curtail  their  expenses,"  say  the  representa- 
tives of  the  administration,  "  for  now  everything  demanded 
by  the  County  Councils,  and  everything  said  in  the  assem- 
blies, is  transmitted  to  the  masses  in  a  distorted  form,  and 
the  peasants  expect  a  kind  of  assistance  which  they  cannot 
receive.  This  leads  to  the  people's  not  going  to  the  work 
offered  them,  and  to  their  drinking  more  than  ever." 

"  What  kind  of  a  famine  is  this,"  say  the  representa- 
tives of  the  administration,  "  when  the  people  refuse  to 
work,  when  the  revenue  from  the  sale  of  intoxicants  for 
the  autumn  months  of  the  present  year  is  greater  than  in 
the  past  year,  and  when  the  fairs  where  peasant  wares  are 
sold  are  better  than  they  have  been  for  years  ?  If  we 
were  to  pay  attention  to  the  demands  of  the  County  Coun- 
cils, we  should  have  the  same  results  from  the  distribution 
of  supplies  as  from  the  distribution  of  seeds  in  certain 
counties,  where  those  who  did  not   need  them  received 


LETTERS  ON  THE  FAMINE        209 

them,  and  thus  drunkenness  was  encouraged."  This  the 
representatives  of  the  administration  say,  and  they  — 
collect  the  taxes. 

Thus  the  administration  looks  upon  this  matter,  and 
quite  justly  so,  if  we  consider  the  matter  from  a  common 
point  of  view.  But  not  less  just  is  the  view  of  the 
County  Councils,  when  in  reply  to  these  arguments  they 
give  a  description  of  the  peasant  property  according  to 
townships,  from  which  it  becomes  clear  that  the  harvest 
of  this  year  is  one-fourth  or  one-fifth  of  the  average,  and 
that  the  majority  of  the  population  have  no  means  of 
support. 

To  cut  out,  prepare,  and  put  on  a  patch,  it  is  necessary 
to  know  the  size  of  the  hole. 

It  is  as  to  the  dimension  of  this  hole  that  it  seems 
impossible  to  come  to  an  agreement.  Some  say  that  the 
hole  is  not  large  and  that  the  patch  may  only  enlarge  it; 
others  say  that  there  is  not  enough  material  for  a  patch. 

Who  is  right  ? 

To  what  extent  are  both  right  ? 

As  an  answer  to  these  questions  may  serve  the  descrip- 
tion of  what  I  saw  and  heard  in  the  four  counties  of  the 
Government  of  Tiila,  which  have  suffered  from  the  failure 
pf  crops,  and  which  I  visited. 


n. 

The  first  county  which  I  visited  was  Krapivensk  County, 
which  has  suffered  in  its  black  soil  district. 

The  first  impression,  which  in  an  alhrmative  way  an- 
swered the  question  as  to  whether  the  masses  are  this 
year  labouring  under  especially  hard  conditions :  the 
bread  which  is  used  by  nearly  everybody  is  made  with 
orache,  — -  one-third,  and  in  some  cases  one-half  orache,  — 
is  black  [of  inky  blackness  —  B.],  heavy,  and  bitter ;  this 
bread  is  eaten  by  everybody,  by  children,  by  pregnant 
women,  by  nursing  women,  and  by  sick  people. 

Another  unquestionable  proof  of  the  peculiar  state  of 
affairs  in  the  present  year  is  the  absence  of  fuel.  Then, 
—  it  was  still  in  September,  —  everybody  complained  of 
this  want.  I  was  told  that  the  willow-trees  in  the 
threshing-floor  yards  were  being  cut  down,  and  I  saw 
that  it  was  so ;  I  was  told  that  all  the  blocks,  everything 
of  wood,  has  been  cut  and  chopped  up.  Many  persons 
purchase  wood  in  a  proprietor's  forest  which  is  being 
cleared  up,  and  in  a  grove  in  the  neighbourhood,  which  is 
being  taken  off.  They  travel  for  their  wood  seven  and 
even  ten  versts.  The  price  for  aspen  wood,  all  cut,  is 
ninety  kopeks  per  shkalik,  that  is,  per  one-sixteenth  of  a 
cubic  sazhen.  A  shkalik  will  last  a  week  on  a  farm,  so 
that  about  twenty-five  roubles  will  be  needed,  if  all  the 
fuel  is  to  be  bought. 

The  calamity  is  indubitable :  the  bread  is  unwholesome, 
mixed  with  orache,  and  there  is  no  firewood. 

But  you  look  at  the  people,  at  their  appearance,  —  their 
faces  are  healthy,  cheerful,  satisfied.     All  are  at  work, 

210 


I" 

■i' 


LETTERS  ON  THE  FAMINE        211 

nobody  stays  at  home.  One  is  threshing,  another  is 
hauling.  The  proprietors  complain  that  the  peasants  do 
not  want  to  work.  When  I  was  there,  tliey  were  digging 
potatoes  and  threshing.  On  a  church  holiday  they  drank 
more  than  usual,  and  even  on  work-days  I  came  across 
drunken  persons.  Besides,  the  orache  bread  itself,  upon 
closer  examination  as  to  why  and  how  it  is  used,  receives 
a  different  meaning. 

On  the  farm  where  I  was  first  shown  the  orache  bread, 
a  threshing-machine  with  four  horses  was  threshing  in 
one  of  the  side-yards,  and  there  were  sixty  cocks-  of  oats, 
giving  nine  measures  each ;  that  is,  at  present  prices,  there 
was  there  three  hundred  roubles'  worth  of  oats.  It  is 
true,  there  was  but  little  rye  left,  not  more  than  nine 
ch^tverts,  but,  besides  the  rye,  there  were  there  something 
hke  forty  chetverts  of  potatoes,  and  there  was  some  buck- 
wheat, and  yet  the  whole  family,  consisting  of  twelve 
souls,  ate  orache  bread.  Thus  it  turned  out  that  the 
bread  with  the  orache  was  in  this  case  not  a  sign  of  pov- 
erty, but  the  method  of  a  saving  peasant,  to  have  them  eat 
as  little  bread  as  possible,  just  as  for  the  same  purpose  a 
saving  peasant  will  never  allow,  even  in  prosperous  years, 
warm  or  even  soft  bread  to  be  eaten,  but  instead  gives  his 
people  stale  bread. 

"  Flour  is  dear,  and  it  is  hard  to  provide  for  all  these 
urchins.  People  eat  bread  with  orache,  —  and  we  are  no 
gentlemen  either." 

The  calamity  as  regards  the  tire-wood,  too,  does  not 
appear  so  terrible,  when  the  details  of  the  situation  are 
known.  They  have  to  buy  wood  for  twenty-five  roubles. 
"  Where  shall  we  get  it  this  year  ? "  another  peasant  said 
to  me,  complaining  of  the  hopeless  condition  of  the  present 
year.  And  yet  this  peasant  has  two  sons  who  are  hired 
out,  one  at  forty,  the  other  at  fifty  roubles,  and  he  has  this 
year  married  one  of  them,  although  he  has  enough  women 
in  his  house.     Besides,  the  lack  of  fuel  is  redeemed  by  the 


212        LETTERS  ON  THE  FAMINE 

fact  that  in  the  present  year,  the  straw,  though  less  than 
usual,  is  rich,  with  a  good  ear,  forming  excellent  fodder. 
The  reason  they  do  not  burn  §traw  for  fuel  is  not  merely 
because  there  is  little  of  it,  but  because  in  the  present 
year  it  partly  takes  the  place  of  meal  food  for  the  cattle.^ 
Besides,  the  potatoes  have  grown  here  excellently.  Thus, 
where  on  a  farm  with  ten  mouths  there  are  twenty-five 
ch^tverts,  figuring  at  a  measure  a  day,  the  potatoes  will 
last  two  hundred  days,  the  whole  winter.  The  main 
thing  is  the  oats,  which  bring  a  high  price.  But  not 
all  have  oats  and  potatoes.  When  I  took  the  list  of  the 
whole  village,  it  turned  out  that  out  of  fifty-seven  farms, 
twenty-nine  were  such  as  had  no  rye  left,  or  only  a  few 
puds  of  it,  from  five  to  eight,  and  little  oats,  so  that  with 
the  exchange  of  two  ch^tverts  for  a  chetvert  of  rye,  they 
will  not  have  enough  food  to  last  them  until  New  Year. 
This  is  the  state  of  twenty-nine  farms ;  fifteen  farms  are 
in  a  very  bad  shape :  these  lack  the  chief  support  of  the 
present  year,  —  the  oats,  —  since  these  farms  were  badly 
off  two  years  ago,  and  last  year  did  not  sow  any  oats  at 
all.  Some  of  them  are  begging  even  now.  All  of  them 
are  without  help,  and  some  of  them  have  a  bad  reputa- 
tion ;  some  are  drunkards,  others  do  not  like  to  work, 
while  others  again  are  restless  people ;  there  are  also 
among  them  thieves,  who  have  been  in  jail.  These  farms 
are  not  suffering  from  the  failure  of  this  year's  crops,  but 
from  the  peculiar  domestic  conditions  and  the  character 
of  the  farmers. 

Such  is  one  of  the  villages  of  Krapivensk  County,  and 
such  approximately  is  the  condition  of  the  others.  The 
percentage  of  the  well-to-do,  the  average,  the  poor,  is 
nearly  the  same :  fifty  per  cent.,  more  or  less,  of  average 

^  This  is  so  where  there  is  at  least  some  straw  ;  but  in  many  coun- 
ties there  is  no  straw.  The  state  of  the  majority  of  farms  under 
superiicial  observation  presents  itself  like  this  :  the  failure  of  the  rye 
is  equalized  by  the  good  crop  of  oats,  which  bring  a  high  price,  and 
by  the  good  crop  of  potatoes.  —  E. 


LETTEKS  ON  THE  FAMINE        213 

farmers,  that  is,  such  as  will  this  year  use  up  all  their 
supplies  by  December;  twenty  per  cent,  [of  well-to-do 
and  thirty  per  cent.  —  B.]  of  very  poor,  who  have  nothing 
to  eat  now,  or  will  have  nothing  in  a  month  from  now. 

The  condition  of  the  peasants  of  Bogordditsk  County  is 
worse.  The  crops,  especially  of  rye,  have  been  worse  here. 
Here  the  percentage  of  the  well-to-do,  that  is,  of  those 
who  can  get  along  with  their  own  corn,  is  the  same ;  but 
the  percentage  of  the  poor  is  greater  still.  Out  of  sixty 
farms  there  are  seventeen  average  ones,  and  thirty-two 
absolutely  poor,  just  as  poor  as  the  fifteen  of  the  first  vil- 
lage of  Krapivensk  County,  And  just  as  in  Krapivensk 
County,  the  wretched  state  of  these  poor  farms  was  not 
conditioned  by  the  famine  of  this  year  alone,  but  by  a 
whole  series  of  long  active  external  and  internal  condi- 
tions :  the  same  helplessness,  large  families,  drunkenness, 
weakness  of  character. 

Here,  in  Bogordditsk  County,  the  question  of  fuel  is 
still  harder  to  solve,  as  there  are  fewer  forests.  But  the 
general  impression  is  again  the  same  as  in  Krapivensk 
County.  So  far  there  is  nothing  peculiar  to  indicate  a 
famine:  the  people  are  cheerful,  ready  to  work,  happy, 
healthy.  The  township  scribe  complained  that  the 
drunkenness  during  Assumption  Day  (a  church  holiday) 
was  worse  than  ever. 

The  farther  we  proceed  into  Bogordditsk  County  and 
the  nearer  to  Efrdmov  County,  the  worse  does  the  condi- 
tion get.  On  the  threshing-floor  there  is  less  and  less 
corn  and  straw,  and  there  are  more  and  more  poor  homes. 
On  the  border  of  Efremov  and  Bogordditsk  Counties  the 
state  is  particularly  bad,  especially  because,  with  the  same 
unfavourable  conditions  as  in  Krapivensk  and  Bogordditsk 
Counties,  and  with  a  still  greater  scarcity  of  forests,  the 
potatoes  have  been  a  failure.  On  the  best  fields  hardly 
anything  but  enough  for  seed  was  harvested.  The  bread  is 
almost  everywhere  made  with  orache.    The  orache  is  here 


214        LETTERS  ON  THE  FAMINE 

green  and  not  at  all  mature.  The  white  centre  gener- 
ally found  in  it  is  lacking  entirely,  and  so  it  is  not 
edible. 

One  has  to  know  how  to  eat  the  orache  bread.  If  a 
man  eats  it  on  an  empty  stomach,  he  has  to  vomit,  and 
people  go  mad  from  kvas  which  is  made  of  flour  mixed 
with  orache. 

Here  the  poorest  farms  which  have  gone  doven  in  former 
years  are  now  eating  up  their  very  last.  But  these  are 
not  yet  the  worst  villages.  There  are  Worse  ones  in 
Efremov  [and  Epiphany  —  E.]  County.  Here  is  an  extract 
from  my  note-book  about  a  village  in  Efremov  County. 
Out  of  seventy  farms  there  are  ten  which  still  can 
"  breathe."  Of  the  others,  the  people  of  every  second 
farm  have  just  gone  with  their  horses  to  beg  alms.  Those 
who  are  left  eat  bread  with  bran,  which  is  sold  to  them  from 
the  storehouse  of  the  County  Council  at  sixty  kopeks  per 
pud.  I  went  into  one  of  the  houses  to  see  the  bread  with 
the  bran.  The  peasant  had  received  three  measures  for 
seed,  when  he  had  already  done  his  sowing ;  he  mixed 
the  three  measures  with  three  measures  of  bran,  ground 
this  together,  and  got  some  good  bread,  —  but  it  is  the 
last.  The  woman  told  me  that  her  girl  had  filled  herself 
with  orache  bread,  which  purged  her  above  and  below, 
and  she  gave  up  baking  with  orache.  The  corner  of  the 
room  is  full  of  dry  horse-dung,  and  the  women  collect 
the  dung  and  chips.  ^  The  dirt  of  the  house,  the  tattered 
condition  of  the  clothes,  in  this  village,  is  very  great,  but 
evidently  this  is  a  usual  thing,  because  the  same  dirt  and 
raggedness  is  to  be  found  in  the  well-to-do  houses.  In 
the  same  village  there  is  a  settlement  of  landless  soldier 
children.  [There  are  ten  such  houses.  —  R.]  The  condi- 
tion of  the  inhabitants  of  this  settlement  is  especially 
pitiable.    There  are  among  them  some  with  small  families 

iThe  women  collect  the  dung  in  the  pastures,  and  small  twigs  of 
a  finger's  length  and  thickness  in  the  woods.  —  R. 


I 


LETTERS  ON  THE  FAMINE        215 

aud  some  who  are  artisans,  and  they  manage  to  get  along 
somehow ;  but  the  condition  of  the  majority  is  very  bad. 
They  are  all  mendicants. 

At  the  extreme  house  of  this  settlement,  where  we 
stopped,  a  tattered,  lean  woman  came  out  to  us,  and  she 
begau  to  tell  us  her  condition.  She  has  five  children. 
[The  eldest  is  a  daughter,  ten  years  of  age.  —  B.]  Two  are 
sick,  evidently  with  the  influenza.  One,  a  three-year-old 
child,  is  sick  with  the  fever,  and  he  was  carried  outside 
and  is  lying  on  the  ground,  in  the  pasture,  about  eight 
steps  from  the  hut,  and  is  covered  with  what  there  is  left 
of  a  peasant  coat.  It  will  be  cold  and  wet  for  him,  when 
his  fever  has  passed,  but  still  this  is  better  than  for  him 
to  be  in  the  room  four  arshins  square,  with  its  dirt  and 
dust  and  the  four  remaining  children.  This  woman's 
husband  has  gone  away  to  earn  money  and  has  not  been 
heard  of.  She  lives  on  what  she  can  collect  by  begging, 
but  the  near-by  people  do  not  give  much.  She  has  to 
walk  a  long  distance  off,  from  twenty  to  thirty  versts,  but 
it  is  bad  there,  too,  and  she  has  to  neglect  her  children. 
And  so  she  does.  She  collects  a  lot  of  gifts  and  leaves 
these  at  home ;  when  the  alms  give  out,  she  starts  out 
again.  She  was  at  home  just  then,  —  she  had  just  come 
back  the  day  before  [and  she  had  crusts  left  to  last  her 
until  the  next  day  —  ii.]. 

She  is  not  alone  in  this  condition,  but  there  are  some 
eight  such  houses.^  They  were  in  the  same  state  the  year 
before  and  two  years  before,  and  in  such  a  state  they  are 
not  alone,  but  there  are  millions  of  people  all  around  us 
who  are  in  tlie  same  state.  In  the  same  state  are  always 
all  the  families  of  feeble,  drinking  men,  all  the  families 

1  She  was  in  the  same  state  last  year  also,  and  two  years  ago  ;  she 
was  even  worse  off  three  years  ago,  because  two  years  ago  she  was 
burned  out,  and  her  eldest  daughter  was  smaller,  so  that  she  had 
nobody  to  leave  her  children  with.  The  only  difference  was,  that 
people  gave  more  alms,  and  the  bread  they  gave  was  without  orache. 
—  B. 


216        LETTERS  ON  THE  FAMINE 

of  those  who  sit  in  prisons,  frequently  the  families  of 
soldiers. 

Such  a  state  is,  however,  more  easily  borne  in  good 
years.  Even  in  years  when  there  are  good  crops,  the 
women,  though  threatened  with  being  beaten  or  being 
sent  to  jail,  have  been  stealthily  going  to  the  woods,  to 
steal  fuel,  in  order  to  warm  their  freezing  children,  and 
have  collected  from  poor  people  pieces  of  bread  with 
which  to  feed  their  neglected  children,  who  are  dying  with- 
out food. 

This  has  always  been  !  We  live  amidst  all  this  !  In 
the  present  year  this  state  is  not  worse,  because  there  can 
be  nothing  worse  than  that  a  mother's  children  should 
die  without  help,  only  this  year  there  is  more  of  this 
evil. 


o 

a. 


III. 

There  are  many  such  villages  in  Bogordditsk  and  in 
Efr^mov  Counties.  But  there  are  some  that  are  even 
worse.  And  such  are  the  villages  of  Epiphany  and 
Dankov  Counties. 

Here  is  one  of  them :  for  about  six  versts  between  two 
villages  there  is  no  settlement,  no  village.  All  there  is 
there  is  proprietor's  out-farms,  lying  off  the  main  road. 
There  is  nothing  but  fields  and  fields,  rich,  black-earth 
fields,  which  are  deeply  ploughed  up  and  beautifully 
seeded  with  rye.  The  potatoes  have  all  been  dug  up: 
they  are  beiug  dug  up  and  ploughed  over  a  second  time. 
Here  and  there  they  are  ploughing  for  summer  crops. 
Fine-looking  herds,  belonging  to  the  landed  proprietors, 
are  walking  in  the  stubble.  The  winter  crops  are  beauti- 
ful ;  the  roads  are  properly  ditched  and  bordered  with 
cropped  willows ;  in  the  ravines  a  forest  has  been  started. 
Here  and  there  are  the  fenced-in  and  well-guarded  groves 
of  the  proprietors.  On  the  out-farms  along  the  road 
there  is  an  abundance  of  straw,  and  the  potatoes  are  being 
put  away  in  cellars  and  basements.  Everything  is  fin- 
ished and  well  done ;  in  everything  is  seen  the  labour  of 
thousands  of  men,  who  with  harrows,  ploughs,  scythes, 
and  rakes  have  walked  through  all  the  furrows  of  these 
immeasurable,  rich  fields. 

I  arrive  at  the  place  of  abode  of  these  people.  Be- 
tween steep  banks  there  is  a  large  river,  and  on  both  sides 
of  it  there  are  settlements,  —  on  this  side,  in  Epiphany 
County,  there  are  fewer  of  them ;  on  the  other,  in  Dan- 

217 


218        LETTERS  ON  THE  FAMINE 

kov  County,  there  are  more.  On  the  other  side  there  is  a 
church  with  a  tower  and  a  cross  sparkling  in  the  sun  ; 
along  the  bank  beyond  the  river  small  pleasant  houses 
stretch  out  beautifully  in  the  distance. 

I  walk  up  to  the  edge  of  the  village  on  this  side. 
The  first  hut  is  not  a  hut,  but  four  gray  stone  walls,  daubed 
with  clay  and  roofed  with  boards  on  which  there  is  a  mass 
of  potato-tops.  There  is  no  yard.  This  is  the  dwelling 
of  the  first  family.  Here,  too,  in  front  of  this  structure, 
there  stands  a  cart,  without  wheels ;  and  not  back  of  the 
yard,  where  the  threshing-floor  generally  is,  but  in  front  of 
the  hut,  there  is  a  cleared  place  where  oats  have  just  been 
threshed  and  winnowed. 

A  lank  peasant  in  bast  shoes  with  his  shovel  and  his 
hands  throws  the  cleanly  winnowed  oats  from  the  heap 
into  a  woven  basket ;  a  barefoot  woman  of  about  fifty 
years  of  age,  in  a  dirty  black  shirt,  which  is  torn  at  one 
side,  carries  these  basketfuls  and  fills  with  them  the  cart 
without  wheels,  and  keeps  counting,  A  ragged,  dishevelled 
girl  of  about  seven  years  of  age  clings  to  the  woman,  in- 
terfering with  her  work.  The  peasant  is  the  woman's 
friend,  and  he  has  come  to  help  her  winnow  and  put  away 
the  oats.  The  woman  is  a  widow ;  her  husband  has  been 
dead  nearly  two  years,  and  her  son  is  a  soldier  and  attend- 
ing the  autumn  exercises ;  her  daughter-in-law  is  in  the 
house  with  two  small  babies  [one,  a  suckling  babe,  is  in 
her  arms  ;  the  other,  of  about  two  years  of  age,  is  crawl- 
ing over  the  threshold  and  yelling,  —  he  is  dissatisfied 
with  something  —  B.]. 

The  only  good  crop  this  year  has  been  the  oats,  which 
will  all  go  into  the  cart,  —  there  are  in  all  perhaps  four 
chet verts.  From  the  sowing  there  is  left  a  bag  with 
orache  (carefully  put  away  in  the  loft),  weighing  about 
three  puds.  No  millet,  or  buckwheat,  or  lentils,  or  pota- 
toes were  sown  or  planted.  Bread  is  baked  with  orache, 
and  it  is  so  bad  that  it  is  impossible  to  eat  it,  and  this 


LETTERS  OX  THE  FAMINE        219 

very  day  the  woman  went  to  a  village  eight  versts  off  to 
beg  alms.  There  is  a  holiday  in  the  village,  and  she  col- 
lected about  five  pounds  of  "  cake  "  without  orache,  which 
she  showed  me.  [In  a  basket  she  has  about  four  pounds 
of  crust  and  of  pieces  of  bread  as  big  as  the  palm  of  the 
hand.  —  B.]  This  is  all  the  property  she  has,  and  all 
the  visible  means  of  support. 

Another  hut  is  like  hers,  only  it  is  better  thatched, 
and  there  is  a  small  yard.  The  rye  crop  was  the  same. 
The  same  kind  of  a  bag  with  orache  is  standing  in  the 
vestibule,,  representing  the  granary  with  its  supplies. 
They  have  not  sown  any  oats  on  this  farm,  as  they  had 
not  seeds  in  the  spring ;  but  they  have  three  ch^tverts  of 
potatoes  and  two  measures  of  millet.  As  much  rye  as 
was  left  from  the  distribution  for  seeds,  the  woman  baked 
into  loaves,  mixing  in  half  orache,  and  they  are  now  eat- 
ing the  last  of  them.  All  there  is  left  is  one  and  a  half 
round  loaves.  The  potatoes  w^ill  last  another  month,  and 
they  say  they  do  not  know  what  will  happen  after  that. 
The  woman  has  four  children  and  a  husband.  The  hus- 
band is  not  at  home,  —  he  is  building  a  stone  hut  with 
clay  mortar  for  a  neighbour  two  farms  away. 

A  third  farm  is  just  like  this  one,  and  its  condition  is 
the  same.  While  I  was  in  this  hut  and  was  talking  with 
the  hostess,  a  woman  came  in,  and  she  began  to  tell  her 
neighbour  that  her  husband  had  been  beaten,  that  she  did 
not  expect  him  to  live,  and  that  he  had  received  the  holy 
sacrament.  Evidently  the  neighbour  knew  all  about  it, 
and  all  this  was  told  for  my  benefit.  I  offered  to  go  and 
look  at  the  sick  man,  in  order  to  help  him,  if  possible. 
The  woman  went  away  and  soon  came  back  to  take  me 
to  her  house.  The  sick  man  was  lying  in  an  adjoining 
hut.  This  hut  was  large  [built  of  logs — B.],  with  a 
[stone  —  B.]  straw  loft  and  yard,  but  the  poverty  was  the 
same.  The  proprietor  [evidently  —  E.]  had  taken  a  fancy 
to  building  after  a  fire  ;  everything  which  was  there  he 


220        LETTERS  ON  THE  FAMINE 

had  himself  built ;  then  he  had  grown  feeble  and  become 
poor.  In  this  hut  two  families,  v/ho  have  no  farms  of 
their  own,  are  rooming.  The  head  of  one  of  these  famihes 
is  the  beaten  peasant.  On  the  hanging  beds,  between  the 
oven  and  the  wall,  lay  the  sick  man,  covered  with  mat 
bags  ;  he  was  groaning  pitifully.  He  was  a  stocky,  healthy 
peasant  of  some  forty  years  of  age,  with  a  bloodshot  face 
and  athletic  muscles  on  his  bared  arm.  I  began  to  ask 
him  questions,  and  he  told  me  that  two  days  before  they 
had  had  a  meeting,  and  that  he  and  a  friend  of  his  had 
taken  tickets  (passports)  to  go  down-country,  and  that 
upon  that  occasion  he  had  told  a  peasant  that  it  was  not 
right  for  him  to  call  names.  In  reply  to  this,  the  peasant 
knocked  him  off  his  feet  and  began  to  walk  all  over  him, 
that  is,  beat  him  badly  on  his  head  and  chest.  It  turned 
out  that  when  they  took  their  passports,  they  set  up  an 
eighth  measure,  and  the  elder,  who  had  wasted  fifty  roubles 
of  the  communal  money,  being  present,  set  up  half  a 
bucket,  for  having  been  allowed  to  defer  his  payments  for 
three  terms,  —  and  the  peasants  got  drunk. 

I  felt  the  sick  man  over  and  examined  him.  He  was 
absolutely  well,  and  he  perspired  dreadfully  under  the 
mat  bags.  There  were  no  marks  whatever,  and  appar- 
ently he  was  lying,  and  had  received  the  holy  communion 
only  to  provoke  the  authorities,  among  which  he  counted 
me,  to  inflict  punishment  on  him  with  whom  he  had 
fought.  When  I  told  him  that  it  was  not  right  to  go  to 
court  and  that  I  thought  that  he  was  not  dangerously 
knocked  up  and  could  get  up,  he  remained  dissatisfied, 
and  the  women  who  carefully  followed  my  movements, 
and  with  whom  the  hut  was  filled,  began  impatiently  to 
say  that  if  it  was  so,  "  they  "  would  kill  them  all. 

The  poverty  of  all  three  families  who  live  here  is  the 
same.  None  of  them  has  any  rye.  One  had  something 
like  two  puds  of  wheat,  another  had  enough  potatoes  for 
two   weeks  or  for  a  month.     All  had  still  some  bread 


LETTERS  ON  THE  FAMINE         221 

baked  with  orache  from  the  rye  given  them  for  seed,  but 
it  will  not  last  them  long. 

Such  is  the  whole  village  of  thirty  farms,  with  the 
exception  of  two  families  which  are  well-to-do.  There  is 
no  need  of  counting  them  all  over,  —  it  will  all  be  the 
same. 

This  village  half  burned  down  last  year,  and  they  did 
not  build  it  up  again.  Those  first  farms,  the  one  where 
the  woman  was  threshing  oats,  and  the  eight  adjoining 
farms  in  a  row,  were  settled  there  in  order  to  comply  with 
the  rules  for  insurance.  The  majority  of  them  are  so 
poor  that  they  even  now  are  rooming  with  others.  Even 
those  who  were  not  burned  out  are  just  as  poor,  though 
in  general  those  who  suffered  from  the  fire  are  somewhat 
worse  off.  The  condition  of  the  village  is  such  that  twelve 
out  of  thirty  farms  have  no  horses. 

The  people  are  nearly  all  of  them  at  home :  some  are 
calking  their  huts ;  others  are  transposing  things,  and 
others  again  are  sitting  and  doing  nothing.  Everything 
is  threshed,  the  potatoes  are  dug.  The  village  is  in  a 
wretched  condition,  but  this  failure  of  crops  presents  itself 
as  a  small  calamity  in  comparison  with  that  chronic 
general  calamity  to  which  these  men  are  apparently 
subject.  What  has  brought  them  to  this  state  is  fires, 
quarrels,  drunkenness. 

Besides  the  general  causes  of  calamities,  nearly  everv 
family  has  its  own  private,  internal  cause,  which  is  much 
more  important  than  the  exceptional  cause  of  this  year's 
failure  of  crops. 

The  previous  elder  has  this  trouble,  that  he  has,  under 
fear  of  court  proceedings,  to  pay  fifty  roubles  in  three 
instalments,  and  he  is  selling  all  his  oats  to  meet  this 
debt.  The  present  elder,  a  good  joiner,  is  in  trouble, 
because  they  have  appointed  him  elder  and  so  have 
deprived  him  of  the  possibility  of  hiring  out.  He  receives 
a  salary  of   fifteen  roubles,  and  he  says  that  he  could 


222        LETTERS  ON  THE  FAMINE 

easily  earn  sixty  roubles  and  so  would  have  had  no 
thought  of  the  failure  of  crops.  The  trouble  with  a  third 
peasant  is  this,  that  he  has  for  a  long  time  been  in  debt, 
and  now  has  to  pay,  and  so  is  compelled  to  sell  three 
walls  of  a  wooden  hut,  keeping  the  fourth  for  fuel.  He 
has  no  building  to  live  in  and  so  is  pointing  up  with  clay 
a  tiny  stone  cell,  in  which  to  hve  with  his  wife  and 
children.  The  trouble  with  a  fourth  man  is  this,  that  he 
quarrelled  with  his  mother,  who  was  living  with  him,  and 
she  separated  from  him  and  broke  up  her  hut  and  went 
to  hve  with  another  son  of  hers,  taking  her  portion  with 
her,  and  so  he  has  nothing  to  hve  on  and  no  place  to 
stay  in.  The  trouble  with  a  fifth  man  is  this,  that  he 
took  some  oats  to  town,  where  he  went  on  a  spree  and 
spent  every  thmg  he  got  for  his  oats. 

Before  leaving  the  village,  I  stopped  near  a  peasant 
who  had  just  brought  potato-tops  from  the  field  and  was 
putting  them  down  along  the  wall  of  the  hut. 

"  Where  do  these  come  from  ?  " 

"  We  buy  them  from  the  proprietor." 

"  What  ?     What  do  you  pay  for  them  ? " 

"  A  desyatina  to  be  attended  to  in  the  summer." 

That  is,  for  the  right  to  collect  the  potato-tops  from  a 
desyatina  of  potatoes,  which  have  been  dug  up,  a  peasant 
promises  to  plough  up,  sow  in,  mow  down,  bind,  and  carry 
away  corn  from  a  desyatina,  which,  according  to  the 
usual  cheap  prices  for  such  detailed  work,  is  worth  at 
least  eight  roubles,  while  according  to  the  established  price 
in  that  locality  the  potato-tops  are  worth  from  four  to 
five  roubles. 

The  peasant  was  talkative  ;  I  stopped  near  his  cart,  and 
soon  about  six  peasants  gathered  around  us,  and  we 
started  a  conversation.  Some  women  stood  at  a  distance 
and  listened.  Children,  munching  inky  black,  pasty  bread 
with  orache,  whirled  about  us,  watching  me  and  listening 
to  the  conversation.     1  repeated  several  inquiiies,  wishing 


LETTERS  ON  THE  FAMINE        223 

to  verify  the  elder's  statements.  Everything  proved  to  be 
true.  The  number  of  peasants  without  horses  proved  even 
larger  than  the  elder  had  said.  They  told  of  their  whole 
poverty,  not  so  much  with  dissatisfaction,  as  with  a 
constant  irony  indefinitely  directed  upon  somebody  and 
something. 

"  Why  are  you  in  such  bad  shape,  and  why  are  you 
poorer  than  anybody  else  ?  "  I  asked. 

Several  voices  began  to  answer,  —  so  definite  was  the 
answer. 

"  What  are  we  to  do  ?  Last  summer  half  the  village 
was  licked  clean  as  by  a  cow's  tongue,  —  it  burned  down. 
And  then  the  failure  of  the  crops.  It  was  bad  enough 
last  year,  but  this  year  it  is  a  clear  failure.  What  use 
would  there  be  even  in  a  good  crop,  when  there  is  no 
land  ?     What  land  ?     Just  good  enough  for  kvas  ! " 

"  Well,  and  how  about  earnings  ?  "  I  asked. 

"  What  earnings  ?  Where  are  they  ?  He  "  (the  pro- 
prietor) "  has  roped  us  in  for  eleven  versts  around.  It  is 
all  his  land ;  go  where  you  please,  —  there  is  but  one 
price  to  the  land.  We  have  to  pay  five  roubles  for  tops, 
and  they  will  not  last  for  a  month." 

"  Well,  how  are  you  going  to  live  ?  " 

"  The  best  way  we  can.  We  shall  sell  what  we  have, 
and  then  as  God  will  aid  us.  There  is  nothing  more  to 
sell.  Maybe  we  shall  sell  the  horse-chips,  —  I  have  a 
whole  corner  of  them.  When  you  make  a  fire  with  them, 
it  just  chokes  you.  Pshaw !  They  have  been  writing  us 
up,  they  have  written  us  up  ten  times,"  said  the  elder, 
"  but  nothing  has  so  far  come  of  it.  Evidently  the  writers 
are  no  good.  Come,  let  grandfather "  (he  meant  me) 
"  write  us  up.  He  will  do  it  in  a  mighty  way.  See 
what  a  pen  he  has,"  and  so  forth. 

The  peasants  laugh  ;  evidently  they  know  something, 
but  are  not  going  to  tell.  What  is  this,  anyway  ?  Do 
they  not  understand  their  situation,  or  do  they  so  much 


224        LETTERS  ON  THE  FAMINE 

expect  outside  help  that  they  do  not  wish  to  make  any 
efforts  ? 

I  may  be  mistaken,  but  it  looks  like  it. 

Just  then  I  recalled  two  old  peasants  of  Efr^mov 
County,  who  in  a  slightly  intoxicated  condition  were 
returning  from  the  township  office,  whither  they  had  gone 
to  find  out  when  their  sons  would  be  demanded  for  the 
autumn  practice,  and  who,  in  reply  to  my  question  how 
their  crops  had  been  and  how  they  lived,  answered  me, 
although  they  were  from  the  very  worst  locality,  that, 
thanks  to  God  and  to  the  Tsar,  their  father,  they  had 
received  seed-corn,  and  now  would  receive  for  their 
provisions  thirty  pounds  to  each  person  until  Lent,  and 
after  Lent  would  get  as  much  as  a  pud  and  a  half  each. 

That  the  people  of  this  Efr^mov  village  will  not  be 
able  to  live  through  the  winter  without  starving,  or  at 
least  dying  from  diseases,  due  to  the  famine  and  to  bad 
food,  if  they  do  not  do  something,  is  as  certain  as  that  a 
beehive  without  honey,  being  left  in  the  open,  will  die 
out  toward  spring. 

So  here  is  the  question  :  will  they  do  something  ?  So 
far  it  looks  as  if  they  would  not.  Only  one  of  them  has 
sold  everything  and  is  going  to  Moscow.  The  others 
seem  to  be  waiting  for  something. 
•  [The  others  do  not  seem  to  understand  their  situation. 
Do  they  really  not  understand  their  condition,  or  are  they 
waiting  to  be  helped  from  without,  or  are  they  like  chil- 
dren who  have  fallen  through  an  ice-hole  or  have  lost  their 
way,  and  who  in  the  first  moment  do  not  understand 
their  condition  and  laugh  at  its  unfamiliarity  ?  Maybe 
both.  But  what  is  certain  is,  that  these  men  are  in  such 
a  state  that  they  will  hardly  make  efforts  to  help  them- 
selves. —  i?.] 


IV. 

Well,  is  there  a  famine,  or  not  ? 

And  if  there  is  [to  what  extent  ?  —  R],  to  what  extent 
are  they  to  receive  assistance  ? 

All  the  columns  in  which  the  property  of  the  peasants 
is  described  do  not  answer,  and  cannot  answer,  these 
questions.  This  the  peasants  themselves,  it  is  true,  do 
not  know.  Much  depends  on  the  mood  in  which  they 
will  be.  The  administration  and  the  County  Council 
present  to  themselves  the  problem  of  feeding  the  starving 
people  just  like  a  similar  problem  of  feeding  a  given 
quantity  of  cattle.  For  so  many  steers  so  many  puds 
of  hay,  straw,  mash  are  wanted  for  two  hundred  days  of 
winter.  This  quantity  of  food  once  being  provided,  the 
steers  are  put  in  the  stalls,  and  we  may  be  sure  that  they 
will  winter  well. 

With  men  the  calculation  is  quite  different.  In  the 
first  place,  for  a  steer  or  any  other  animal  the  maximum 
and  minimum  of  the  indispensable  food  are  not  very  far 
from  one  another.  When  the  cattle  have  eaten  up  a  cer- 
tain quantity  of  food,  they  stop  eating  and  have  no  need 
of  anything  else,  and  if  they  do  not  get  the  necessary 
quantity,  they  soon  grow  siclc  and  die.  But  for  a  man 
the  distance  between  the  minimum  and  the  maximum  of 
what  he  needs,  not  only  in  the  form  of  food,  but  also 
of  other  necessities,  is  enormous,  —  it  may  even  be  said, 
infinite :  a  man  may  live  on  shewbreads,  as  do  the 
fasters,  or  on  a  handful  of  rice,  as  do  the  Chinese  and  the 
Hindoos ;  or  he  may  not  eat  for  forty  days,  as  Doctor 
Tanner  did,  and  yet  remain   well,  or  he  may  swallow  a 

225 


226        LETTERS  ON  THE  FAMINE 

quantity  of  food  and  drink,  which  is  enormous  as  far  as 
cost  and  nutrition  is  concerned,  and  besides  the  food  needs 
also  many  other  things,  which  may  grow  to  infinity  and 
again  contract  to  the  lowest  limit. 

In  the  second  ]jlace,  a  steer  cannot  provide  food  for 
himself,  while  a  man  does,  and  the  man  whom  we  under- 
take to  feed  is  the  chief  provider  of  food,  the  very  man 
who  feeds  us  and  who  under  the  most  onerous  conditions 
provides  what  we  undertake  to  feed  him  on. 

To  feed  a  peasant  is  the  same  as  it  would  be  if,  in  the 
spring  of  the  year,  when  the  grass  has  sprouted,  we  should 
keep  the  cattle  in  the  stalls,  and  ourselves  pick  the  grass 
for  them,  that  is,  deprive  them  of  that  enormous  power  of 
collection  which  is  in  them,  and  thus  ruin  them. 

Something  similar  would  happen  with  a  peasant,  if  we 
fed  him  in  the  same  manner,  and  he  believed  it. 

The  peasant  budget  does  not  balance  properly,  —  there 
is  a  deficit,  —  he  has  nothing  to  live  on,  —  we  must  feed 
him. 

Yes,  cast  the  accounts  of  any  average  peasant,  not  in 
a  famine  year,  when  everywhere  about  us  there  is  only 
enough  corn  to  last  until  New  Year,  and  you  will  see  that, 
according  to  the  crop  reports,  he  has  nothing  to  live  on 
in  an  average  year,  and  that  the  deficit  is  such  that  he 
must  get  rid  of  his  cattle  and  himself  must  eat  but  once 
a  day. 

Such  is  the  budget  of  an  average  peasant,  —  to  say 
nothing  of  the  poor  peasant,  —  and  yet  he  has  not  only  not 
got  rid  of  his  cattle,  Ijut  has  also  married  off  his  son  and 
his  daughter,  has  celebrated  a  holiday,  and  has  spent 
about  five  roubles  on  tobacco.  Who  has  not  seen  the 
fires  which  make  a  clean  sweep  of  everything?  One 
would  think  that  the  sufferers  from  the  fire  would  have 
to  perish.  Behold,  one  has  been  helped  by  a  relative,  an 
uncle ;  another  has  received  assistance ;  a  third  has  hired 
out  to  work;  a  fourth  has  gone  out  to  beg  alms;  they 


LETTERS  ON  THE  FAMINE        227 

strain  all  their  energies,  and  behold,  in  two  years  they 
have  come  back  to  their  old  state. 

And  the  settlers,  who  go  away  with  their  families,  who 
for  years  support  themselves  by  work,  until  they  settle  in 
some  one  spot  ? 

For  some  time  I  busied  myself  with  the  question  of 
the  past  settlement  of  the  Government  of  Samara,  and 
the  fact  which  I  and  all  natives  of  Samara  can  testify 
to  is  this,  that  the  majority  of  the  settlers,  who  travelled 
by  certain  routes  with  the  aid  of  the  government,  perished 
and  fell  into  poverty,  and  the  majority  of  fugitives,  who 
met  with  obstacles  only  on  the  part  of  the  government, 
arrived  safely  in  the  new  settlements  and  grew  rich. 

And  the  landless  peasants,  manor  labourers  [and  sol- 
diers' children  —  B.]  ?  They  have  all  supported  themselves 
even  in  years  when  corn  was  more  expensive  than  at 
present. 

People  say  that  there  is  no  work.  But  there  are  also 
other  people,  who  keep  saying  all  the  time  that  they  offer 
work,  and  that  there  are  no  labourers.  And  the  people 
who  say  so  are  just  as  right,  or  just  as  wrong,  as  those  who 
say  that  there  is  no  work.  I  know  positively  that  lauded 
proprietors  offer  work  and  cannot  find  any  labourers ;  that 
for  the  work  which  is  laid  out  by  the  forestry  department 
there  have  so  far  appeared  no  labourers,  as  is  also  true  in 
case  of  other  work,  as  the  newspapers  have  written  about 
it.  For  a  poor  worker  there  is  never  any  work,  for  a  good 
worker  there  is  always  work.  For  a  tattered  man,  who 
has  spent  his  clothes  in  drink  and  who  walks  from  farm 
to  farm  and  from  fair  to  fair  there  may  be  such  a  tiling  as 
no  work ;  but  for  a  good  labourer  who  is  known  and  who 
is  looking  for  other  work  while  still  at  work,  there  is 
always  some  work. 

It  is  true,  in  the  present  year  there  is  less  work  than 
usual,  and  so  a  larger  number  of  poor  labourers  will  be 
left  without  work  ;   still,  a  man's  having   or  not  having 


228        LETTERS  ON  THE  FAMINE 

work  does  not  depend  on  external  causes  alone,  but  on 
the  energy  of  the  labourer,  on  whether  he  is  looking  fit 
for  work  [whether  he  values  his  work  —  B.]  and  whether 
he  is  working  well. 

I .  do  not  say  all  this  in  order  to  prove  that  poor 
labourers  and  their  families  should  not  be  aided,  but  only 
in  order  to  show  how  impossible  it  is  to  figure  out  the 
budget  of  a  peasant  farm,  the  income  of  which  may  be 
stretched  to  from  three  to  thirty  and  more  roubles  per 
month,  according  to  the  energy  of  the  industry  and  the 
execution  of  the  work,  while  the  expenses  may  be  nar- 
rowed down  to  two  pounds  of  bread  with  bran  to  each 
man,  or  may  expand  to  drunkenness,  which  may  in  one 
year  ruin  the  wealthiest  farm. 

The  disagreement  as  to  whether  there  is  any  famine,  or 
not,  and  to  what  extent  it  exists,  is  due  to  this.  To  this 
is  also  due  the  difficulty  of  giving  assistance.^ 

To  determine  the  degree  of  the  need,  so  as  to  guide  all 
the  County  Councils  in  the  distribution  of  assistance, 
there  have  been  made  detailed  farm  lists  according  to 
counties  as  to  the  number  of  mouths,  labourers,  allot- 
ments, the  quantity  of  all  kinds  of  corn  planted,  and  the 
harvest,  the  number  of  cattle,  the  average  crop,  and  many 
more  things.  The  lists  have  been  made  with  an  extraor- 
dinary display  of  columns  and  of  details.  But  he  who 
knows  the  every-day  life  of  the  peasants  knows  that  these 
lists  say  very  little. 

To  imagine  that  a  peasant  farm  spends  only  as  much 
as  it  eats  up,  and  earns  only  what  the  peasant  gets  from 
his  allotment,  is  a  great  mistake.  In  the  majority  of 
cases  what  he  gets  from  the  allotment  forms  but  a  minor 
part  of  wliat  he  spends.     The  chief  wealth  of  the  peasant 

1  Instead  of  this  paragraph  the  Russian  edition  reads  :  "The  dis- 
agreement as  to  whether  there  is  any  famine,  or  not,  and  to  what  ex- 
tent, is  due  to  this,  that  the  property  budget  is  taken  as  a  fovindation 
for  determining  the  peasant's  condition,  whereas  the  chief  articles  of 
his  budget  ai'e  not  determined  by  his  property,  but  by  his  labour," 


LETTERS  ON  THE  FAMINE        229 

consists  in  what  he  and  his  home-folk  earn,  whether  he 
earns  it  on  his  rented  land,  or  working  for  the  landed 
proprietor,  or  living  with  strangers,  or  in  some  industry. 
The  peasant  and  his  home-folk  are  always  all  at  work. 
The  condition  of  physical  idleness,  so  common  to  us,  is  a 
calamity  for  the  peasants.     If  a  peasant  has  not  enough 
work  for  all  the  members  of  his  family  [when  he  himself 
and  his  home-folk  eat  without  working — H.],  he  considers 
that  a  calamity  is  imminent  [something  like  the  escape 
of  liquor  from  a  leaky  barrel  —  B.],  and  he  generally  uses 
every  efibrt  to  look  for  work  [in  order  to  prevent  this 
calamity  —  H.].     In  the  peasant  family  all  its  members 
work   and   earn  money  from  childhood  to   old  age.     A 
twelve-year-old  boy  already  herds  cattle,  or  works  with 
the  horses ;  a  little  girl  spins  [or  knits  stockings  or  mit- 
tens —  B.],  and  from  the  spinning  there  is  linen  left  which 
can  be  sold  and  gives  an  income.     The  peasant  is  out 
earning  either  far  away,  or  at  home,  or  as  a  day-labourer, 
or  he  contracts  for  labour  at  the  proprietor's,  or  himself 
rents  some  land.     The  old  man  weaves  bast  shoes :   all 
these  furnish  a  regular  income.     But  there  are  also  exclu- 
sive earnings :  a  boy  leads  about  a  blind  man  ;  a  girl  is 
nursing  in  the  family  of  a  well-to-do  peasant ;  a  boy  is  an 
apprentice  ;  the  peasant  is  making  bricks  or  baskets ;  the 
woman    is    a    midwife  or  a  medicine  woman ;   a    blind 
brother    begs  alms ;   another,  who    can    read,  reads   the 
psalter  for  the  dead ;    the  old  man  crushes  tobacco ;    a 
widow  secretly  traffics  in  liquor.     Besides,  one  has  a  son 
who  is  a  coachman,  a  conductor  (a  rural  officer) ;  another 
has  a  daughter  who  is  a  chambermaid  or  a  nurse ;  an- 
other has  an  uncle  who  is  a  monk,  a  clerk,  —  and  all 
these  relatives  aid  and  support  the  farm. 

Out  of  such  items,  which  are  not  entered  in  the 
columns,  is  the  income  of  a  peasant  family  formed,  and 
the  items  of  expenditures  are  even  more  varied  and  by  no 
means  limited  to  the  food:    [Crown,  and — /i.]   County 


230         LETTERS  ON  THE  FAMINE 

Council  taxes,  the  furnishing  of  recruits,  tools,  blacksmith 
work,  ploughshares,  links,  wheels,  axes,  forks,  harness, 
wheelwright's  work,  buildings,  the  oven,  garments,  foot- 
gear for  oneself  and  for  the  children,  holidays,  preparation 
for  communion  for  oneself  and  family,  a  wedding,  a  chris- 
tening, curing,  presents  for  children,  tobacco,  pots,  dishes, 
salt,  tar,  kerosene,  pilgrimages,  —  and  every  man  has,  be- 
sides, his  own  pecuharities  of  character,  his  own  foibles, 
virtues,  vices  [which  all  cost  money  —  B.^ . 

On  the  poorest  farm,  consisting  of  five  or  six  persons, 
from  fifty  to  seventy  roubles  will  thus  be  spent  and  earned 
[in  a  year  —  E.] ;  on  a  well-to-do  farm,  from  seventy 
to  three  hundred ;  on  an  average  farm  from  one  hundred  to 
120  roubles.  Any  farmer  may  with  little  effort  make  it 
160  instead  of  one  hundred  roubles,  and  with  a  weaken- 
ing of  his  energy,  fifty  instead  of  one  hundred ;  with  care 
and  order,  he  may  change  the  one  hundred  expenses  to 
sixty,  and  with  carelessness  and  weakness  make  it  two 
hundred  roubles  expenses  instead  of  one  hundred. 

How,  then,  can  the  peasant's  budget  under  these  condi- 
tions be  figured  out,  and  how  can  the  question  be  solved 
as  to  whether  he  is  in  any  need  and  to  what  extent,  and 
if  he  is,  how  can  it  be  determined  who  is  to  be  assisted, 
and  to  what  extent  ? 

In  the  County  Councils  there  have  been  established 
curators,  persons  whose  business  it  is  to  attend  to  the 
distribution  of  assistance  according  to  townships.  In  one 
of  the  County  Councils  they  have  even  established  coun- 
cils under  the  curator's  supervision,  consisting  of  priests, 
elders,  church  elders,  and  two  specially  appointed  persons, 
who  are  to  decide  how  miich  is  to  be  given  to  every  man. 
But  even  these  councils,  no  matter  how  much  they  re- 
semble ministries,  will  in  no  way  help  the  business  of  the 
distribution,  because  according  to  the  lists  and  according 
to  what  is  now  known  of  the  peasant  families,  it  is  abso- 
lutely impossible  to  determine  what  will  become  of  them, 


LETTERS  ON  THE  FAMINE        231 

In  order  correctly  to  determine  the  degree  of  a  peasant's 
wants,  we  do  not  need  lists,  but  must  call  in  a  prophet, 
who  will  foretell  what  peasant  and  his  family  will  be 
alive  and  well,  who  will  live  in  peace  with  his  family 
and  will  work  and  find  work.  There  are  no  such 
prophets,  and  it  is  impossible  to  find  it  out.  It  is  impos- 
sible to  find  out  the  needy,  and  so  it  is  not  only  difficult, 
but  directly  impossible  to  distribute  the  free  assistance. 

People  who  have  little  thought  of  the  relations  of  the 
rich  to  the  poor  generally  assume  that  all  that  is  neces- 
sary is  for  the  rich  to  give  to  the  poor,  or  that  they  should 
be  compelled  to  give  part  of  their  wealth,  and  all  would 
be  well.  But  this  is  a  great  mistake.  The  whole  thing 
is  in  the  distribution.  If  there  is  a  poor  man,  it  is  always 
because  the  distribution  effected  by  the  laws  in  regard  to 
the  acquisition  of  property,  the  labour,  and  the  relation 
of  the  classes  is  irregular ;  and  so,  to  correct  this  irregular 
distributiou,  another  has  to  be  established.  But  to  take 
from  the  rich  and  give  to  the  poor  does  not  mean  to  make 
a  new  distribution,  but  only  to  introduce  a  great  confusion 
into  the  old  distribution. 

How  nice  and  how  simple  it  would  be  to  solve  the 
questions  of  luxury  and  of  poverty  by  this  simple  means, 
which  is,  to  take  from  the  rich  and  give  to  the  poor  ! 

This  would  be  so  nice  and  so  simple ! 

I  myself  at  one  time  thought  that  this  was  so. 

But,  not  unhappily,  but  happily,  it  is  not  so. 

One  would  think  that  it  is  but  a  small  inconvenience, 
and  yet  it  is  impossible  to  get  around  it,  it  is  impossible 
to  make  a  new  division. 

Try  to  distribute  money  to  the  city  poor,  —  indeed  it 
has  been  tried,  and  what  is  the  result  ? 

About  seven  years  ago,  six  thousand  roubles  were  in 
Moscow,  by  the  will  of  a  deceased  merchant,  distributed 
to  the  poor,  who  received  two  roubles  each.  There  came 
together  such  a  crowd  that  two  were  crushed  to  death, 


232         LETTEES  ON  THE  FAMINE 

and  most  of  the  money  fell  into  the  bauds  of  healthy, 
tough  people,  while  the  feeble  did  not  get  anything. 

With  a  free  distribution,  the  worst  passions  are  roused 
and  flame  up  ;  a  crowd  of  greedy  people  comes  to  the 
front,  and  those  who  are  most  agile,  strong,  and  unscrupu- 
lous get  possession  of  the  article  which  is  being  distributed. 
People  generally  think  that  so  long  as  there  is  something 
to  distribute,  it  will  be  an  easy  matter  to  make  the  proper 
distribution.  It  is  true,  it  is  generally  assumed  that  there 
will  be  misuses  and  deceptions,  but  that  all  that  is  neces- 
sary is  to  be  careful,  to  take  the  trouble  to  investigate, 
and  then  it  will  be  possible  to  segregate  the  needy  and  to 
give  only  to  those  who  are  truly  in  need. 

But  this  is  an  error !  It  is  impossible  to  do  so.  It  is 
impossible  to  give  free  assistance  to  the  needy,  because 
there  are  no  external  signs  by  which  the  needy  person 
may  be  told,  while  the  very  distribution  calls  to  life  such 
a  greed,  such  jealousy,  such  deception,  that  even  those 
signs  that  may  have  existed  are  destroyed. 

The  administration  and  the  County  Councils  make 
endeavours  to  find  out  those  who  are  truly  in  need ;  but 
all  peasants,  even  such  as  are  in  no  need  at  all,  upon 
learning  that  something  will  be  distributed  free,  try  to 
simulate,  or  even  actually  to  become  needy,  in  order 
to  obtain  assistance  without  labour. 

But  not  in  this  alone  is  there  an  inconvenience  in  the 
distribution  of  free  or  loan  aids  (this  makes  no  difference, 
because  the  peasants  consider  the  loans  to  be  the  same  as 
gratis,  for  they  know  that  they  will  never  be  able  to  return 
them)  ;  the  inconvenience  is  also  in  this,  that  the  hope  of 
receiving  these  free  gifts  weakens  the  self-reliance  of  the 
masses. 

[All  know  that  it  is  good  and  praiseworthy  to  acquire 
through  labour,  and  bad  and  disgraceful  to  acquire  without 
labour.  Suddenly  there  appears  a  new  method  of  acquiring 
without  labour,  which  has  in  itself  nothing  prejudicial.    Ifc 


LETTERS  ON  THE  FAMINE         233 

is  evideut  what  confusion  is  produced  in  their  concepts  by 
the  appearance  of  this  new  method  of  acquisition.  —  B.] 

But  how  shall  we  wait  when  everybody  is  starving  ? 
In  a  village  where  there  is  no  corn  until  November,  and 
where,  either  from  laziness  or  from  error,  —  whatever  the 
cause  may  be,  —  the  peasants  say  that  there  is  no  work, 
and  do  not  work,  within  a  week  there  will  unquestionably 
be  a  real  famine  for  the  women,  the  old,  the  very  young, 
and  even,  no  doubt,  for  the  lazy  and  the  self-deceived  who 
are  still  alive.  And,  then,  how  is  it  to  be  given  ?  To 
whom  ? 

If  it  is  to  be  given  to  those  only  who  are  in  need,  how 
are  the  truly  needy  to  be  distinguished  from  those  who  are 
not  really  in  need  ? 

P^veu  if  it  be  possible  to  distinguish  those  who  are  really 
in  need,  this  will  take  in,  for  the  most  part,  all  careless 
farmers,  drunkards,  and  loafers ;  why  is  a  premium  to  be 
put  on  laziness  and  drunkenness  ? 

If  all  are  to  receive  equal  shares,  as  the  peasants  every- 
where demand,  spying  with  reason  that  if  they  are  to  be 
liable  for  all  members,  they  ought  at  least  to  receive  equal 
shares,  so  that  they  may  have  something  to  be  responsible 
for ;  if  all  are  to  receive  equal  shares,  all  will  have  too 
little  :  for  the  well-to-do  it  will  be  an  unnecessary  addition, 
and  for  the  poor  an  insufficient  addition  to  save  them 
from  ruin. 

But  if  all  are  to  receive  so  much  that,  by  receiving 
equal  shares,  the  poor  may  get  enough  to  provide  them- 
selves with,  there  would  be  needed  such  large  sums  [nearly 
a  billion  —  72.]  that  it  would  be  impossible  to  find  them. 

But  the  chief  thing  is,  that  the  more  aid  is  offered,  the 
mure  is  the  energy  of  the  people  weakened,  and  the  more 
the  energy  of  the  people  is  weakened,  the  more  their  needs 
are  increased. 

And  yet  it  is  impossible  not  to  offer  any  aid ! 

In  this  cercle  vicieux  toss  about  the  gentlemen  of  the 


234        LETTERS  ON  THE  FAMINE 

government  and  of  the  County  Councils.  It  is  this  that 
leads  to  all  that  disorderly  mass  of  measures  which  are 
taken  against  the  famine  of  which  we  do  not  know  whether 
it  exists  or  not,  —  a  disorderly  mass,  because  we  have  un- 
dertaken a  business  which  we  cannot  carry  out. 

The  business  which  we  have  undertaken  consists  for  us 
in  nothing  more  or  less  than  an  attempt  to  feed  the 
masses,  —  for  us,  gentlemen,  to  feed  the  masses,  that  is, 
we  have  taken  it  upon  ourselves  to  feed  the  feeders, — 
those  who  have  been  feeding  us. 

We  have  become  so  confused  and  steeped  in  lie,  that 
we  have  entirely  forgotten  who  we  are. 

We,  the  gentlemen,  want  to  feed  the  masses. 


V. 

What  a  wonderful  thing !  A  suckling  babe  wants  to 
feed  his  nurse ;  the  parasite  takes  it  upon  himself  to  feed 
the  plant  on  which  it  feeds ;  we,  the  higher  classes,  who 
all  of  us  live  by  them,  who  cannot  take  a  step  without 
them,  we  shall  feed  them. 

It  is  well  that  they  believe  us  !  If  they,  God  forfend, 
should  beheve  that  somebody  is  going  to  feed  them,  and 
should  stop  feeding  themselves  and  us,  they  would  perish, 
and  we  v^dth  them. 

Children  were  given  a  horse,  a  real,  live  horse,  and  they 
drove  out  with  it  and  had  their  fun.  They  drove  and 
drove,  down-hill  and  up-hill.  The  good  horse  was  cov- 
ered with  sweat  and  out  of  breath,  but  it  continued  to 
pull  them  and  to  obey  them ;  and  the  children  shouted 
and  boasted  to  one  another  as  to  who  could  lead  and 
drive  and  make  the  horse  gallop  best.  And  it  seemed  to 
them  —  it  always  does  —  that,  when  the  horse  was  gal- 
loping, they  were  galloping  themselves,  and  they  boasted 
of  their  race. 

The  children  had  their  fun  for  a  long  time,  without 
thinking  of  the  horse,  and  forgetful  of  the  fact  that  it 
lived,  worked  hard,  and  suffered,  and  if  they  noticed  that 
it  stopped,  they  smacked  their  whip  in  a  more  lively 
fashion  and  urged  on  the  horse,  and  shouted. 

But  there  is  an  end  to  everything,  and  there  came  also 
an  end  to  the  strength  of  the  good  horse,  and,  in  spite  of 
the  whip,  it  began  to  stop.  It  was  only  tlien  that  the 
children  remembered  that  the  horse  was  a  live  animal, 
and  that  horses  are  fed  and  given  drink  ;  but  the  children 

235 


236         LETTERS  ON  THE  FAMINE 

did  not  want  to  stop,  and  they  began  to  devise  how  they 
could  feed  the  horse  while  it  was  running.  One  of  them 
fetched  a  handful  of  hay  from  under  the  seat  and,  jump- 
ing down  from  the  carriage,  ran  alongside  the  horse  and 
offered  it  the  hay.  But  it  was  not  easy  to  feed  the  horse 
while  it  was  running,  and  so  he  jumped  hack  into  the 
carriage  and  the  children  began  to  devise  another  means. 
They  obtained  a  long  stick  and  tied  the  hay  to  the  end 
of  it,  and  began  to  offer  it  to  the  horse  on  the  run,  while 
they  were  themselves  seated  on  the  coachman's  box.  Be- 
sides, two  of  the  children,  observing  that  the  horse  was 
tottering,  began  to  support  it ;  they  held  its  back  with 
their  hands,  to  keep  it  from  falhng  to  the  right  or  to  the 
left.  The  children  devised  many  things,  except  what 
ought  to  have  come  first  into  their  headS;  —  which  was, 
that  they  should  get  down  from  the  horse  and  stop  driv- 
ing it,  and,  if  they  really  had  compassion  on  it,  unhitch  it 
and  give  it  its  freedom. 

Is  it  not  precisely  as  the  children  did  with  the  horse 
which  was  pulling  them,  that  the  people  of  the  rich 
classes  have  been  doing  with  the  labouring  people,  when 
they  grow  weak  and  may  refuse  to  pull  ? 

They  devise  everything  possible,  except  the  one  thing 
which  begs  for  recognition,  —  to  get  off  the  horse  which 
they  pity,  stop  travelling  with  it  and  driving  it. 

The  masses  are  starving,  and  we,  the  higher  classes, 
are  very  much  worried  by  this  and  want  to  help  them. 
And  for  this  purpose  we  have  meetings,  choose  com- 
mittees, collect  money,  and  send  it  to  the  masses,  but  do 
not  for  a  minute  stop  driving  them. 

And  what  is  it  that  makes  them  poor  and  starving  ? 

Is  it  really  so  hard  to  understand  this  ? 

Is  it  really  necessary  to  calumniate  them,  as  some  un- 
scrupulously do,  saying  that  the  masses  are  poor  because 
they  are  lazy  and  drunkards  ?  or  to  deceive  ourselves,  as 
others  do,  saymg  that  the  masses  are  poor  because  they 


LETTERS  ON  THE  FAMINE         237 

have  not  yet  had  time  to  adopt  our  culture,  and  that  we 
shall  begin  with  to-morrow,  without  concealing  anything, 
to  transmit  to  them  all  our  wisdom,  and  then  they  will 
stop  being  poor ;  and  so  we  have  no  cause  for  being 
ashamed  because  we  are  living  on  their  backs,  —  we  are 
doing  it  all  for  their  good. 

Is  it  indeed  necessary  to  search  for  this  midi  a  quatorze 
heures,  when  it  is  so  clear  and  so  simple,  especially  for 
the  masses  themselves,  on  whose  backs  we  are  sitting 
and  whom  we  are  driving  ?  Children  may  imagine  that 
it  is  not  the  horse  that  is  pulling  them,  but  that  they  are 
themselves  moving  on  by  means  of  the  waving  of  the 
whip,  but  we,  the  grown  persons,  if  we  are  not  insane, 
ought  to  understand,  it  seems,  whence  the  famine  of  the 
masses  comes. 

The  masses  are  hungry  because  we  are  too  well  fed. 

How  can  the  masses  help  being  hungry,  since  under 
the  conditions  under  which  they  are  living,  that  is,  with 
those  taxes,  with  that  want  of  land,  with  that  abandon- 
nient  and  savagery  in  which  they  are  kept,  they  are  com- 
pelled to  produce  ail  that  terrible  laboui',  the  results  of 
which  are  swallowed  up  by  the  capitals,  the  cities,  and 
the  country  centres  of  the  rich  ? 

All  these  palaces,  theatres,  museums,  all  those  para- 
phernalia, all  that  wealth,  —  all  tliis  is  worked  out  by  the 
very  starving  people,  who  do  all  these  things  wliich  are 
unnecessary  to  them  only  because  they  make  a  living  by 
it,  that  is,  always  with  tliis  enforced  labour  save  them- 
selves from  a  famine  death,  which  is  always  hanging  over 
them. 

Such  has  always  been  their  condition. 

The  present  year  has  merely  shown,  in  consequence  of 
the  famine,  that  the  string  is  too  tightly  drawn. 

The  masses  are  always  kept  by  us  half-starved.  This 
is  our  means  for  compelling  them  to  work  for  us. 

But    this    present    year  their  starving    condition    has 


238         LETTERS  ON  THE  FAMINE 

proved  too  great.  Nothing  new  or  unexpected  has  hap- 
pened, and  it  seems  to  us  that  it  is  possible  to  know  why 
the  masses  are  hungry. 

The  society  endeavours  to  aid  the  masses  in  the  calam- 
ity are  similar  to  the  endeavours  at  establishing  the  Ked 
Cross  in  war-time.  The  energy  of  some  in  war  is  directed 
toward  committing  murder,  and  this  activity  is  considered 
normal,  and  to  counteract  it  they  establish  another  activ- 
ity, —  that  of  curing  these  people  who  are  being  killed. 

All  this  is  very  nice,  so  long  as  the  activity  of  the  war 
and  also  the  activity  of  the  exhaustion  of  the  masses,  of 
their  oppression,  are  considered  to  be  normal ;  but  as  soon 
as  we  begin  to  assert  that  we  are  sorry  for  the  people  who 
are  killed  in  a  war  and  for  starving  people,  would  it  not 
be  simpler  not  to  kill  the  people  and  not  to  establish 
means  for  curing  them  ?  Would  it  not  be  simpler  to  stop 
doing  all  that  which  ruins  the  well-being  of  the  masses, 
than,  continuing  to  ruin  them,  to  make  it  appear  that  we 
are  worried  about  their  well-being  ? 

This  lie  is  always  startling,  but  at  the  present  time  it 
is  detestable. 

We  assure  ourselves  and  others  that  we  are  very  much 
worried  by  the  famine,  that  we  are  disturbed  by  the  con- 
dition of  the  Russian  people,  that  we  are  prepared  for  any 
sacrifices,  and  yet  by  our  hves  we  show  that  all  this  is 
nothing  but  words  and  that  we  are  lying,  because  this  lie 
has  become  a  conventional  lie,  common  to  all  men.  And 
nobody  shows  up  another  for  fear  of  being  shown  up  him- 
self. 

If  we  collate  everything  which  has  been  written  in  the 
newspapers  about  the  present  condition  of  the  Russian 
people,  we  shall  approximately  get  this  :  forty  millions  of 
Russians  are  starving,  and  there  is  hardly  any  possibility 
of  helping  them.  If  we  assume  that  all  the  corn  which 
there  is  will  be  given  to  the  starving,  which  it  is  impossi- 
ble to  assume,  —  there  will  still  be  lacking  one-fourth  of 


LETTERS  ON  THE  FAMINE        239 

what  is  necessary  for  the  feeding  of  all  the  starving. 
There  is  httle  chance  that  we  shall  he  able  to  buy  and 
bring  from  abroad  the  corn  needed,  so  that  it  sliould  reach 
us  at  an  accessible  price,  and  so  one-fourtli  of  forty  mil- 
lions are  in  danger  of  death  from  starvation. 

Death  from  starvation,  according  to  the  information 
of  the  newspapers  and  according  to  rumours,  has  already 
begun.  Cases  have  happened  where  mothers  have  brought 
their  children  to  the  township  offices  and  have  cast  them 
away  there,  saying  that  they  had  nothing  to  feed  them  on. 

They  tell  of  a  mother  who  killed  herself  with  her 
children ;  they  tell  of  another  who  hanged  herself,  so  as 
not  to  see  her  dying  children.  They  give  the  description 
of  three  children  who  died  from  starvation.  In  many 
places  people  are  falling  sick  and  swelhug  from  hunger, 
and  now,  during  the  warm  autumn  weather,  the  famine 
typhus  is  becoming  epidemic.  What  will  happen  in 
winter,  when  it  will  be  cold  in  those  places  where  they 
generally  use  straw  for  fuel,  and  where  there  is  none  this 
present  year  and  wood  cannot  be  procured  any  nearer 
than  one  hundred  or  one  hundred  and  fifty  versts  ? 

We  all  read  about  this,  or  if  we  do  not  read  we  inevi- 
tably hear  of  it,  out  of  decency  shrug  our  shoulders,  sigh, 
make  small  money  contributions,  and  say,  "  Yes,  it  is  ter- 
rible ! "  and  we  continue  our  habitual  lives. 

Even  though  there  are  men  and  establishments  which 
contribute  money,  and  though  there  are  others  who  serve 
in  the  administration  and  in  the  County  Councils,  who  are 
busy  providing  for  the  needy,  buying  up  corn,  selling  it  at 
a  low  price,  making  lists  of  the  farms,  etc.,  yet,  in  spite 
of  the  money  contributions  which  a  few  make,  and  in 
spite  of  the  cares  talcen  by  the  officials  in  respect  to  the 
furnisliing  of  the  supplies,  our  society,  that  is,  all  men, 
both  those  who  contribute  and  those  who  do  not,  those 
who  serve  and  those  who  do  not,  remain,  in  spite  of  the 
mutual  accusations  of  indifference,  absolutely  calm  and 


240        LETTERS  ON  THE  FAMINE 

indifferent  to  what  is  supposedly  a  terrible  calamity,  which 
is  now  taking  place  and  is  imminent,  and  which  no  one 
denies. 

I  say  that  society  remains  entirely  indifferent  to  the 
imminent  calamity,  not  because  it  so  seems  to  me  and 
because  I  want  to  say  so,  but  because  there  is  a  well- 
known  and  unquestionable  sign  of  real  sympathy,  which 
now  is  lacking  in  the  whole  of  Eussian  society. 

We  only  know  that  a  man  is  not  indifferent  and  truly 
sympathizes  with  what  has  taken  place  or  is  about  to  take 
place,  only  when  this  news  changes  his  life  ;  when  he 
stops  doing  that  which  he  has  been  doing,  eating  as 
he  ate,  sleeping  as  he  slept,  living  as  he  lived.  Much 
more  does  this  sign  of  indifference  or  of  sympathy  show 
in  reference  to  an  event  which  has  not  yet  taken  place, 
but  is  only  menacing. 

When  a  man  at  dinner  receives  news  that  a  man  is 
drowning  in  the  river  near  his  house,  and  he,  continuing 
to  eat,  gives  his  commands  about  furnishing  a  rope  which 
is  necessary  in  order  to  save  the  drowning  person,  it 
makes  no  difference  what  h-e  may  say  about  his  sympathy 
for  the  drowning  person,  we  shall  not  believe  him,  and 
we  shall  know  that  he  is  indifferent  to  the  event  which  is 
taking  place.  Such  an  indifference  now  exists  in  our 
society  in  respect  to  the  calamity  which  the  newspapers 
describe  and  predict.  People  go  on  dining,  and  show 
their  sympathy  by  not  being  sorry  for  the  time  which 
they  have  lost  in  giving  orders  about  the  rope,  nor  even 
for  the  rope  itself.  The  life  of  the  men  of  our  society 
continues  in  its  usual  current :  there  are  the  same  con- 
certs and  theatres,  —  if  there  are  no  balls,  this  is  due  only 
to  the  example  of  the  emperor,  —  the  same  dinners,  cos- 
tumes, races,  horses,  carriages,  hunts,  expositions,  flowers, 
novels,  and  so  forth.  Life  has  not  changed  in  the  least 
and  has  not  been  adapted  to  the  existing  calamity,  but, 
on    the  contrary,  the    famine  has  been   adapted  to  the 


LETTERS  ON  THE  FAMINE        241 

comrtioii  cutrent  of  life,  the  famine  fait  les  frais  de  la 
conversation  in  drawing-rooms,  fills  the  columns  of  news- 
papers and  forms  an  interesting  subject  of  correspondences, 
serves  as  an  excuse  for  the  arrangement  of  bazaars,  the- 
atres, concerts,  volumes  of  collections.  Life  has  not  only 
not  changed,  in  order  to  serve  the  famine,  but  the  famine 
has  become  an  indispensable  part  of  life ;  the  famine  has 
come  to  occupy  the  place  of  a  modern,  fashionable  subject 
of  interest,  a  place  which  has  always  to  be  filled.  Nor  can 
it  be  different ;  the  famine  does  not  touch  us,  but,  as  we 
imagine,  men  who  are  entire  strangers  to  us,  who  are 
united  with  us  only  by  the  abstract  conception  that  they 
and  we  are  Russians. 

Voltaire  says  that  if  it  were  possible  by  touching  a  but- 
ton in  Paris  to  kill  a  mandarin  in  China,  few  Parisians 
would  deprive  themselves  of  this  pleasure. 

Why  not  tell  tlie  truth  ?  If  it  were  possible  by  press- 
ing a  button  in  Moscow  or  St.  Petersburg  to  kill  a  peasant 
in  Mamadyshi  or  Tsarevokokshaysk,  so  that  no  one  could 
find  it  out,  I  do  not  think  there  would  be  found  many 
men  who  would  keep  from  pressing  the  button,  if  this 
could  afford  them  the  least  pleasure. 

Between  a  man  of  our  wealthy  circle,  —  a  gentleman 
with  a  starched  shirt,  an  official,  a  landed  proprietor,  a 
business  man,  an  officer,  a  scholar,  an  artist,  —  and  a  peas- 
ant, if  we  were  to  tell  the  truth,  there  is  as  little  connection 
as  between  a  Parisian  and  a  mandarin. 

It  is  impossible  to  conceal  what  we  all  know  !  We  do 
not  say  all  this,  but  it  is  simply  because  with  us  there 
has  established  itself  among  the  cultured  people  a  custom 
of  professing  love  for  the  peasant,  the  lesser  brother,  for 
the  sake  of  propriety  ;  but  we  all  know  that  between  us, 
gentlemen,  and  the  peasants  there  is  an  abyss. 

There  are  masters  and  slaves.  The  first  are  respected, 
the  second  are  despised,  and  between  the  two  there  is  no 
connection.     They  are  two  entirely  different  categories  of 


242        LETTEKS  ON  THE  FAMINE 

men,  two  different  castes.  Gentlemen  never  marry  peas- 
ant women  and  never  give  their  daughters  in  marriage  to 
peasants  and  labourers ;  gentlemen  never  treat  peasants  as 
their  acquaintances,  do  not  eat  with  them,  and  do  not  even 
sit  with  them ;  gentlemen  say  "  thou  "  to  labourers,  and 
labourers  say  "  you  "  to  gentlemen.  Gentlemen  are  ad- 
mitted to  clean  places  and  are  let  in  to  the  front  in 
churches ;  the  others  are  not  let  in  and  "  get  it  in  the 
neck ; "  the  latter  are  whipped,  and  the  first  are  not. 

They  are  two  different  castes. 

Though  the  transition  from  the  lower  to  the  higher  is 
possible,  yet,  so  long  as  the  transition  has  not  taken  place, 
there  exists  a  most  distinct  division,  and  between  a  gentle- 
man and  a  peasant  there  is  as  little  connection  as  between 
a  Parisian  and  a  Chinaman ;  so  that  to  allow  a  peasant  to 
die  is  the  same  as  allowing  the  hen  to  die  that  lays  the 
golden  eggs. 

And  I  do  not  say  this  because  I  have  just  taken  it  into 
my  head  to  say  a  lot  of  unpleasant  things  to  the  rich  Eus- 
sians  among  whom  I  belong,  but  because  it  is  so.  As  a 
proof  and  confirmation  of  this  serves  the  whole  Russian 
life,  everything  which  incessantly  is  taking  place  in  the 
whole  of  Russia. 

All  wealthy  Russians  incessantly  press  the  button,  not 
even  for  the  pleasure  of  an  interesting  experiment,  but  for 
the  most  insignificant  of  purposes.  To  say  nothing  of  the 
generations  of  factory  hands,  who  perish  from  their  sense- 
less, painful,  corrupting  work  in  the  factories  for  the  grati- 
fication of  the  rich,  all  the  agricultural  population,  or  an 
immense  proportion  of  it,  having  no  land  from  which  to 
make  a  living,  is  compelled  to  undergo  a  terrible  strain  of 
work,  w^hich  destroys  their  physical  and  their  spiritual 
forces,  only  that  the  gentlemen  may  be  able  to  increase 
their  luxury.  The  whole  population  is  made  drunk  and 
is  exploited  by  the  commercialists  for  this  purpose.  The 
population  degenerates,  the  children  die  before  their  time. 


LETTERS  ON  THE  FAMINE        243 

only  that  the  wealthy  gentlemen  and  merchants  may  be 
able  to  live  their  distinct  lordly  lives,  with  their  palaces, 
dinners,  concerts,  horses,  carriages,  lectures,  and  so  forth. 

Do  not,  now,  the  people,  as  they  say,  die  like  flies  from 
hunger,  the  proprietors,  the  merchants,  and,  in  general, 
the  wealthy,  sit  with  supplies  of  corn,  waiting  for  still 
higher  rises  in  the  prices  ?  Do  the  officials  stop  receiving 
their  salaries,  which  are  collected  from  the  starving  ?  Do 
not  all  the  intelligent  classes  continue  to  live  in  the  cities 
for  their  own  superior  purposes,  if  we  are  to  take  their 
word  for  it,  —  devouring  there,  in  the  cities,  those  means 
for  the  support  of  life  which  are  taken  there  for  them, 
and  the  lack  of  which  causes  the  masses  to  die  ? 

All  the  instincts  of  every  one  of  the  gentlemen,  the 
learned,  the  official,  the  artistic,  the  domestic,  are  such  as 
have  nothing  in  common  with  the  life  of  the  people.  The 
masses  do  not  understand  the  gentlemen,  and  the  gentle- 
men, though  imagining  that  they  understand  the  masses, 
do  not  understand  them,  because  their  interests  are  not 
only  not  identical  with  those  of  the  gentlemen,  but  are 
always  diametrically  opposed  to  them. 

We  need  the  masses  only  as  a  tool,  and  the  gentlemen 
make  use  of  this  tool,  not  from  hard-heartedness,  but  be- 
cause their  life  is  so  circumstanced  that  they  cannot  help 
making  use  of  it,  and  their  advantages  (no  matter  how 
much  one  may  say  the  opposite  to  "console  oneself)  are 
always  diametrically  opposed  to  the  advantages  of  the 
masses. 

"  The  more  salary  and  pension  I  am  given,"  says  the 
official,  "  that  is,  the  more  is  taken  from  the  masses,  the 
better  it  is  for  me." 

"The  higher  the  price  is  at  which  corn  and  all  the 
necessary  articles  will  be  sold  to  the  masses  and  the 
harder  it  will  be  for  them,  the  better  it  will  be  for  me," 
say  the  merchant  and  the  landowner. 

"  The  cheaper  the  labour  will  be,  that  is,  the  poorer  the 


244        LETTERS  ON  THE  FAMINE 

masses  will  be,  the  better  it  is  for  us,"  say  all  the  people 
of  the  wealthy  classes. 

Where  can  there  be  any  sympathy  among  us  for  the 
masses  ? 

Between  us  and  the  masses  there  is  no  other  connection 
than  an  inimical  one,  that  of  the  master  and  the  slave. 
The  better  it  is  for  me,  the  worse  it  is  for  him.  The 
better  it  is  for  him,  the  worse  it  is  for  me.  And  under 
these  conditions  we  have  suddenly  begun  to  assure  our- 
selves and  others  that  we  are  very  anxious  to  bring  them 
out  from  that  condition  of  poverty,  in  which  we  ourselves 
have  placed  them,  and  which  is  necessary  for  us. 

It  is  this  conventional  lie,  which  by  all  men  is  taken  for 
the  truth,  that  forms  the  cause  of  the  strange  confusion  of 
ideas  in  the  people  of  our  circle  who  discuss  the  present 
wretched  condition  of  the  masses. 


VI. 

If  a  man  of  society  really  wants  to  serve  the  masses, 
the  first  thing  he  has  to  do  is  clearly  to  understand  his 
relation  to  them.  So  long  as  nothing  is  undertaken,  the 
lie,  remaining  a  lie,  is  not  particularly  harmful ;  but  when, 
as  at  present,  men  want  to  serve  the  masses,  the  first 
and  chief  thing  which  is  necessary  is  to  reject  the  lie, 
clearly  to  understand  our  relation  to  them.  Having  come 
to  understand  our  relation  to  the  masses,  which  consists 
in  this,  that  we  live  by  them,  that  their  poverty  is  due  to 
our  wealth,  and  their  famine  to  our  satiety ;  if  we  sin- 
cerely want  to  serve  the  masses,  w^e  shall  first  of  all  stop 
doing  what  causes  their  ruin. 

If  we  truly  pity  the  horse  which  we  are  driving,  we 
vshall  first  of  all  get  down  and  walk. 

First  of  all,  let  us  try  to  rendre  gorge,  to  return  to  the 
masses  what  we  have  all  the  time  been  taking  from  them  ; 
let  us  stop  taking  from  them  what  we  have  Ijeen  taking, 
and  then  let  us  change  our  lives,  let  us  demolish  the  caste 
line,  which  separates  us  from  the  masses,  and  let  us  go  to 
them,  not  only  as  to  equals,  but  as  to  our  better  brothers, 
toward  whom  we  have  for  a  long  time  been  guilty,  —  let 
us  go  to  them  with  repentance,  meekness,  and  love. 

"  I  do  not  know  whether  the  masses,  the  whole  people, 

will  find  enough  food  or  not,"  will  say  every  man  who 

takes  this  point  of  view,  "  and  I  cannot  know :  to-morrow 

there  may  be  a  pest  or  an  invasion,  from  which  the  masses 

will    die  without  a  famine,  or   to-morrow  there  will  be 

discovered  a  new  nutritive  substance  which  will  feed  all, 

246 


246        LETTERS  ON  THE  FAMINE 

or,  what  is  simplest  of  all,  I  shall  die  to-morrow,  and  so 
shall  not  learn  anything  about  whether  the  masses  will 
find  enough  food  or  not.  But  the  main  thing  is,  that 
nobody  is  appointing  me  to  the  business  of  feeding  forty 
millions  of  people,  who  are  living  within  certain  bounda- 
ries, and  I  can  obviously  not  attain  the  external  end  of 
feeding  certain  people  and  freeing  them  from  misfortune, 
—  I  can  do  but  one  thing,  and  that  is,  use  my  strength 
in  the  best  manner  possible  for  the  purpose  of  contributing 
to  the  welfare  of  my  brothers,  considering  all  without 
exception  my  brothers. 

And,  wonderful  to  say,  a  man  need  but  turn  away  from 
the  problem  of  solving  the  external  questions  and  set 
before  himself  the  one  true  internal  question,  which  is 
proper  for  a  man,  "  How  can  I  in  this  year  of  hard  trials 
pass  my  life  in  the  best  manner  possible  ? "  in  order  that 
these  questions  may  receive  an  answer. 

The  common  governmental  activity,  which  does  not 
change  its  relation  to  the  masses,  sets  before  itself  an 
enormous  aim,  which  it  does  not  attain. 

The  personal  activity  sets  before  itself  an  internal  aim, 
and  it  attains  even  the  one  which  it  has  not  set  before 
itself. 

The  common  governmental  activity  busies  itself  with 
the  external  aim  of  feeding  and  maintaining  the  welfare 
of  ferty  millions  of  people,  and,  as  we  have  seen,  it  meets 
on  its  path  insurmountable  obstacles. 

(1)  There  is  absolutely  no  possibility  of  determining 
the  degree  of  the  imminent  want  among  the  population, 
which  maintains  itself  and  is  capable  in  this  maintenance 
of  manifesting  the  greatest  energy  or  the  most  absolute 
apathy. 

(2)  If  we  admit  that  this  determination  is  possible  in 
accordance  with  the  information  collected  by  the  govern- 
ment's agents,  the  amount  of  the  sums  demanded  is  so 
great  that  there  is  no  probability  that  it  will  be  obtained. 


.1 


LETTERS  ON  THE  FAMINE        247 

(3)  If  we  admit  that  these  means  will  be  found,  the 
free  distribution  of  the  same  to  the  population  will  weaken 
the  energy  and  self-reliance  of  the  masses,  which  form  the 
chief  means  for  supporting  them. 

Even  if  we  admit  that  the  distribution  will  take  place 
in  such  a  way  that  it  will  not  weaken  the  self-reliance  of 
the  masses,  there  is  no  possibility  of  correctly  distributing 
the  aid,  and  those  who  are  not  in  want  will  get  the  por- 
tions of  those  who  are,  and  the  needy  will  after  all,  in 
many  cases,  remain  without  aid  and  will  perish. 

The  personal  activity,  which  sets  before  itself  the  inter- 
nal aim,  will  remove  all  these  obstacles.  For  this  activity 
there  is  no  question  as  to  the  number  of  those  who  are  in 
need.  For  this  activity  there  have  always  been  and 
always  are  those  who  need,  and  the  question  consists  only 
in  this,  how  much  of  my  strength  I  can  give  to  the  needy. 

It  is  this  activity,  which  in  the  present  famine  year,  in 
one  locality  (I  have  seen  this  more  than  once),  makes 
a  peasant  woman,  the  hostess,  at  the  words,  "  For  Christ's 
sake,"  which  she  hears  at  the  window,  shrink  and  frown, 
and  yet  take  down  from  the  shelf  the  last  newly  started 
loaf,  and  cut  off  a  tiny  piece,  of  the  size  of  half  a  palm, 
and,  makiug  the  sign  of  the  cross,  hand  it  to  the  beggar. 
And  it  removes  all  the  obstacles  which  have  impeded  the 
governmental  activity  with  its  external  aim. 

For  tliis  activity  there  does  not  exist  the  first  obstacle, 
—  the  determination  of  the  degree  of  the  want  of  those 
who  are  in  need  :  "  They  beg  Christ  for  the  sake  of  IM^vra's 
orphans."  She  knows  that  they  cannot  get  it  anywhere, 
and  she  gives  them  the  alms. 

There  also  does  not  exist  the  second  obstacle,  —  the 
enormous  number  of  the  needy :  the  hostess  who  gives 
the  alms  does  not  need  to  figure  out  how  manv  millions 
of  starving  there  are  in  Russia,  or  what  the  price  of  corn 
is  in  America,  at  wliat  price  it  will  reach  our  ports  and 
our  elevator,  and  how  much  it  will  be  possible  to  take 


248        LETTERS  ON  THE  FAMINE 

under  warrant.  For  her  there  exists  but  one  question  : 
How  to  insert  the  knife  into  the  loaf,  whether  so  as  to  cut 
off  a  thick  slice  or  not.  But  whether  the  slice  which  she 
gives  is  thick  or  thiu,  she  knows  indubitably  that,  if 
everybody  will  break  off  from  his  own,  there  will  be 
enough  for  everybody,  no  matter  how  many  there  may 
be. 

Still  less  does  the  third  obstacle  exist  for  the  peasant 
woman.  She  is  not  afraid  that  the  offer  of  this  tiny  slice 
will  weaken  the  energy  of  Mavra's  children,  that  it  will 
encourage  them  in  idleness  and  beggary,  because  she 
knows  that  these  children  utiderstand  how  dear  the  slice 
which  she  is  cutting  off  is  to  her. 

Nor  does  the  fourth  obstacle  exist.  The  peasant  woman 
need  have  no  care  whether  there  is  any  truth  as  to  the 
need  of  those  who  are  now  standing  at  the  window,  and 
whether  there  are  not  other  needy  persons  who  ought  to 
get  that  slice.  She  is  sorry  for  Mavra's  orphans,  and  she 
gives  them  the  alms,  knowing  that  if  all  will  do  likewise, 
nobody  will  starve,  not  only  the  present  year  in  Eussia, 
but  everywhere,  at  all  times. 

It  is  this  activity,  which  has  only  the  internal  aim, 
that  has  saved,  and  that  will  now  save,  men. 

It  is  this  activity  that  ought  to  be  practised  by  those 
who  wish  during  this  present,  hard  time  to  serve  others. 

[This  activity  saves  people,  because  it  is  that  smallest 
of  all  the  grains,  which  grows  into  a  very  large  tree. 
What  one  man,  two,  ten  men  can  do,  living  in  the  village 
among  the  starving  and  aiding  them,  is  so  insignificant ; 
but  here  is  what  I  saw  during  one  of  my  journeys.  Lads 
were  walking  from  Moscow,  where  they  had  been  work- 
ing. One  of  them  had  grown  sick  and  had  fallen  behind 
his  companions.  He  sat  and  lay  for  some  five  hours  on 
the  edge  of  the  road,  and  dozens  of  peasants  passed  by 
him.  A  peasant  was  driving  home  to  dinner  with  pota- 
toes, and  he  talked  to  the  lad  and,  upon  finding  out  that 


A  beggar. 


LETTERS  ON  THE  FAMINE        249 

he  was  sick,  took  pity  on  him  and  carried  him  with  him 
to  the  village.  "  Who  is  this  ?  Whom  did  Akim  bring 
along  ? "  Akim  told  them  that  the  lad  was  sick,  that 
he  was  thin  because  he  had  not  eaten  for  two  days, — 
that  he  ought  to  be  pitied.  And  one  woman  brought  him 
some  potatoes,  another — a  cake,  a  third  —  some  milk. 
"  Oh,  dear  man,  he  is  so  starved  !  How  can  one  help  pity- 
ing him  ?  One's  own  child !  "  And  the  same  lad,  past 
whom,  in  spite  of  his  miserable  appearance,  dozens  of  men 
had  "passed  without  giving  him  any  thought,  became  an 
object  of  pity  and  dear  to  all,  because  one  had  taken 
pity  on  him.  The  activity  of  love  is  important  for 
the  very  reason  that  it  is  infectious.  The  external 
activity,  which  is  expressed  in  a  free  distribution,  accord- 
ing to  regulations  and  hsts,  provokes  the  very  worst  of 
sentiments,  greed,  envy,  hypocrisy,  condemnation ;  the 
personal  activity,  on  the  contrary,  evokes  the  best  senti- 
ment, love,  and  the  desire  of  sacrifice.  "  I  have  worked 
and  laboured,  and  I  get  nothing,  while  a  lazybones  and 
drunkard  is  rewarded.  Who  told  him  to  spend  every- 
thing in  drink  ?  A  thief  suffers  justly,"  say  the  well- 
to-do  and  the  average  peasants,  who  receive  no  assistance. 
With  not  less  malice  the  poor  peasant  says  of  the  rich 
peasant,  who  demands  an  ec^ual  share,  ''  It  is  through 
them  that  we  are  poor.  They  suck  us  dry,  and  tliey 
want  to  get  our  share,  too  ;  they  are  sleek  enough  as  it  is," 
and  so  forth.  Such  sentiments  are  evoked  by  the  distri- 
bution of  the  free  aid.  But,  on  the  contrary,  let  a  man 
see  another  divide  his  last  possessions,  to  labour  in  behalf 
of  the  poor,  and  he  feels  like  doing  the  same.  In  this 
does  the  force  of  the  activity  of  love  consist.  Its  force 
consists  in  this,  that  it  is  infectious,  and  so  long  as  it  is 
infectious,  there  is  no  limit  to  its  diffusion. 

As  one  candle  lights  another,  and  thousands  are  lighted 
from  one,  so  one  heart  Hghts  up  another,  and  thousands 
are  lighted  from  it.     Millions  of  roubles  will  do  less  than 


250        LETTERS  ON  THE  FAMINE 

even  a  small  diminution  of  greed  and  the  increase  of  love 
in  the  mass  of  men.  Let  but  love  increase,  —  and  the 
miracle  will  take  place  which  was  performed  during  the 
distribution  of  the  five  loaves.  All  will  have  enough  to 
eat,  and  there  will  be  left  some.  —  B.] 

This  activity  demands  first  of  all  the  cessation  of  the 
caste  relation  to  the  masses,  which  is  contrary  to  love, 
and  the  cessation  of  their  exploitation,  and  demands  a 
direct  relation  with  them,  a  change,  a  simplification  of 
life,  —  it  demands  a  life  with  them,  with  those  masses 
whom  we  wish  to  serve. 

This  activity  presents  itself  to  me  like  this :  a  man  of 
the  wealthy  classes,  who  in  the  present  calamitous  year 
wants  to  do  his  share  in  the  common  calamity,  first  of  all 
arrives  in  one  of  the  localities  which  have  sufi'ered,  and 
begins  to  live  there,  spending  in  Mamadyshi,  Lukyanov, 
Efremov  Counties,  in  a  famine  village,  those  usual  tens  of 
thousands  or  hundreds  of  roubles,  which  he.  is  in  the 
habit  of  spending  annually,  and  devoting  his  leisure, 
which  in  the  city  he  used  for  amusements,  to  such  an 
activity  in  favour  of  the  starving  people  as  will  be  accord- 
ing to  his  strength. 

The  mere  fact  that  he  will  live  there  and  spend  what 
he  usually  spends  will  bring  material  assistance  to  the 
masses ;  and  the  fact  that  he  will  live  amidst  the  masses, 
not  even  with  any  sense  of  self-sacrifice,  but  only  without 
any  selfish  motives,  will  be  of  material  aid  to  him  and 
to  the  masses.  It  is  evident  that  a  man  who  has  come 
to  a  famine  locality  for  the  purpose  of  being  useful  to 
the  masses,  will  not  hmit  himself  to  living  for  his 
pleasure  alone  amidst  this  starving  population.  I  imagine 
such  a  person,  man  or  woman,  or  a  family  with  average 
means,  let  us  say  with  one  thousand  roubles  per  year,  as 
having  settled  in  the  famine  district. 

This  person,  or  family,  rents,  or  receives  a  dwelling 
from  the  proprietor,  who  is  a  friend,  or  chooses,  or  hires  a 


LETTERS  ON  THE  FAMINE        251 

good  hut :  h3  has  it  papered,  fixes  the  floors,  provides  him- 
self with  wood  and  supplies,  buys  himself  a  horse  and 
fodder,  and  gets  settled.  All  this  means  bread  for  the 
masses ;  but  the  relations  of  this  family  to  the  masses 
cannot  be  limited  to  this.  Beggars  with  wallets  will 
come  to  the  kitchen.  Alms  must  be  given.  The  cook 
complains  that  too  much  bread  is  given  out.  It  becomes 
necessary  to  refuse  chunks,  or  to  bake  more  loaves.  More 
loaves  are  baked,  and  more  people  begin  to  come.  From 
a  family  which  is  out  of  bread  and  has  nothing  to  eat 
they  have  come  to  ask  for  some,  and  it  becomes  necessary 
to  send  some  there.  It  turns  out  that  the  cook  cannot 
manage  it  all,  and  that  the  oven  is  too  small.  It  becomes 
necessary  to  hire  a  hut  for  the  loaves,  and  to  get  another 
woman  to  do  the  baking.  This  costs  money.  There  is 
no  money.  The  person  that  has  settled  here  has  friends, 
or  acquaintances,  who  know  that  he  or  she  has  gone  to 
hve  in  a  famine  district.  He  or  she  receives  from  them 
money  which  is  to  be  used  in  assisting  people.  In  the 
hired  hut  bread  is  distributed,  but  there  come  for  it  people 
who  are  not  in  absolute  want  of  it,  and  they  take  the 
bread  and  sell  it,  —  there  begins  a  deception.  To  prevent 
the  temptation  of  using  the  distributed  bread  for  personal 
advantage,  such  people  as  come  are  given  something  to 
eat,  instead  of  receiving  bread.  They  prepare  soup,  beets, 
oat  or  starch  broth,  lentils,  peas,  —  an  eating-house  is 
established. 

[It  seems  to  me  that  the  eating-houses,  places  where 
those  who  come  are  fed,  are  naturally  the  form  of  assist- 
ance which  will  arise  from  the  relations  of  the  rich  to  the 
starving,  and  will  be  of  the  greatest  use.  This  form  more 
than  any  other  calls  forth  the  direct  aid  of  him  who 
brings  assistance,  more  than  anything  else  brings  him  in 
contact  with  the  masses,  less  than  any  other  is  subject 
to  misuse,  and  makes  it  possible  with  the  least  means  to 
feed  the  greatest  number  of  men. 


252        LETTERS  OK  THE  FAMINE 

In  Dankov  and  Epiphany  Counties  such  eating-houses 
were  opened  in  September.  The  people  have  named  them 
"  orphan  homes,"  and,  it  seems,  the  name  itself  prevents 
any  misuse  of  these  establishments.  An  able-bodied 
peasant,  who  has  the  least  chance  of  providing  himself 
with  food,  will  not  himself  go  to  these  eatiug-houses  to 
eat  the  orphans'  food,  for,  so  far  as  I  have  observed,  he 
considers  this  a  disgrace.  Here  is  a  letter  which  I  have 
received  from  my  friend,  a  member  of  the  County  Council, 
and  a  constant  resident  in  the  country,  in  relation  to  the 
activity  of  these  orphan  homes : 

"  Six  orphan  homes  have  been  opened  not  more  than 
ten  days,  and  there  already  are  two  hundred  people  who 
are  receiving  food  in  them.  The  superintendent  of  the 
eating-houses  is  compelled,  with  the  advice  of  the  village 
elder,  to  admit  eaters  only  after  examination,  —  the  number 
of  the  needy  is  so  great.  It  turns  out  that  the  peasants 
do  not  feed  by  families,  but  that  those  who  are  in  want 
themselves  offer  their  candidates,  who  are  nearly  all  of 
them  old  women  and  children.  Thus,  for  example,  the 
father  of  six  children,  in  the  village  of  Pashkovo,  asked  me 
to  admit  two  of  them,  and  then,  two  days  later,  brought 
a  third  child.  The  elder  said,  '  It  gives  one  a  special 
pleasure  to  see  how  the  younger  children  have  taken  to  the 
beet  stew.'  The  same  elder  told  me  that  sometimes 
the  mothers  themselves  bring  the  children.  '  They  are 
lying,  when  they  say  that  it  is  to  give  them  courage,  for 
they  will  look  about  and  eat  themselves.'  As  you  hear 
these  words  of  the  elder,  you  understand  that  it  is  not  a 
lie,  and  that  it  is  not  possible  to  invent  such  words.  Has 
the  famine  really  not  yet  begun  ?  We,  of  course,  know 
that  the  wolf  is  at  the  door ;  but  the  trouble  is  that  the 
wolf  breaks  into  so  many  families  simultaneously  that  I 
am  afraid  we  shall  not  have  supplies  enough.  A  calcula- 
tion has  shown  that  we  use  for  each  mouth  one  pound  of 
bread  and  one  pound  of  potatoes  each  day,  and  in  addition 


LETTERS  ON  THE  FAMINE        253 

to  this  we  need  fuel  and  a  number  of  trifles,  onions,  salt, 
beets,  and  so  forth.  We  are  most  troubled  l)y  the  fuel ; 
it  is  the  most  expensive  of  all  the  materials.  The  peasants 
have  arranged  to  haul  by  rotation,  and  tbus  bring  in  the 
supplies.  The  organization  demands  a  good  administrator, 
aud  the  finding  of  the  supplies  is  a  troublesome  matter ; 
but  the  orphan  homes  themselves  need  no  supervision  in 
the  disbursement  of  the  supplies  :  the  hostess  herself  has 
been  so  much  accustomed  all  her  life  to  look  after  small 
matters,  and  the  guests  themselves  watch  the  business  of 
their  eatiug-house  so  much,  that  the  least  neglect  would 
immediately  become  known  and  then  would  be  removed 
of  its  own  accord.  I  have  had  two  new  cellars  dug,  and 
three  hundred  chetverts  of  potatoes  have  already  been  put 
into  them,  but  this  is  too  little,  as  the  need  grows  from 
day  to  day.  It  seems  that  the  aid  has  struck  the  nail  on 
the  head.  A  man  has  been  placed  in  charge  of  six  eating- 
houses,  but  it  is  time  to  widen  the  circle  of  the  activity  of 
the  eatiug-houses,  and  the  time  has  not  yet  passed. 

"  I  feel  how  joyous  the  work  will  be  in  the  eating- 
houses  ;  one  does  feel  pleasure  when  watering  plants  in  a 
drought :  what  joy,  then,  must  it  be  every  day  to  feed  the 
starving  little  children  ! " 

I  think  that  this  form  is  convenient  and  possible,  but  I 
repeat  that  this  form  does  not  exclude  other  forms.  The 
persons  who  live  in  the  villages  will  have  occasion  to  aid 
with  money,  and  with  grain,  and  with  flour,  and  with 
bread,  and  with  a  horse,  and  simply  with  food. 

All  that  is  necessary  is  that  there  should  be  men.  But 
these  men  exist,  they  surely  do.  I  have  visited  four  coun- 
ties, and  in  each  there  are  already  men  who  are  ready  for 
this  activity,  and  who  in  some  counties  have  already 
begun  it.  —  H.] 

However  sure  I  am  in  advance,  having  learned  this 
from  bitter  experience,  that  my  idea  will  be  misinter- 
preted, that   people  will    purposely  make  it  appear  that 


254        LETTERS  ON  THE  FAMINE 

they  do  not  understand  it,  and  will  take  one  part  and  will 
say  that  in  it  lies  the  whole  idea,  I  will  none  the  less 
express  my  idea  in  full,  without  curtailing  it,  and  without 
giving  it  in  a  softened  form,  so  as  to  become  unrecognizable, 
but  in  its  full  significance,  and  with  the  greatest  clearness 
of  expression  that  I  am  able  to  give  to  it. 

My  idea  is  this,  that  what  saves  men  from  calamities  of 
every  kind,  among  them  famine,  is  nothing  but  love.    But  • 
love  is  never  limited  to  words,  —  it  is  always  expressed 
in  acts. 

Now  the  acts  of  love  in  relation  to  the  starving  consist 
in  giving  one's  own  piece  of  bread  to  the  hungry,  as  this 
was  said,  not  even  by  Christ,  but  by  his  predecessor  John, 
that  is,  it  consists  in  sacrifice. 

And  so  I  think  that  the  greater  the  sacrifice,  the  more 
love  will  there  be,  and  the  more  fruitful  will  the  acts  be,  — 
the  more  will  people  profit  by  it.  And  so  I  think  that  the 
best  and  most  fruitful  thing  that  can  be  done  by  those  wdio 
understand  the  necessity  of  changing  their  lives  now,  in 
order  to  assist  the  needy,  consists  in  settling  now,  in  the 
present  year,  immediately,  amidst  the  starving,  living  with 
them,  eating  with  them,  sleeping  with  them,  dividing 
with  them. 

Although  I  am  used  to  the  misinterpretation  of  my 
ideas,  it  none  the  less  pains  me  to  think  that  this  idea,  too, 
will  be  misinterpreted,  and  that  it  will  be  deprived  of  the 
value  which  it  might  have,  and  so  I  beg  leave  to  say  just 
now  how  I  understand  what  I  have  spoken  of  above. 

I  know  in  advance  that  people  will  say,  "  Tolstoy 
asserts  that  every  person  who  wants  to  assist  the  starving 
ought  to  go  at  once  and  settle  in  a  cold  hut,  live  with  lice, 
eat  bread  with  orache,  and  die  in  two  months  or  two  weeks, 
and  that  everybody  who  does  not  do  so  offers  no  assistance." 

I  do  not  say  so. 

I  say  that  to  do  so,  to  live  and  die  with  those  who  will 
<iie  in  two  months  or  two  weeks,  would  be  very  nice  and 


LETTERS  ON  THE  FAMINE        255 

beautiful,  —  just  as  beautiful  as  Damien's  life  and  death 
among  the  lepers.  But  I  do  not  say  that  ever}'body  should 
and  could  do  so,  and  that  he  who  does  not  do  so  is  doing 
nothing.  I  say  that  the  nearer  a  man  will  act  like  that, 
the  better  it  will  be  for  liim  and  for  others,  and  that  every 
person  who  will  come  to  the  starving  in  the  villages,  and 
so  will  in  some  measure  approach  the  ideal,  will  be  doing 
well. 

There  are  two  limits :  one  is  to  give  one's  life  for  one's 
friends ;  the  other  is,  to  live  without  changing  the  con- 
ditions of  one's  life.  All  men  find  themselves  between 
these  two  limits :  some  are  on  the  level  with  Christ's 
disciples,  who  left  everything  and  followed  Him ;  the 
others  are  on  a  level  with  the  rich  young  man,  who 
immediately  turned  around  and  went  away  when  he  was 
told  of  the  change  of  life. 

Between  these  two  limits  are  found  all  kinds  of  Zac- 
chseuses,  who  have  only  partially  changed  their  lives. 
But,  in  order  to  be  a  Zacchteus,  it  is  necessary  all  the 
time  to  strive  after  the  first  limit. 

All  men  who  understand  that  the  ineans  for  helping 
the  present  famine-stricken  people  consists  in  the  removal 
of  the  partition  which  separates  us  from  the  masses,  and 
who  in  consequence  of  this  have  changed  their  life,  will 
inevitably,  according  to  their  moral  and  physical  forces, 
take  up  their  positions  between  these  two  limits. 

Some  will  settle  in  a  village  and  will  arrange  their  lives 
in  a  way  more  or  less  close  to  the  first  manner  of  hfe : 
they  will  live  and  eat  with  the  starving,  departing  from 
this  according  to  tlieir  weakness ;  others  will  live  and  eat 
separately,  but  will  manage  kitchens  and  eating-houses, 
will  serve  the  hungry  at  their  dinner,  will  furnish  them 
with  food,  and  will  give  food  to  be  taken  home  for  the 
sick  and  the  children  ;  others  again  will  only  superintend 
the  eating-houses,  and  will  visit  and  watch  the  eating- 
houses;  others  —  I  can  imagine  —  will  live  in  a  hungry 


256        LETTERS  ON  THE  FAMINE 

village,  spending  their  incomes  there  and  alleviating  as 
much  of  the  need  as  they  hear  of ;  others,  living  in  the 
city,  where  the  most  varied  moral  necessities  may  retain 
them,  will  change  their  mode  of  life  by  curtailing  their 
own  expenses  and  aiding  those  who  will  live  in  the  vil- 
lages to  widen  their  activity. 

Such,  I  imagine,  will  be  the  activity  of  the  men  who 
have  come  to  understand  their  sin  of  separation  from  the 
masses  and  who  wish  to  repent  of  it  and  to  redeem  it  in 
the  present  year  of  wretchedness,  which  calls  for  redemp- 
tion. 

There  can  be  none  but  a  living  help  for  men. 

Such  is  the  law.  To  wish  to  do  good  without  sacrifice 
is  the  same  as  wishing  to  move  a  body  without  a  loss  of 
force. 

The  external  governmental  activity  in  behalf  of  the 
famine-stricken  is  an  activity  without  sacrifice,  hence  its 
lack  of  success  until  the  present,  and,  in  my  opinion  and 
in  the  opinion  of  the  actors  themselves,  the  impossibility 
of  success,  to  say  nothing  of  the  fact  that  the  obstacles  to 
this  activity  are  found,  as  we  have  seen,  in  the  impossibility 
of  determining  the  degree  of  tbe  people's  need,  the  weak- 
ening of  the  energy  of  the  people  themselves,  and  the  im- 
possibility of  such  a  distribution  that  the  aid  shall  reach 
the  most  needy. 

The  inconvenience  of  this  activity  consists  in  this,  that 
people  look  upon  the  government  aid  as  upon  their  lawful 
possession,  to  which  they  have  a  right,  as  upon  an  increase 
of  income,  and  the  jealousy  of  acquisition  flames  up 
when  they  receive  the  aid.  All  those  who  receive  assist- 
ance see  only  persons  who  distribute  money  which  is  not 
their  own,  and  who  receive  salaries  for  doing  so,  and  such 
a  distribution  only  develops  in  them  greed  for  the  greatest 
acquisition. 

If  the  people  in  the  famine  district  —  all  kinds  of 
people,  those  who  stand  on  the  lowest  round  of  poverty. 


LETTERS  ON  THE  FAMINE        257 

and  the  rich  men  who  live  in  the  county  seats,  and  all 
people  between  the  two,  —  proprietors,  both  large  and 
small,  officials,  merchants,  innkeepers,  millers,  well-to-do 
and  average  peasants  —  see,  as  they  see  now,  all  people 
busy  and  very  eagerly  busy  acquiring  and  increasing  their 
means  of  subsistence,  —  proprietors  and  merchants  who 
deal  in  high-priced  corn,  wood,  potato-tops,  who  make  use 
of  everything  in  order  to  increase  their  incomes,  and  who 
side  by  side  with  it  continue  their  usual  round  of  life, 
with  their  hunts,  city  visits,  and  celebrations,  they  are, 
every  one  of  them,  infected  by  the  same  egotistical  life 
and  try  out  of  everything  they  can,  among  the  rest  out  of 
the  assistance  offered  to  men,  to  get  hold  of  as  much 
as  possible  and  to  give  as  little  aid  as  possible. 

The  egotistical  life  and  the  chase  after  advantages  is 
infectious.  But  just  as  infectious,  and  even  more  so, 
is  the  unegotistical  activity  of  love,  —  the  activity  of  sac- 
rifice. 

Every  centre  of  men  who  live  only  in  order  to  aid  the 
starving  and  who  have  changed  their  lives  for  tliis purpose 
will  be  the  centre  of  an  infection  of  goodness.  Looking 
at  these  people,  the  rich  man  who  lives  in  the  county 
seat,  and  the  proprietor,  and  the  merchant,  will  give  more, 
and  so,  above  all,  will  the  average  man,  of  whom  there  are 
thousands,  and  who  will  cut  off  a  larger  slice  for  Christ's 
sake.  There  are  millions  of  these  people,  and  millions  of 
the  roubles  of  a  rich  man  will  do  less  than  an  ever  so 
small  diminution  of  greed  and  an  increase  of  love  in  men. 
And  so  soon  as  there  shall  be  an  infection  of  sacrifice, 
there  will  happen  what  was  accomplished  at  the  distri- 
bution of  the  five  loaves. 

All  will  have  enough  to  eat,  and  there  will  be  left 


some. 


But,  in  order  that  this  may  happen,  that  love  may  make 
its  appearance,  it  is  indispensable  that  the  activity  should 
not  arise  from  the  desire,  while  remaining  in  our  foruier 


258        LETTERS  ON  THE  FAMINE 

relations  to  the  masses,  to  maintain  in  them  the  working 
force  which  we  need,  but  from  the  consciousness  of  guilt 
toward  the  masses,  of  the  impression  exerted  against 
them,  and  of  the  separation  from  them,  —  from  repent- 
ance and  humility. 

Not  on  the  proud  consciousness  of  our  indispensableness 
to  the  masses,  but  on  humility  can  grow  up  the  activity 
which  can  save  the  masses. 

1892. 


ARTICLES   AND   REPORTS    ON 
THE   FAiMINE 

1891-1893 


ARTICLES   AND   REPORTS   ON 
THE    FAMINE 


THE  TERRIBLE   QUESTION" 

Is  there  enough  corn  in  Russia  to  feed  all  until  the 
next  harvest  ?  Some  say  there  is,  and  others  say  that 
there  is  not,  but  nobody  knows  this  of  a  certainty.  But 
this  ought  to  be  known,  and  known  for  certain,  now, 
before  the  beginning  of  winter,  —  it  is  just  as  necessary 
as  it  is  necessary  for  men  to  know,  when  they  set  out 
on  a  voyage,  whether  there  is  enough  fresh  water  and 
food  on  the  boat. 

It  is  terrible  to  think  of  what  will  happen  to  the  crew 
and  the  passengers  of  the  boat,  when  it  turns  out  in  the 
middle  of  the  ocean  that  all  the  supplies  are  used  up. 
Still  more  terrible  is  it  to  think  of  what  will  happen  to 
us,  if  we  are  to  believe  those  who  assert  that  we  shall 
have  enough  corn  for  all  the  starving,  and  it  turns  out  in 
the  spring  that  those  who  asserted  so  were  mistaken. 

It  is  terrible  to  think  of  the  consequences  of  such  an 
error.  The  consequences  of  this  error  will  simply  be 
dreadful :  the  death  of  starving  millions  and  the  worst 
of  all  calamities,  —  the  bestialization  and  maddening  of 
men.  It  is  all  very  well  to  inform  the  St.  Petersburgians 
by  the  firing  of  cannon  alone  that  the  water  is  risiyg,  be- 
cause  it  is    impossible    to    do    anything    else.      Nobody 

261 


262  ARTICLES    ON    THE    FAMINE 

knows,  nor  can  know,  the  extent  of  the  water's  rise, — 
whether  it  will  stop  at  what  it  was  last  year,  or  whether 
it  wdll  reach  the  high- water  mark  of  the  year  1824,  or  will 
rise  even  higher. 

The  famine  of  the  present  year,  besides  being  an  incom- 
parably greater  calamity  than  an  inundation,  is  incompar- 
ably more  universal  (it  threatens  all  of  Eussia),  —  it  is  a 
calamity,  the  degree  of  which  not  only  can  and  must  be 
foreseen,  but  can  and  must  be  foreseen  and  prevented. 

"  Oh,  come  now  !  There  will  be  enough  corn  in  Eussia, 
more  than  enough  of  all  kinds  of  grain  for  everybody," 
say  and  write  some  people,  and  others,  who  love  peace, 
are  inclined  to  believe  this.  But  it  is  impossible  to 
believe  what  is  said  at  haphazard,  as  a  result  of  guesses 
in  respect  to  a  subject  of  such  terrible  importance. 

If  it  is  said  that  in  a  bathhouse  of  doubtful  security,  to 
which  people  go  once  a  week,  on  Saturday,  the  beams  will 
do  for  awhile  yet  and  that  it  is  not  necessary  to  put  in 
others,  we  may  risk  it  and  leave  the  bathhouse  without 
any  alterations ;  but  when  it  is  said  boldly  of  a  doubtful 
ceiling  in  a  theatre,  where  thousands  sit  every  evening, 
that  there  is  a  possibihty  that  it  will  not  cave  in  to-night, 
it  is  impossible  to  believe  and  to  be  calm.  The  menacing 
danger  is  too  great.  But  the  danger  which  is  threatening 
Eussia,  when  it  is  going  to  be  impossible  to  get  the  bread 
necessary  for  the  support  of  men  at  any  price,  this  danger 
is  so  terrible  that  the  imagination  refuses  to  present  to 
itself  what  would  happen  if  it  were  really  so ;  and  so  not 
only  must  we  not  be  satisfied  with  bold,  soothing  asser- 
tions that  there  will  be  enough  corn  in  Eussia,  but  it 
would  even  be  senseless  and  criminal  to  be  so. 

But  does  such  a  danger  exist  ?  Is  there  any  probability 
that  there  will  not  be  enough  corn  ?  The  following  con- 
siderations may  serve  as  answers  to  this  question.  In  the 
first  place,  the  famine  district  comprises  one-third  of 
Eussia,  that  very  third   which  has  always    fed    a  part 


AETICLES    ON    THE    FAMINE  263 

of  the  other  two-thirds.  Kahiga,  Tver,  Moscow,  all  the 
non-black  soil  and  northern  Governments,  even  the  non- 
black  soil  counties  of  those  Governments  which  have 
not  suffered  from  the  famine,  never  subsist  on  their  own 
corn,  but  always  buy  it  from  those  who  now  must  them- 
selves subsist  on  corn  which  is  got  elsewhere. 

For  this  reason,  if  we  count,  say,  ten  puds  to  each  per- 
son, well,  let  us  say,  of  only  twenty  millions  (when  they 
figure  them  as  high  as  forty  millions)  of  inhabitants  of 
the  starving  counties,  —  two  hundred  million  puds  of  corn 
whicli  are  needed,  —  this  does  not  by  a  good  deal  repre- 
sent the  amount  of  the  corn  necessary  for  feeding  Eussia. 
To  this  number  must  be  added  everything  which  is 
needed  for  those  who  in  former  years  subsisted  on  the 
corn  of  the  famine-stricken  localities,  which  will  very 
likely  give  another  such  figure. 

The  failure  of  the  crops  in  the  most  fruitful  locahties 
effects  something  similar  to  what  takes  place  in  the  shift- 
ing of  a  lever's  point  of  support :  not  only  is  the  force  of 
the  shorter  end  diminished,  but  the  force  of  the  longer 
end  is  increased  so  many  times. 

One-third  of  Eussia  is  in  the  grasp  of  the  failure  of 
crops,  —  the  most  fruitful  part,  which  has  been  feeding 
the  other  two-thirds,  and  so  it  is  very  likely  that  there 
will  not  be  enough  corn  to  go  around. 

This  is  one  consideration.  The  second  consideration  is 
this,  that  the  neighbouring  countries  are  affected  by  a 
similar  failure  of  crops  and  that,  therefore,  a  great  quantity 
of  corn  has  already  been  exported  and  now  continues  to 
be  exported ;  at  least  this  is  true  of  wheat. 

The  tliird  consideration  is  this,  that,  quite  contrary  to 
what  happened  in  the  famine  year,  1840,  there  are,  and 
there  can  be,  in  this  year  no  stores  of  old  corn. 

With  Eussia  happened  something  similar  to  what  hap- 
pened according  to  the  Bible  story  in  Egypt,  only  with 
this  diifference,  that  in  Eussia   there  was  no    predicting 


264  ARTICLES    ON    THE    FAMINE 

Joseph,  and  there  were  no  executive  persons  like  Joseph  ; 
but  there  have  been  threshing-machines,  railways,  banks, 
and  a  great  demand  for  money  on  the  part  of  the  Govern- 
ments and  of  private  individuals.  In  all  the  preceding 
years,  —  more  than  seven  preceding  years,  —  there  was 
much  corn,  the  prices  were  low,  but  the  need  of  money 
grew  and  grew,  as  it  regularly  grows  among  us,  and  the 
convenience  of  selling,  the  threshing-machines,  the  rail- 
ways, and  the  purchasing  agents  have  encouraged  selling 
and  have  been  the  cause  of  corn's  being  all  sold  out  in  the 
fall.  If  in  the  last  years,  when  the  corn  fell  particularly 
in  price,  a  few  sellers  have  kept  back  some  corn,  waiting 
for  better  prices,  this  holding  back  was  such  a  hard  matter 
that  the  moment  the  prices  rose  in  the  spring  of  the 
present  year  and  reached  as  high  as  fifty  to  sixty  kopeks 
per  pud,  the  corn  was  all  sold  out,  and  nothing  was  left 
of  the  supplies  of  the  preceding  years.  In  the  year  1840 
it  was  not  only  the  landed  proprietors  and  the  merchants 
who  had  supplies  left,  but  everywhere  the  peasants  had 
stores  of  old  corn,  from  three  to  five  years  old.  Now  this 
custom  has  become  obsolete,  and  nowhere  can  anything 
like  it  be  found.  In  this  does  the  third  consideration 
consist  as  to  the  insufficiency  of  the  corn-supply  for  the 
present  year. 

But  there  is  something  more  than  a  mere  probability : 
there  are  signs,  —  quite  definite  ones  at  that,  —  that  this 
want  exists. 

One  of  such  signs  is  the  phenomenon,  which  is  daily 
repeated  with  ever  growing  frequency,  that  there  is  no 
corn  for  sale  in  the  depths  of  the  famine  districts ;  so,  for 
example,  in  D^nkov  County,  where  I  now  am,  there  is  no 
rye  to  be  had  at  any  price.  The  peasants  cannot  find  any 
meal.  Yesterday  I  saw  two  peasants  of  Dankov  County, 
who  have  travelled  all  around  the  district  with  which  they 
are  familiar,  in  a  radius  of  twenty  versts,  visiting  all  the 
mills  and  stores,  in  order  to  buy  for  money  two  puds  of 


ARTICLES    ON    THE    FAMINE  265 

meal,  but  they  were  unable  to  procure  it.  One  of  them 
obtained  it  after  urgent  prayers  from  a  storehouse  of  an- 
other county  ;  the  other  borrowed  it. 

This  phenomenon  is  not  exclusive,  but  one  which  is 
constantly  and  everywhere  repeated.  The  millers  come 
to  beg  you  for  Christ's  sake  to  let  them  have  meal  from 
the  storehouse  of  the  County  Council,  because  they  have 
no  meal,  and  because  they  cannot  get  it  anywhere.  It  is 
possible  to  purchase  it  from  the  merchants,  in  the  cities, 
near  the  railways,  but  only  in  large  quantities,  at  least 
half  a  car-load  or  a  car-load  at  a  time  ;  but  there  is  no 
way  of  getting  it  at  retail.  The  large  merchants,  those 
who  have  a  supply,  do  not  sell  at  all,  but  are  waiting ; 
the  small  merchants,  the  dealers,  buy  it  up  and  sell  it  out 
again  at  an  insignificant  profit  to  the  large  purchasers. 
A  small  trade  is  carried  on  only  in  the  fairs,  during  fair 
time,  and  if  the  purchaser  is  too  late  he  can  get  none 
there,  either.  This  sign,  it  seems  to  me,  shows  quite 
clearly  that  there  is  not  as  much  corn  to  be  had  as  is 
needed.  This  is  also  in  part  shown  by  the  prices,  al- 
though in  the  present  year  there  have  so  far  been  causes 
which  do  not  permit  the  prices  to  be  a  correct  indication 
of  a  correspondence  between  demand  and  supply.  The 
prices  are  lower  than  they  ought  to  be,  and  they  are  arti- 
ficially kept  at  this  height,  in  the  first  place,  by  the  pro- 
hibition against  exporting  the  corn  ;  in  the  second  place, 
by  the  activity  of  the  County  Councils,  by  the  sale  of  rye 
and  meal  at  reduced  prices  (I  speak  of  the  price  of  rye, 
assuming  that  the  prices  of  the  other  foodstuffs,  of  bran, 
potatoes,  millet,  oats,  more  or  less  correspond  to  the  price 
of  rye). 

The  prohibition  against  exporting  has  confused  the 
prices,  that  is,  has  had  this  effect,  that  the  prices  can  no 
longer  be  a  correct  indication  of  the  amount  of  the  supply 
of  the  article.  Just  as  the  height  of  the  water's  rise  in 
the  dammed  river  cannot  be  an  indication  of  its  real  level. 


266  ARTICLES    ON    THE    FAMINE 

SO  the  present  price  of  rye  cannot  correctly  indicate  the 
relation  of  demand  to  supply.  The  prohibition  against 
exporting  other  grain  has  had  the  same  effect.  The  prices 
now  existing  are  not  well-established  prices,  and  are  in 
any  case  only  temporarily  lowered  prices  in  consequence 
of  the  prohiljition  against  exporting.  This  is  one  cause 
why  the  prices  are  lower  than  what  they  ought  to  be. 
Another  cause  is  the  activity  of  the  County  Councils. 

The  County  Councils  have  everywhere  bought  up  a 
small  portion,  rarely  more  than  one-fourth,  of  the  corn 
which,  according  to  their  own  calculation,  they  need  for 
supplying  all  the  food,  and  they  sell  the  corn  bought  up 
by  them  at  a  lower  price.  This  activity  of  the  County 
Councils  knocks  down  the  price,  for,  if  there  did  not  exist 
this  sale  from  the  County  Council  storehouses,  the  sale 
would  take  place  by  private  sellers,  who,  in  accordance 
with  the  increased  demand,  would  raise  the  prices.  The 
present  price,  I  think,  is  much  lower  than  what  it  would 
be  if  we  did  not  have  the  activity  of  the  County  Councils. 
And  this  price  will  at  once  very  rapidly  rise  as  soon  as 
the  County  Councils  have  to  buy  up  the  other  three- 
fourths  of  the  corn  needed  by  them. 

We  could  say  that  the  price  would  not  rise  if  the 
County  Councils  should  now  buy  up  all  the  necessary 
amount,  and  rye  remained  for  sale  at  this  price.  But 
judging  from  what  is  now  the  case,  there  is  no  probability 
of  its  being  so.  Judging  from  what  is  now  the  case,  that 
is,  when  the  price  is  one  rouble  seventy  kopeks,  while  the 
County  Councils  have  not  bought  up  even  one-fourth  of 
the  corn  needed,  and  while  rye  is  not  supplied  everywhere 
or  at  retail,  there  is,  on  the  contrary,  a  probabihty  that 
when  the  County  Councils  shall  have  purchased  all  the 
necessary  amount,  the  price  will  suddenly  rise  to  such 
a  height  that  it  will  be  shown  that  there  is  not  enough 
corn  in  Russia.  The  price  has  in  our  locahty  already 
reached    such  a  height  as  it    has  never  reached   before, 


ARTICLES    Olf   THE    FAMINE  267 

being  as  mucli  as  one  rouble  seventy  kopeks,  and  it  con- 
tinues to  rise  regularly. 

All  these  signs  indicate  that  there  is  a  great  probability 
that  Russia  has  not  the  necessary  amount  of  corn  within 
its  boundaries.  But  besides  these  signs,  there  is  also  an- 
other phenomenon  which  ought  to  cause  us  to  take  all 
the  measures  which  are  in  our  power  for  the  prevention 
of  the  calamity  that  is  menacing  us.  This  phenomenon 
is  the  panic  which  has  taken  possession  of  society,  that 
is,  the  indefinite  dim  fear  of  the  expected  calamity, — 
a  fear  by  which  people  are  infected  from  one  another, 
a  fear  which  deprives  people  of  the  ability  to  act  in  ac- 
cordance with  reason.  This  panic  is  expressed  in  the 
prohibition  against  exporting,  at  first  the  rye,  and  later 
other  kinds  of  grain,  from  which  for  some  reason  wheat 
is  excluded,  and  in  the  measures  taken,  on  the  one  hand, 
in  assigning  large  sums  of  money  for  the  starving,  and, 
on  the  other,  in  the  collection  of  the  taxes  by  the  local 
powers  from  those  who  can  pay,  as  though  the  extraction 
of  the  money  from  the  village  is  not  a  direct  intensifica- 
tion of  the  want  in  the  village.  (The  poor  man's  plant- 
ing is  mortgaged  to  the  well-to-do  peasant ;  he  would  be 
willing  to  wait,  but  the  taxes  are  exacted  from  him,  and 
so  he  calls  on  the  poor  man  and  ruins  him.) 

This  panic  is  also  startlingly  noticeable  in  the  disagree- 
ments which  are  bursting  forth  among  the  various  local 
departments.  There  is  repeated  what  always  happens 
during  a  panic  fear,  —  some  pull  in  one  direction,  others 
in  another. 

This  panic  is  expressed  in  the  mood  and  the  activity 
of  the  masses.  I  shall  quote  one  example :  the  masses 
are  all  tending  toward  outside  earnings. 

In  this  present  year  the  masses  travel  to  St.  Petersburg, 
to  Moscow,  to  find  a  living  there.  At  a  time  when  all 
the  work  has  stopped  for  the  winter,  when  the  living 
expenses  are  three  times   as    dear   as  usual   and   every 


268  AKTICLES    ON    THE    FAMINE 

master  dismisses  as  many  superfluous  men  as  he  can,  at 
a  time  when  there  is  everywhere  a  mass  of  working  men 
out  of  work,  —  men  who  have  never  had  anything  to  do 
in  the  cities  go  there  to  find  work.  Is  it  not  obvious 
to  anybody  that  under  such  conditions  there  is  more 
chance  for  the  owner  of  a  lottery  ticket  to  win  twenty 
thousand,  than  for  a  peasant  who  has  arrived  in  Moscow 
from  the  country  to  find  a  place,  and  that  the  whole 
journey,  no  matter  how  inexpensive,  with  the  expenses 
connected  with  it,  and  here  and  there  with  a  spree,  is 
only  an  additional  burden,  which  will  lie  heavy  on  the 
starving  ?  One  would  think  that  this  is  obvious,  —  and 
yet  all  of  them  go  to  the  city  and  back  again,  and  again 
to  the  city.  Is  not  this  a  symptom  of  the  complete  mad- 
ness, which  takes  possession  of  the  crowd  during  every 
panic  ? 

All  these  symptoms  and,  above  all  else,  the  phe- 
nomenon of  the  panic,  are  very  significant,  and  so  we  can- 
not help  but  be  afraid  of  them.  We  cannot  say,  as  people 
generally  say  of  an  enemy,  before  they  have  tried  their 
strength  with  him,  "  We  shall  undo  him  with  our  caps." 
The  enemy,  the  terrible  enemy,  is  standing  here,  before 
us,  and  it  cannot  be  said  that  we  are  not  afraid  of  him, 
because  we  know  that  he  exists  and,  more  still,  we  know 
that  we  are  afraid  of  him. 

And  if  we  are  afraid  of  him,  we  must  first  of  all  find 
out  his  strength.  We  cannot  remain  in  the  ignorance  in 
which  we  now  are. 

Let  us  assume  that  Eussian  society,  those  men  who 
live  outside  the  pale  of  the  starving  localities,  will  under- 
stand their  material  and  spiritual  solidarity  with  the  suffer- 
ing masses,  and  will  make  true,  serious  sacrifices  for  the 
purpose  of  aiding  the  needy.  Let  us  assume  that  the 
activity  of  those  people  who  now  live  amidst  the  famine- 
stricken,  working  for  them  to  the  best  of  their  ability, 
will  continue  doing  so  until  the  end,  and  that  the  number 


ARTICLES    ON    THE    FAMINE  269 

of  these  men  will  be  increased ;  let  us  assume  that  the 
masses  themselves  are  not  losing  courage  and  will  struggle 
against  want  even  as  they  are  strugghng  now,  with  all 
positive  and  negative  means,  that  is,  by  controlling  them- 
selves and  increasing  their  energy  and  their  inventiveness 
for  finding  the  necessary  means  for  existence,  —  let  us 
assume  that  all  this  has  been  done  and  is  being  done 
a  mouth,  two,  three,  six  months,  and  suddenly  the  price 
rises  and  continues  to  rise,  as  it  has  risen  from  forty-five 
kopeks  to  one  rouble  seventy  kopeks,  by  degrees  from  one 
fair  to  another,  and  in  a  few  weeks  reaches  as  high  as 
two  and  three  roubles  per  pud,  and  it  turns  out  that  there 
is  no  corn,  and  that  all  the  sacrifices  made  by  those  who 
have  given  money  and  by  those  who  have  lived  and 
worked  among  the  needy  were  a  useless  waste  of  means 
and  of  forces,  and,  above  all  else,  that  the  whole  energy 
of  the  masses  is  lost  in  vain,  and  no  matter  how  much 
they,  that  is,  a  part  of  them,  may  have  struggled,  they 
none  the  less  had  to  starve,  while  we  ought  to  have  known 
and  prevented  it  all. 

We  cannot,  we  cannot,  we  must  not  remain  in  such  an 
uncertainty ;  we,  the  educated  and  learned  men,  must  not 
remain  in  this  uncertainty.  A  peasant  whom  I  saw  yes- 
terday did  nearly  everything  which  he  could.  He  pro- 
vided himself  with  money  and  went  out  to  find  some 
meal.  He  went  to  see  Mikhail  Vanilevich ;  he  went  to 
the  mill;  he  went  to  Chernava  —  there  is  nowhere  any 
meal.  Having  visited  all  the  places  where  there  might 
have  been  some  meal,  he  knows  that  he  has  done  every- 
thing in  his  power,  and  if  after  that  he  could  nowhere 
obtain  any  meal  and  the  famine  overcame  him  and  his 
family,  he  would  know  that  he  has  done  everything  in 
his  power,  and  his  conscience  would  be  at  peace. 

But  if  in  our  case  it  turns  out  that  there  is  not  enough 
corn  and  that  our  labours,  too,  will  perish,  and,  perhaps, 
we  together  with  the  masses,  our  conscience  will  not  be 


270  ARTICLES    ON    THE    FAMINE 

at  peace.  We  might  have  found  out  how  much  corn  we 
should  need,  and  we  might  have  provided  ourselves 
with  it. 

If  our  education  and  learning  is  of  any  avail  to  us, 
what  greater  good  can  it  do  than  avert  such  a  universal 
calamity  as  is  the  present  one  ? 

To  figure  out  how  much  corn  is  needed  for  the  support 
of  those  who  have  none  in  this  present  year,  and  how 
much  corn  there  is  in  Eussia,  and  if  there  is  not  enough 
of  it  to  go  around,  to  order  the  necessary  corn  from 
abroad,  —  all  that  is  our  direct  duty,  which  is  as  natural 
as  what  the  peasant  did  yesterday,  when  he  travelled  in 
a  district  for  twenty  versts  around.  And  our  conscience 
will  be  at  peace  only  when  we  shall  have  visited  all  the 
surrounding  country  and  shall  have  done  everything  we 
can.  For  him  the  surrounding  country  is  Dankov, 
Klekotki,  for  us  it  is  India,  America,  Australia.  We  not 
only  know  that  these  countries  exist,  but  are  also  in 
friendly  intercourse  with  their  inhabitants. 

And  how  is  what  we  need  and  what  corn  we  have  to 
be  figured  out  ?  Is  this  really  so  difficult  ?  We,  who 
know  how  to  figure  out  how  many  different  kinds  of  bugs 
there  are  in  the  world,  how  many  microbes  there  are  in 
a  given  area,  how  many  milhons  of  versts  it  is  to  the 
stars,  and  how  many  pounds  of  iron  and  of  oxygen  there 
are  in  each  star,  —  shall  we  not  be  able  to  figure  out  how 
much  people  must  eat  in  order  not  to  starve,  and  how 
much  has  been  harvested  by  these  men,  by  whose  aid  we 
have  always  found  our  sustenance  ?  We,  who  with  such 
a  luxury  of  details  have  up  to  the  present  been  collecting 
such  a  mass  of,  so  far  as  I  know,  absolutely  useless  statis- 
tical data  concerning  the  rate  relation  between  births  and 
marriages,  deaths,  and  so  forth,  shall  we  suddenly  be 
unable  to  collect  the  actually  necessary  information,  which 
is  needed  most  urgently  ?     This  is  impossible. 

It  is  possible  to  collect  this  information,  not  approxi- 


ARTICLES    ON    THE    FAMINE  271 

mate,  guesswork  information,  like  that  precise  informa- 
tion we  get  concerning  the  population  by  a  one  day's 
registration. 

We  need  the  information  as  to  how  much  corn  above 
the  amount  usually  used  for  the  support  of  all  the 
Eussians  will  be  needed  for  the  inhabitants  of  the  famine 
districts,  and  how  much  corn  there  is  in  Russia.  And  we 
do  not  want  approximate,  wholesale,  guesswork  answers ; 
the  matter  is  too  important  to  be  done  at  haphazard,  like 
building  an  arch,  for  wliich  we  do  not  know  whether  we 
have  stone  enough  to  close  it. 

This  information  may  be  obtained  by  the  government 
and  by  the  County  Councils,  wherever  they  exist ;  still 
more  correctly  it  may  be  obtained  by  a  private  society, 
formed  for  the  purpose.  There  does  not  exist  any  county 
in  which  could  not  be  found,  not  merely  one,  but  several 
men  able  and  glad  to  help  in  tliis  matter.  This  matter 
does  not  present  itself  to  me  as  difficult.  In  a  week  an 
active  man  can  without  much  labour  travel  over  one- 
fourth  or  one-fifth  of  a  county,  especially  if  he  lives  in  it, 
and  within  a  possible  error  of  ten  or  fifteen  per  cent, 
define  the  amount  of  corn  needed  for  support,  and  the 
amount  of  corn  for  sale,  above  what  is  needed.  I,  at  least, 
undertake  personally  to  furnish  such  information  in  a 
week's  time  for  one-fourth  of  the  county  in  which  I  live. 
The  same,  I  am  told,  can  be  done  by  the  majority  of 
those  who  live  in  the  villages  and  with  whom  I  have 
spoken  about  the  matter.  I  assume  that  it  is  possible 
and  not  difficult  to  organize  a  central  place,  where  the 
information  may  be  collected  and  grouped,  and  which 
may  send  its  members  for  this  purpose  to  places  where 
no  volunteers  have  appeared.  There  may  be  mistakes ; 
there  may  be  concealments  by  the  owners  of  corn ;  the 
moving  of  corn  freight  may  produce  mistakes ;  but  the 
errors  of  the  calculation,  I  think,  will  be  small,  and 
the  information  received  in  this  manner  would  be  suffi- 


272  ARTICLES    ON   THE    FAMINE 

cieutly  exact  to  answer  the  main,  troublesome  question 
which,  if  not  expressed,  is  felt  by  all,  whether  there  is 
sufficient  corn  in  Kussia,  or  not. 

If,  let  us  say,  it  should  appear  that  in  the  present 
year,  after  the  deduction  of  what  is  generally  used  by  the 
army  and  for  the  distilleries,  the  surplus  of  corn,  above 
what  is  needed  for  the  support  of  the  nation,  is  as  much 
as  one  hundred  or  fifty  millions  of  puds,  assuming  that 
part  of  these  one  hundred  milhons  may  be  held  back  by 
the  sellers,  part  may  perish,  may  be  burned,  part  may 
form  a  mistake  of  calculation,  we  could  peacefully  and 
with  assurance  continue  to  live  and  to  work.  If  there 
should  not  be  any  surplus  at  all  and  it  should  appear 
that  there  is  in  Eussia  as  much  corn  as  is  needed,  the 
situation  would  be  doubtful  and  dangerous,  but  still  it 
would  be  possible,  without  ordering  any  corn  from  abroad 
and  only  by  lessening  the  use  of  the  corn,  as,  for  example, 
for  the  distilleries,  and  by  working  substitutes  into  food- 
stuffs, to  continue  to  live  and  to  work.  But  if  it  should 
appear  that  there  is  a  deficit  of  one  hundred  or  even  fifty 
millions  of  puds  of  corn,  the  situation  would  be  terrible. 
What  would  happen  would  be  what  happens  when  a  fire 
breaks  out  and  envelops  a  building.  If  we  found  it  out 
now,  it  would  be  as  when  a  fire  breaks  out  and  there  is 
still  time  to  put  it  out.  If  we  found  it  out  when  the  last 
ten  thousand  puds  were  being  used  up,  it  would  be  as 
when  a  fire  has  already  enveloped  the  whole  building 
and  little  hope  is  left  of  getting  out  of  it  alive. 

If  we  should  now  learn  that  there  is  a  deficit  of  corn, 
be  it  fifty,  or  one  hundred,  or  two  hundred  millions  of 
puds  of  corn,  —  all  this  would  not  be  terrible.  We 
".hould  buy  this  corn  now  in  America  and  should  man- 
age to  settle  for  it  by  means  of  state,  public,  or  national 
funds. 

People  who  work  ought  to  know  that  their  work  has  a 
meaning  and  does  not  pass  in  vain. 


ARTICLES    ON    THE    FAMINE  273 

Without  this  consciousness  the  hands  will  remain  idle. 
And  in  order  to  know  it,  for  tlie  work  with  which  the 
great  majority  of  the  Russians  are  now  occupied,  we  must 
know  now,  at  once,  in  two  or  three  weeks,  w^hether  we 
have  enough  corn  for  the  present  year,  and  if  not,  where 
we  can  get  it  and  what  we  need. 

Byegichevka,  November  1,  1891. 


ON  THE  METHODS  OF  AIDING  THE  PEOPLE 
WHO  HAVE  SUFFERED  FROM  THE  FAIL- 
URE  OF   CROPS 

The  aid  to  the  people  who  have  suffered  from  the  fail- 
ure of  crops  may  have  two  purposes,  —  that  of  supporting 
the  peasant  agriculture  and  of  freeing  people  from  the 
danger  of  falling  sick  and  even  dying  as  the  result  of 
insufficient  and  unwholesome  food. 

Is  this  aim  attained  by  the  aid  which  is  now  offered  in  the 
shape  of  the  distribution  of  from  twenty  to  thirty  pounds 
of  flour  per  month  to  every  mouth,  counting  in  the  labourers, 
or  not  ?  I  think  it  is  not.  And  I  think  so  from  the  fol- 
lowing considerations :  All  peasant  families  of  the  whole 
of  agricultural  Russia  may  be  classified  according  to  three 
types :  (1)  a  wealthy  farm,  from  eight  to  twelve  souls, 
an  average  of  ten  to  each  family ;  from  three  to  five 
labourers,  an  average  of  four.  From  three  to  five  horses, 
an  average  of  four.  And  from  three  to  nine  desyatinas  of 
land,  an  average  of  six.  Such  a  peasant  is  a  rich  man. 
Such  a  peasant  not  only  supports  his  whole  family,  but 
frequently  hires  one  or  two  labourers,  buys  up  land  from 
poor  peasants,  and  lends  them  corn  and  seeds.  All  this 
may  be  done  under  conditions  which  are  disadvantageous 
to  the  poor  peasants,  but  the  result  is  this,  that  where 
there  are  in  the  country  ten  per  cent,  of  such  rich  people 
the  land  does  not  lie  idle,  and  in  case  of  need  the  poor 
man  has  still  a  means  for  providing  himself  with  corn, 
seeds,  and  even  money. 

The  second  type  is  the  average  peasant,  who  with  great 

difficulty  makes  both  ends  meet  with  his  two  lots  and  with 

274 


ARTICLES    ON    THE    FAMINE  275 

one  or  two  labourers  and  one  or  two  horses.  This  farm 
lives  almost  on  its  own  corn.  What  is  lacking  is  earned 
by  the  member  of  the  family  who  hves  apart. 

The  third  type  is  a  poor  man  with  a  family  of  from 
three  to  five  souls,  with  one  labourer,  frequently  without  a 
horse.  He  never  has  enough  of  his  own  bread ;  he  must 
every  year  invent  meaus  for  getting  out  of  trouble  and  is 
always  within  a  hair's  breadth  of  beggary,  and  at  the  least 
mishap  goes  a-begging. 

The  aid  which  is  offered  in  the  form  of  flour  to  the 
population  of  the  famine  places  is  distributed  according 
to  the  existing  property  lists  of  the  peasant  families. 
According  to  these  lists  it  is  calculated  how  much  aid 
each  is  to  receive;  and  this  aid  is  offered  only  to  the 
poorest,  that  is,  to  the  families  of  the  third  type. 

No  aid  is  proposed  to  the  farms  of  the  first  type,  —  to 
the  rich  and  the  average  peasant,  who  have  yet  a  few 
chetverts  of  oats  left,  two  horses,  a  cow,  some  sheep. 
But  if  we  enter  into  the  condition,  not  only  of  the  average, 
but  even  of  the  rich  peasant,  we  cannot  help  but  see  that 
for  the  support  of  the  peasant  agriculture  these  farmers 
need  the  greatest  aid. 

Let  us  assume  that  a  rich  peasant  has  some  rye  left ; 
he  has  twenty  or  more  chetverts  of  oats,  five  horses,  two 
cows,  and  eighteen  sheep,  and  so  no  aid  is  provided  for 
him,  because  he  still  has  all  these  things.  But  figure  up 
his  income  and  his  expenditures,  and  you  will  see  that 
he  is  in  just  as  much  need  as  the  poor  peasant.  To  sup- 
port his  establishment  with  the  rented  land,  he  has  to  sow 
about  ten  ch«5tverts.  The  fact  that  he  will  have  left 
forty,  fifty,  or  sixty  roubles'  worth  of  corn  is  nothing  in 
comparison  with  what  he  needs  for  his  family  of  twelve 
souls.  For  his  twelve  souls  he  needs  fifteen  puds  at  one 
rouble  fifty  kopeks  —  twenty-two  roubles  fifty  kopeks 
per  month,  225  roubles  for  ten  months.  He  needs,  be- 
sides, forty,  fifty,  seventy  roubles  with  which  to  pay  the 


276  ARTICLES    ON    THE    FAMINE 

rental  for  his  land,  and  he  needs  money  for  his  taxes. 
The  members  of  his  family,  who  are  hired  out,  receive 
this  year  less  money  than  before,  on  account  of  the  higher 
price  of  corn,  or  are  discharged  altogether.  He  needs 
about  350  roubles,  but  he  will  not  get  together  two  hun- 
dred roubles,  and  so  there  is  but  one  thing  left  for  him  to 
do,  and  that  is,  not  to  hire  any  land,  to  sell  the  seed-oats, 
to  sell  some  of  his  horses,  for  which  he  cannot  get  any 
decent  price,  that  is,  to  descend  to  the  level  of  an  average 
peasant,  or  even  lower,  because  the  family  of  the  aver- 
age peasant  is  smaller. 

But  even  the  average  peasant,  so  long  as  he  has  some 
oats  and  one  or  tw^o  horses  left,  does  not  receive  any  aid, 
or  he  receives  so  little  that  he  must  sell  his  land  to  the 
exclusive  rich  men,  eat  up  his  seed-oats,  and  sell  his  horse 
for  food.  Thus,  with  such  a  distribution  of  the  aid  as 
now  exists,  the  rich  peasant  must  inevitably  descend  to 
the  level  of  the  average  peasant,  and  the  average  peas- 
ant to  that  of  the  poor  peasant.  From  the  conditions  of 
the  present  year,  nearly  aU  must  descend  to  this  level. 

The  distribution  of  flour,  failing  to  attain  the  end  of 
supporting  the  peasant  agriculture,  also  fails  to  attain  the 
second  end,  —  the  prevention  of  famine  diseases.  The 
distribution  of  flour  according  to  souls  does  not  attain  this 
from  the  following  causes  : 

In  the  first  place,  because  with  such  a  distribution  of 
flour  it  is  always  possible  for  the  recipient  to  succumb 
to  temptation  and  to  spend  in  drinks  what  he  has  re- 
ceived, a  thing  which,  though  infrequently,  has  happened 
in  some  cases;  in  the  second  place,  because,  falling  into 
the  hands  of  the  poor,  this  aid  saves  them  from  famine 
only  in  case  the  family  has  some  other  means  of  its  own. 
The  maximum  portion  is  thirty  pounds  to  each  man. 
And  if  thirty  pounds  of  flour,  with  potatoes,  and  some 
admixture  in  the  flour  for  the  baking  of  bread,  may  sup- 
port a  man  for  the  period  of  a  month,  these  thirty  pounds, 


ARTICLES    ON   THE    FAMINE  277 

in  connection  with  complete  poverty,  when  there  is  no 
money  with  which  to  buy  orache  to  mix  in  with  the 
bread,  are  eaten  up  in  the  form  of  pure  bread  in  the  period 
of  from  fifteen  to  twenty  days,  and  the  people,  remaining 
in  a  starving  condition  for  ten  days,  may  grow  sick  or 
even  die  from  lack  of  food.  In  the  third  place,  the  distri- 
bution of  Hour  to  poor  famiHes,  even  such  as  still  have 
means  of  their  own,  does  not  attain  the  end  of  preventing 
famine  diseases,  because  in  a  family,  in  which  the  strong 
people  easily  endure  poor  food,  the  feeble,  the  old,  and  the 
young  grow  sick  from  insufficient  and  unwholesome  food. 

In  all  localities  which  are  affected  by  the  failure  of 
crops,  all  —  the  well-to-do  and  the  poor  families  ahke  — 
eat  poor  bread  which  is  made  with  orache.  (Strange  to 
say,  now  the  poorest,  in  the  majority  of  cases,  in  receiving 
bread  from  the  County  Councils,  eat  pure  bread,  while  in 
the  wealthy  families  nearly  all  eat  it  with  orache,  with 
the  abominable  immature  orache  of  the  present  year.)  ^ 

And  it  constantly  happens  that  the  strong  members  of 
a  rich  family  endure  the  orache  bread,  while  the  feeble, 
the  old,  the  sick,  simply  run  down  from  its  effects  and 
die. 

Thus,  there  arrives  a  sick  woman  from  a  wealthy  farm, 
carrying  in  her  hands  a  chunk  of  black  orache  flat  cake, 
which  forms  her  chief  food,  and  begging  to  be  admitted  to 
the  kitchen,  for  no  other  reason  than  that  she  is  sick,  and 
that,  too,  only  for  the  period  of  her  sickness. 

Another  example :  I  go  to  a  peasant  who  receives  no 
aid  and  is  considered  rich.     There  are  only  two  of  them, 

^  The  use  of  orache  in  the  present  year  as  food  can  be  explained 
only  by  tradition,  by  the  fact  that  ]K'oplc  used  to  eat  it  before, —  and 
there  is  a  proverb,  which  says,  "Not  worse  than  porridge  is  bread 
with  orache,"  —  and  that  it  grew  up  in  the  rye-field  and  was  threshed 
out  with  the  rye.  It  seems  to  me  thnt  if  there  existed  no  tradition,  and 
if  it  did  not  f?row  in  the  rye-tield,  it  is  more  likely  that  oat  straw  or 
filinf^s  would  be  mixed  in  with  the  bread  than  this  injurious  sub- 
stance. And  yet  it  is  everywhere  mixed  in  with  the  bread.  — Author's 
Note. 


278  ARTICLES    ON    THE    FAMINE 

he  and  his  wife,  and  they  have  no  children.  I  find 
them  at  dinner :  potato  broth  and  orache  bread.  In  the 
fermenting-trough  is  fresh  bread,  with  a  still  greater 
admixture  of  orache.  Husband  and  wife  are  cheerful  and 
happy ;  but  on  the  oven  there  is  an  old  woman,  who 
is  sick  from  the  orache  bread,  and  she  says  that  it  is 
better  to  eat  but  once  a  day,  provided  one  has  good  bread, 
for  it  is  impossible  to  stomach  this. 

Or  a  third  example:  there  comes  a  woman  from  a 
wealthy  farm,  begging  to  have  her  thirteen-year-old 
daughter  admitted  to  the  public  kitchen,  because  she  is 
not  fed  at  home.  This  daughter  was  born  out  of  wedlock, 
and  so  she  is  not  loved  and  does  not  receive  enough  to 
eat.  There  are  many  such  examples,  and  so  the  distribu- 
tion of  fiuur  as  an  aid  does  not  secure  the  old,  the  feeble, 
and  the  disliked  members  of  the  family  against  diseases 
and  starvation,  in  consequence  of  insufficient  and  un- 
wholesome food. 

However  painful  it  may  be  to  say  so,  the  activity  of 
the  members  of  the  County  Council,  which  consists  in  the 
distribution  of  corn,  in  spite  of  the  remarkable  energy 
and  even  self-sacrifice  of  the  majority  of  them,  does  not 
attain  either  the  end  of  supporting  the  peasant  agriculture, 
or  of  preventing  the  possibility  of  famine  diseases. 

But  if  what  is  being  done  now  is  not  good,  what  is 
good  ?     AVhat  ought  to  be  done  ? 

According  to  my  opinion  two  things  are  needed :  for 
the  counteraction  to  complete  annihilation,  if  not  for  the 
support  of  the  peasant  agriculture,  we  need  to  provide 
work  for  the  whole  population  capal)le  of  working,  and  to 
establish  free  kitchens  for  the  young,  the  old,  the  feeble, 
and  the  sick  in  all  the  villages  of  the  famine-stricken 
localities. 

The  provision  for  labour  must  be  such  that  this  labour 
shall  be  accessible,  familiar,  and  habitual  to  the  popula- 
tion, and  not  such  as  the  people  have  never  busied  them- 


ARTICLES    ON    THE    FAMINE  279 

selves  with  or  have  not  even  seen,  or  such  that  the 
members  of  the  families  who  formerly  did  not  go  away 
will  now  have  to  leave  their  home,  which  is  for  them 
frequently  impossible  for  domestic  and  other  reasons 
(such  as  the  lack  of  clothing).  The  work  must  be  such 
that,  with  the  exception  of  all  the  work  outside  their 
houses,  to  which  all  those  workers  who  are  accustomed  to 
it  and  able  to  go  out  to  earn  money  will  go,  the  home 
work  may  be  performed  by  the  rest  of  the  population  of 
the  famine-stricken  localities, —  men,  women,  able-bodied 
old  men,  and  half-grown  children. 

The  calamity  of  this  year  consists  not  only  in  the  lack 
of  corn,  but  also  in  a  not  lesser  lack  of  earnings,  and 
simply  of  work,  —  in  the  enforced  idleness  of  several 
milhons  of  the  population.  If  the  corn  needed  for  the 
support  of  the  population  is  on  hand,  that  is,  can  be  trans- 
ported to  a  place  where  it  is  wanted  for  a  reasonable 
price,  the  famine-stricken  people  may  be  able  to  work  for 
this  corn,  provided  they  have  the  possibihty  of  working, 
the  material  for  work,  and  a  market  for  it.  But  if  they 
do  not  have  this  possibility,  hundreds  of  millions  will 
irretrievably  be  lost  in  the  distribution  of  aids,  but  the 
calamity  will  none  the  less  not  be  removed.  But  the 
question  is  not  merely  one  of  material  loss :  the  idleness 
of  the  whole  population  which  receives  free  food  has 
a  terrible,  corrupting  effect. 

Work  outside  their  houses  may  be  variously  arranged, 
for  the  winter,  and,  still  more,  for  the  summer,  and  may 
God  grant  that  this  kind  of  work  may  at  once  be  estab- 
lished and  be  of  the  widest  possible  dimensions.  But, 
besides  these  larger  laboui-s  outside  the  house,  the  afford- 
ing the  people  a  chance,  without  leaving  their  homes  and 
their  customary  conditions,  to  work  at  their  customary 
work,  even  though  at  a  very  low  price,  is  a  matter  of 
imperative  necessity  and  enormous  importance. 

In  the  villages  of  the  localities  where  there  was  a  failure 


280  ARTICLES    ON    THE    FAMINE 

of  crops  there  has  been  no  crop  of  hemp  or  of  flax  ;  the  sheep 
are  nearly  all  sold,  and  the  women  have  no  weaving  and 
no  spinning  to  do.  The  women,  old  and  young,  and  the 
girls,  who  are  usually  busy,  are  sitting  without  any  work. 
More  than  this :  the  peasants,  remaining  at  home  and 
having  no  money  with  which  to  buy  bast,  also  sit  without 
their  customary  winter  work,  —  the  weaving  of  bast 
shoes.  The  children,  too,  loaf  about  without  work,  be- 
cause the  schools  are  for  the  most  part  closed.  The 
people,  having  before  themselves  only  the  oppressive  con- 
ceptions of  the  ever-increasing  need,  and  deprived  of  the 
usual  and  more  than  ever  indispensable  means  for  diver- 
sion and  oblivion,  —  of  work,  —  are  sitting  for  days  at  a 
time  with  folded  hands,  discussing  all  kinds  of  rumours 
and  suppositions  in  regard  to  the  aid  which  is  being  of- 
fered or  which  will  be  offered,  and  chiefly  in  regard  to 
their  need.  "  They  feel  lonesome  and  tired  and  so  are 
ailing  more  than  ever,"  is  what  a  clever  old  man  said  to  me. 

To  say  nothing  of  the  economic  significance  of  work 
for  the  present  year,  its  moral  significance  is  enormous. 
Work,  any  kind  of  work  which  could  keep  busy  all  the 
people  who  are  idle  this  year,  forms  a  most  imperative 
necessity. 

So  long  as  these  extensive  labours  have  not  yet  been 
established  (labours  for  which  there  have  been  all  kinds 
of  extremely  clever  projects,  which,  as  we  hear,  are  being 
established  now,  and  which  will  be  immensely  useful,  if 
only  in  their  establishment  the  habits  and  comforts  of 
the  population  will  be  taken  into  consideration),  if  only 
in  all  the  famine-stricken  villages  all  the  remaining  people 
might  be  given  a  chance  to  work  at  their  customary  work, 
—  the  men,  say,  to  weave  their  bast  shoes,  if  nothing 
more,  and  the  women  to  spin  and  weave,  —  and  they  are 
given  a  chance  to  sell  everything  which  is  produced  by 
tliis  labour,  this  would  be,  if  not  a  support  of  the  peasant 
agriculture,  at  least  a  check  in  its  ruin.     If  it  be  admitted 


ARTICLES    ON    THE   FAMINE  281 

that  their  linen  can  be  disposed  of  at  as  little  as  eight 
kopeks  per  arshin  (and  it  can  be  disposed  of  in  enormous 
quantities),  and  if  the  bast  shoes,  which  can  be  kept  for 
years,  are  bought  up  at  ten  kopeks  per  pair,  the  earnings 
of  every  man  will  be  at  the  lowest  five  kopeks,  that  is, 
one  rouble  fifty  kopeks  per  month.  If  we,  with  this, 
assume  that  in  every  family  there  are  no  more  than  one- 
fourth  of  their  members  who  cannot  work,  it  will  turn 
out  that  for  each  person  in  a  family  there  will  be  earned 
450^  kopeks,  that  is,  one  rouble  twelve  kopeks;  that  is, 
considerably  more  than  what  now,  with  so  much  efibrt 
and  so  many  discussions  and  quarrels,  provoking  universal 
indignation,  is  given  by  the  County  Council. 

Such  would  be  the  calculation,  if  they  worked  at  the 
cheapest  and  unquestionably  the  most  accessible  work, 
which  is  best  known  by  the  country  population. 

Greater  means  would  be  obtained  than  what  is  now 
received  from  the  free  or  loan  distribution,  there  would 
not  be  that  insolulde  difficulty  of  the  distribution,  and, 
above  all  else,  of  the  dissatisfaction  which  is  caused  by 
this  distribution. 

In  order  to  attain  this,  it  would  be  necessary  merely  to 
spend  insignificant  sums  for  the  purchase  of  material  for 
work,  —  flax  and  bast,  —  and  to  secure  the  disposition  of 
these  products. 

Many  people,  though  still  to  a  very  small  extent,  are 
now  busying  themselves  with  the  arrangement  of  such 
work,  —  providing  weaving  material  for  the  women  and 
a  sale  for  their  woven  products.  We,  too,  have  begun 
this  matter,  but  so  far  have  not  received  the  flax,  wool, 
and  bast  which  we  have  ordered.  Our  proposition 
to  the  peasants  to  busy  themselves  with  work  —  with 
the  production  of  linen  and  of  bast  shoes  for  sale  —  has 
everywhere  been  met  with  delight.  "  If  we  could  but 
earn  three  kopeks  a  day,  we  should  be  doing  better  than 
sitting  without  work,"  we  were  told. 


282  ARTICLES    ON    THE    FAMINE 

It  is  self-evident  that  all  this  refers  only  to  the  five 
winter  months  ;  in  the  remaining  four  summer  mouths,  up 
to  the  new  crop,  the  work  could  be  much  more  productive. 

To  attain  the  end,  if  not  of  supporting  the  peasant 
agriculture,  at  least  of  checking  its  fall,  there  is,  in  my 
opinion,  but  one  means,  —  the  arrangement  of  work. 

But  to  attain  the  second  end,  —  to  save  men  from  fall- 
iug  sick  in  consequence  of  bad  food  and  an  insufficiency 
of  it,  the  only  unquestionable  means  is  the  establishment 
in  every  village  of  a  free  kitchen,  in  which  any  man  who 
is  hungry  may  get  enough  to  eat. 

The  establishment  of  such  eating-houses  was  begun  by 
us  more  than  a  month  ago,  and  has  so  far  been  conducted 
with  a  success  which  surpasses  our  expectations.  The 
eating-houses  were  arranged  as  follows  : 

During  my  journey  to  Epiphany  County,  in  the  end  of 
September,  I  met  my  old  friend,  I.  I.  Ea^vski,  to  whom  I 
communicated  my  intention  of  establishing  eating-houses 
in  the  famine  locahties.  He  invited  me  to  settle  with 
him  and,  without  rejecting  any  other  form  of  aid,  not  only 
approved  of  my  plan  of  estabhshing  eating-houses,  but 
even  undertook  to  aid  me  in  this  matter  and,  with  his 
characteristic  love  for  the  people,  and  determination  and 
simplicity  of  manner,  immediately,  even  before  our  coming 
down  to  his  place,  began  this  matter  and  opened  six  such 
eating-houses  about  him.  The  method  which  he  employed 
consisted  in  this,  that  in  the  poorest  villages  he  proposed 
to  the  widows  or  the  poorest  inhabitants  to  feed  those  who 
would  come  to  them,  and  for  this  purpose  distributed  to 
them  the  necessary  provisions.  The  elder,  with  others 
empowered  to  do  so,  made  lists  of  the  children  and  the 
old  men  who  were  to  receive  food  in  the  eating-houses, 
and  the  eating-houses  were  opened.  These,  though  estab- 
lished bv  none  other  than  the  elders  themselves  and  one 
of  Eaevski's  clerks,  went  very  well  and  lasted  about  a 
month.    But  at  the  time  of  our  moving  to  his  place,  which 


ARTICLES    ON    THE    FAMINE  283 

coincided  with  the  first  distribution  of  aid  from  the  govern- 
ment, five  eating-houses  were  closed,  because  the  people 
who  used  to  go  there  were  beginning  to  get  their  monthly 
allowance,  and  so  did  not  seem  to  need  the  double  assist- 
ance. Very  soon,  however,  in  spite  of  the  distribution  of 
aid,  the  need  increased  to  such  an  extent  that  the  necessity 
was  felt  for  the  opening  of  the  closed  eating-houses  and  the 
establishment  of  new  ones.  During  the  four  weeks  which 
we  passed  here  we  opened  thirty  eating-houses.  At  first  we 
opened  them  in  accordance  with  information  collected  by  us 
as  regards  the  most  necessitous  villages,  but  now  for  more 
than  a  week  we  have  on  all  sides  been  requested  to  open  new 
eating-houses,  which  request  we  are  no  lunger  able  to  satisfy. 

The  business  of  opening  eating-houses  consists  in  the 
following,  —  at  least,  we  have  acted  in  this  way  :  Having 
heard  of  a  village  in  particular  need,  we  arrive  there,  go  to 
the  elder,  and,  declaring  our  intention,  invite  some  of  the 
older  men  and  ask  tlieni  about  the  property  conditions  of 
the  farms  from  one  end  of  the  village  to  the  other.  The 
elder,  his  wife,  the  old  men,  and  a  few  others,  who  have 
come  to  the  hut  from  curiosity,  describe  to  us  the  condition 
of  the  farms. 

"Well,  beginning  at  the  left:  Maksim  Aptdkhin. 
What  about  him  ? " 

"  He  is  in  bad  shape  ;  he  has  children  ;  there  are  seven, 
all  told.  He  has  not  had  any  corn  for  a  long  time.  That's 
why  the  old  woman  and  a  boy  ought  to  go." 

We  note  down  :  From  Maksim  Aptokhin  —  two.  Next 
—  r^dor  Abramov. 

•'  They  are  in  bad  shape,  too.  Still,  they  manage  to  feed 
themselves." 

But  the  elder's  wife  chimes  in,  saying  that  he,  too,  is  in 
bad  shape,  and  that  we  ought  to  take  a  boy.  Next  comes 
an  old  man,  a  soldier  of  the  time  of  Nicholas. 

"  He  is  just  starving." 

Demy  an  Sa^rouov. 


284  ARTICLES    ON    THE    FAMINE 

<l 

"  They  manage  to  live." 

And  thus  the  whole  village  is  discussed.  We  can  see 
with  what  justice  and  with  what  absence  of  class  feeling 
the  peasants  decide  on  those  who  are  in  need  from  the 
circumstance  that,  in  spite  of  the  fact  that  many  peasants 
were  not  admitted  in  the  first  village,  in  Tatishchevo, 
Kykhdtsk  Township,  where  we  opened  an  eating-house, 
the  peasants  without  the  least  hesitation  named  the  pope's 
widow  with  her  children  and  the  sexton's  wife  among 
the  number  of  the  unquestionably  poor  who  ought  to  be 
accepted  in  the  eating-house.  Thus  all  the  farms  passed 
in  review  are,  according  to  the  indications  of  the  elder  and 
the  neighbours,  generally  divided  into  three  classes :  into 
those  who  are  unquestionably  in  bad  shape,  of  whom  some 
persons  ought  to  go  to  the  eating-house,  those  who  are  un- 
questionably all  right,  —  those  who  can  take  care  of  them- 
selves, —  and  those  about  whom  there  is  some  doubt.  This 
doubt  is  generally  settled  by  the  number  of  men  who 
attend  tlie  eating-house.  It  is  hard  for  a  peasant  to  feed 
more  than  forty,  and  so,  if  the  number  attending  the  eating- 
house  is  less  than  forty,  the  doubtful  ones  are  accepted, 
and  if  more,  it  becomes  necessary  to  refuse  them.  Gener- 
ally a  few  persons,  who  unquestionably  ought  to  be  fed  in 
the  eating-houses,  are  left  out,  and  in  proportion  as  this  is 
brought  to  our  notice,  changes  and  additions  are  made. 
But  if  in  a  village  there  turns  up  a  very  large  number  of 
doubtfully  needy  persons,  a  second,  and  sometimes  a  third, 
eating-house  is  opened  there. 

In  general,  both  in  our  eating-houses,  and  in  those  of 
our  neighbour,  Mrs.  N.  F.,  who  is  carrying  on  the  matter 
independently  of  us,  the  number  of  people  fed  in  an  eating- 
house  always  forms  one-third  of  all  persons  in  the  village. 

There  are  very  many  volunteers,  in  nearly  all  the  farms, 
who  are  willing  to  keep  the  eating-house,  that  is,  to  bake 
the  bread,  to  cook  the  meals,  and  to  serve  the  eaters, 
for  the  right  to  receive  their  food  and  fuel  gratis.    All 


ARTICLES    ON    THE    FAMINE 


285 


people  are  to  such  au  extent  anxious  to  keep  these  eat- 
ing-houses that  in  the  first  two  villages  where  we  opened 
eating-houses,  the  elders,  both  of  them  rich  peasants,  pro- 
posed to  open  the  eating-houses  in  their  huts ;  but  since 
the  keeper  of  the  eating-house  is  completely  provided  with 
food  and  fuel,  we  generally  choose  the  very  poorest,  so 
long  as  they  are  in  the  centre  of  the  village,  and  can  easily  be 
reached  from  both  ends.  We  pay  no  attention  to  the  room 
itself,  since  in  the  smallest  hut  of  but  six  arshins  square 
thirty  to  forty  persons  can  easily  be  served  with  meals. 

The  next  business  is  to  apportion  provisions  for  every 
eating-house.  This  is  done  as  follows  :  In  one  place,  which 
is  in  the  centre  of  the  eating-houses,  a  storehouse  of  all 
necessary  provisions  is  established.  As  such  a  storehouse 
at  first  Ka^vski's  farmhouse  served ;  but  with  the  expan- 
sion of  the  business  there  were  established,  or  rather 
chosen,  three  other  storehouses  in  the  estates  of  well-to-do 
landed  proprietors,  where  there  are  granaries  and  some 
provisions  for  sale. 

As  soon  as  the  dwelling  for  the  eating-house  is  chosen, 
and  the  persons  who  are  to  come  to  it  are  marked  down, 
a  day  is  set  on  which  the  keepers  of  the  eating-house  by 
turns  come  or  send  a  wagon  after  the  provisions.  As,  on 
account  of  the  great  number  of  eating-houses,  it  is  now 
troublesome  to  give  out  provisions  every  day,  two  days  in 
the  week  have  been  set,  Tuesday  and  Friday,  when  provi- 
sions are  given  out. 

In  the  storehouse  the  keeper  of  an  eating-house  gets  a 
little  book  of  the  following  form : 


RECEIPT  BOOK  OF  EATING-HOUSE  NO. 


Day 

and 
Montli 

Where 
opened 

Flour 

Bran 

Potat. 

Cabl). 

Beets 

Cracked 
Oats 

Fuel 

Salt 

Nov.  8 

LuU^r- 

ya 

Kotdv 

4  p. 

2  p. 

Gp. 

30  h. 

2  p. 

Ip. 

10  p. 

101b. 

Number 

of 
Eaters 


286  ARTICLES    ON    THE   FAMINE 

The  provisions  are  received  according  to  this  book,  and 
everything  is  noted  down. 

Besides  the  provisions,  teams  come  on  a  stated  day  from 
the  villages  in  which  there  are  eating-houses,  to  receive 
their  fuel :  at  first  it  was  turf,  but  now,  since  there  is  no 
more  turf,  it  is  wood.  On  the  same  day  that  the  provi- 
sions are  taken  home,  the  loaves  are  baked,  and  two  days 
later  the  eating-houses  are  opened.  The  question  as  to 
the  dishes  for  cooking,  the  bowls,  the  spoons,  the  tables, 
is  decided  by  the  keepers  of  the  eating-houses  themselves. 
Every  keeper  uses  his  own  dishes.  What  he  lacks  he 
borrows  from  those  who  eat  at  his  house.  Everybody 
brings  his  own  spoon. 

The  first  eating-house  was  opened  at  the  house  of  a 
bhnd  old  man  with  a  wife  and  orphaned  grandchildren. 
When  I,  on  the  first  day  of  the  opening  of  this  eating- 
house,  arrived  at  eleven  o'clock  at  the  blind  man's  house, 
the  woman  had  everything  ready.  The  loaves  were  out 
of  the  oven  and  lay  on  the  table  and  on  the  benches.  In 
the  heated  oven,  which  was  closed  with  a  shutter,  stood 
cabbage  soup,  potatoes,  and  stewed  beets. 

In  the  room  were,  besides  the  proprietors,  two  female 
neighbours  and  a  homeless  old  woman,  who  had  begged 
to  be  permitted  to  stay  in  the  house,  so  as  to  have  some- 
thing to  feed  on  and  warm  herself.  There  were  no  people 
there  as  yet.  It  turned  out  that  they  had  been  waiting 
for  us,  and  so  had  not  yet  sent  out  the  announcement. 
A  boy  and  a  peasant  took  it  upon  themselves  to  make  the 
announcement.  I  asked  the  hostess  how  they  would  seat 
themselves. 

"  I  will  arrange  it  as  is  proper,  have  no  fear,"  said  the 
hostess. 

This  hostess  is  a  stocky  woman  of  fifty  years  of  age, 
with  a  timid  and  restless,  but  bright  expression.  Before 
the  opening  of  the  eating-house  she  used  to  go  out  begging, 
thus  supporting  herself  and  1:  r  family.     Her  enemies  say 


ARTICLES    ON    THE    FAMINE  287 

of  her  that  she  is  a  drunkard.  But,  in  spite  of  these  ac- 
cusations, she  makes  a  favourable  impression  by  her  rela- 
tions to  the  orphans,  her  husband's  grandchildren,  and  to 
her  worn-out,  barely  alive,  blind  old  husband,  who  is  lying 
on  the  bench-beds.  The  mother  of  these  orphans  died 
the  year  before ;  the  father  abandoned  the  children  and 
went  to  Moscow,  and  there  went  to  the  dogs.  The  chil- 
dren —  a  boy  and  a  girl  —  are  very  pretty,  especially  the 
boy,  who  is  eight  years  old ;  in  spite  of  their  poverty, 
they  are  well-dressed,  and  they  keep  close  to  their  grand- 
mother and  are  exacting  to  her,  as  spoiled  cliildren  are. 

"  Everything  will  be  as  it  ought  to  be,"  says  the  hostess, 
"  and  I  will  get  a  table.  And  those  who  find  no  place,  vsdll 
eat  later." 

Out  of  four  puds  of  flour,  she  informs  me,  she  made 
nine  loaves,  and  she  has,  besides,  brewed  some  kvas. 
"  But  the  turf  has  worn  me  out,"  she  says.  "  It  does  not 
burn.  1  had  to  pull  some  straw  down  from  my  shed.  I 
had  to  open  cracks  in  the  shed,  for  the  turf  would  not 
burn." 

As  I  have  no  other  business  here,  I  go  beyond  the 
ravine,  to  the  eating-house  of  another  village,  fearing  lest 
they  should  be  waiting  there,  too,  for  me.  And,  indeed, 
so  they  were.  Here  it  was  again  the  same :  the  same 
odour  of  hot  bread ;  the  same  round  loaves  on  the  tables 
and  benches,  and  the  same  iron  and  clay  pots  in  the  oven 
and  the  curious  people  in  the  house.  Here  again  volun- 
teers run  away  to  carry  abroad  the  announcement.  After 
talking  awhile  with  the  hostess,  who,  like  the  first,  com- 
plains that  the  turf  does  not  Imrn  and  that  she  has  had  to 
chop  up  a  trough  to  be  able  to  l)ake  the  bread,  I  return 
to  the  first  eating-house,  thinking  that  there  might  spring 
up  some  misunderstandings  or  ditliculties,  which  it  would 
be  necessary  to  remove.  I  arrive  at  tlie  blind  man's 
house.  The  hut  is  full  of  people  and  is  alive  with  a 
repressed  motion,  like  an  open  beehive  in  summer-time. 


288  ARTICLES    ON    THE    FAMINE 

Vapour  escapes  through  the  door.  There  is  an  odour  of 
bread  and  of  cabbage  soup,  and  the  sound  of  lapping  is 
heard.  The  room  is  very  small  and  dark :  there  are  two 
tiny  windows,  which,  at  that,  are  on  both  sides  covered 
high  outside  with  manure.  The  floor  is  of  earth  and  very 
uneven.  It  is  so  dark,  especially  from  the  mass  of  people 
in  it,  who  with  their  backs  conceal  the  windows,  that  at 
first  it  is  impossible  to  make  anything  out.  But,  in  spite 
of  the  inconveniences  and  crowding,  the  eating  is  going 
on  in  the  greatest  order.  Along  the  front  wall,  on  the 
left  of  the  door,  there  are  two  tables,  around  which  on  all 
sides  the  people  who  are  dining  sit  in  orderly  fashion.  In 
the  background  of  the  room,  —  from  the  outer  wall  to  the 
oven,  are  the  hanging  beds,  on  which  the  emaciated  blind 
old  man  no  longer  lies,  but  sits  up,  embracing  his  lank 
legs  with  his  hands,  and  listening  to  the  conversation 
and  to  the  sound  of  eating.  On  the  right,  in  the  un- 
occupied corner,  before  the  mouth  of  the  oven,  stand  the 
host,  the  hostess,  and  helpers,  who  have  volunteered  their 
services.  They  all  watch  the  needs  of  the  diners,  and 
serve  them. 

At  the  table  in  the  front  corner,  under  the  images,  is  a 
soldier  of  the  days  of  Nicholas ;  then  comes  a  village  old 
man,  then  an  old  woman,  then  some  children.  At  the 
second  table,  nearer  to  the  oven,  with  the  back  to  the  par- 
tition, is  the  miserable-looking  wife  of  a  pope,  and  about 
her  are  her  children,  boys  and  girls,  and  her  grown-up 
daughter.  On  each  table  is  a  bowl  with  cabbage  soup, 
and  the  diners  sip  it,  eating  at  the  same  time  their  fra- 
grant bread.  The  bowls  with  the  cabbage  soup  are 
emptied. 

"  Eat,  eat,"  the  hostess  says  cheerfully  and  hospitably, 
handing  them  chunks  of  bread  over  their  heads.  "  I'll 
fill  them  up  again.  To-day  we  have  only  cabbage  soup, 
and  potatoes,  —  the  beets  are  not  done.  You  will  have 
them  for  supper," 


ARTICLES    ON    THE    FAMINE  289 

An  old  woman,  barely  alive,  who  is  standing  at  the 
oven,  begs  me  to  send  her  some  bread  to  her  house ;  she 
has  dragged  herself  up  with  difficulty,  but  she  cannot 
come  every  day ;  her  boy  is  eating  here,  so  he  will  bring 
it  to  her.  The  hostess  cuts  off  a  piece  of  bread  for  her. 
The  old  woman  puts  it  cautiously  away  in  her  bosom  and 
thanks  her  for  it,  but  does  not  leave.  The  sexton's  wife, 
a  lively  woman,  who  is  standing  at  the  oven  and  helping 
the  hostess,  chattily  and  briskly  thanks  me  for  her  little 
girl,  who  is  eating  here,  sitting  at  the  wall,  and  asks  me 
timidly  whether  she,  the  sexton's  wife  herself,  may  not 
be  allowed  to  eat  here. 

"  I  have  not  tasted  pure  bread  for  a  long  time,  and  that 
tastes  to  us  as  sweet  as  honey." 

Having  received  permission,  the  sexton's  wife  makes 
the  sign  of  the  cross  and  climbs  over  a  plank  which  is 
thrown  from  one  bench  to  another.  A  boy  next  to  her 
on  one  side,  and  an  old  woman  on  the  other,  make  place 
for  the  sexton's  wife,  and  she  seats  herself.  After  the 
first  course  of  cabbage  soup  the  potatoes  are  served. 
From  the  salt-cellar  every  person  pours  out  a  little  pile 
of  salt  on  the  table  in  front  of  him,  and  dips  the  peeled 
potatoes  in  it.  All  this  —  the  service  at  the  table,  the 
taking  of  the  food,  the  seating  of  the  people  —  is  accom- 
phshed  without  haste  and  with  decency  and  decorum,  and, 
at  the  same  time,  in  such  a  habitual  manner  as  though 
what  is  taking  place  has  always  taken  place  and  could 
not  be  done  otherwise.  It  is  something  hke  a  natural 
phenomenon.  Having  finished  the  potatoes  and  cautiously 
removed  the  remaining  pieces  of  bread,  the  soldier  of  the 
days  of  Nicholas  is  the  first  to  get  up  and  climb  out  from 
behind  the  table,  and  all  arise  with  him,  turn  to  the 
images,  and  pray,  then  express  their  thanks  and  leave. 
Those  who  have  been  waiting  for  their  turn  without  haste 
take  their  places,  and  the  hostess  again  cuts  bread  and 
tills  the  bowls  with  cabbage  soup. 


290  ARTICLES    ON    THE    FAMINE 

Precisely  the  same  happened  in  the  second  eating- 
house  ;  the  only  special  tiling  was  that  there  were  very 
many  people  there,  almost  forty  of  them,  and  the  room 
was  even  darker  and  smaller  than  the  first.  But  here 
was  the  same  decorum  of  the  guests,  the  same  calm  and 
joyous,  somewhat  proud  relation  of  the  hostess  to  her 
work.  Here  the  host  served,  helping  his  mother,  and 
matters  went  faster  still.  The  same  took  place  in  all  the 
other  eating-houses  which  we  had  established,  with  the 
same  decorum  and  naturalness.  In  some  the  zealous  host- 
esses prepared  three  and  even  four  courses :  beet  stew, 
cabbage  soup,  broth,  potatoes. 

The  matter  of  the  eating-houses  is  carried  on  as  simply 
as  many  other  peasant  affairs,  in  wliich  all  the  most  com- 
plicated details  are  left  to  the  peasants  themselves.  In 
the  hauling,  for  example,  for  which  peasants  are  hired, 
no  employer  ever  bothers  himself  about  mats,  or  pegs,  or 
bast  hampers,  or  buckets,  or  many  other  things  which  are 
indispensable  for  the  hauling.  It  is  assumed  that  all  this 
will  be  arranged  by  the  peasants  themselves  ;  and,  indeed, 
all  this  is  always  and  everywhere  arranged  uniformly, 
sensibly,  and  simply  by  the  peasants  themselves,  without 
demanding  any  participation  or  attention  from  the  em- 
ployer.    Juwt  so  they  do  things  in  the  eating-houses. 

AH  the  details  of  the  matter  are  attended  to  by  the 
keepers  of  the  eating-houses  themselves,  and  this  is  done 
so  definitely  and  so  circumstantially  that  all  that  is  left 
for  the  founder  to  do  is  to  attend  to  general  matters  in 
regard  to  the  eating-houses.  There  are  four  such  impor- 
tant matters  which  are  left  for  the  founder  of  the  eating- 
house  to  do:  (1)  to  deliver  the  provisions  to  the  centre, 
from  which  it  can  be  distributed  in  all  directions  ;  (2)  to 
attend  to  this,  that  the  provisions  shall  not  be  wasted ; 
(3)  to  attend  to  this,  that  the  most  needy  persons  shall 
not  somehow  be  overlooked,  or  that  instead  such  persons 
shall  not  receive  free  food  as  can  get  along  without  it ;  and 


ARTICLES    ON    THE    FAMINE  291 

(4)  to  test  and  apply  in  the  eating-houses  new  and  little 
used  foodstuffs,  such  as  peas,  lentils,  millet,  oats,  barley, 
all  kinds  of  bread,  etc. 

Quite  a  lot  of  trouble  was  caused  us  by  providing  for 
the  people  who  were  receiving  a  monthly  allowance. 
Some  of  the  members  of  the  family,  who  were  receiving 
an  insufficient  quantity,  were  admitted ;  others  gave  their 
monthly  allowance  to  tlie  eating-house,  so  as  to  be  allowed 
to  eat  in  it.  In  this  matter  we  are  guided  by  the  follow- 
ing considerations :  with  the  equal  distribution  of  twenty 
pounds  to  each  person,  as  is  the  case  in  our  locality, 
we  accept  them  preeminently  from  the  large  families; 
with  the  insufficient  distribution,  such  as  is  twenty  pounds 
per  month,  there  are  the  more  unprovided  people,  the 
greater  the  family  is. 

The  theory  of  the  eating-houses  is,  therefore,  the  fol- 
lowing :  to  open  from  ten  to  twenty  eating-houses,  which 
should  feed  from  three  to  eight  hundred  men,  provisions 
must  be  collected  in  the  centre  of  this  locahty.  Such  a 
centre  may  always  be  in  a  well-to-do  proprietor's  estate. 

The  provisions  for  such  a  number,  let  us  say  five  hun- 
dred people,  will  consist  (if  the  eatiug-hojases  are  to  be  kept 
until  the  new  harvest),  figuring  one  pound  of  a  mixture  of 
meal  and  bran  to  each  of  the  five  hundred  persons  for 
three  hundred  days,  of  150,000  pounds  or  3,750  puds, 
or  2,500  puds  of  rye  and  twelve  hundred  puds  of  bran ; 
the  same  number  of  pounds  of  potatoes,  twelve  sazhens  of 
wood,  one  thousand  puds  of  beets,  twenty-five  puds  of  salt, 
two  thousand  heads  of  cabbage,  and  eight  hundred  puds 
of  oats.  (The  cost  of  all  this,  to  judge  from  present 
prices,  will  be  5,800  roubles,  that  is,  with  the  increase  of 
the  expense  for  oat  broth,  one  rouble  sixteen  kopeks  per 
man.)  Having  established  such  a  storehouse,  it  is  pos- 
sible to  proceed  in  a  circumference  of  seven  to  eight 
versts  to  open  as  many  as  twenty  eating-houses,  which 
will  provision    themselves   from    this    storehouse.     First 


292  ARTICLES    ON    THE    FAMINE 

of  all  it  is  necessary  to  open  eating-houses  in  the  poorest 
villages.     The  place  for  the  eating-house  should  be  chosen 
with  one  of  the  poorest  peasants.     The  dishes  and  every- 
thing necessary  for  the  preparation  of  the  food  and  for 
the  table  should  be  left  to  the  discretion  of  the  keepers 
of  the  eating-house  themselves.     The  list  of  the  persons 
admitted  to  the  eating-house  should  be  made   with   the 
assistance  of  the  elder  and,  if  possible,  of  the  well-to-do 
peasants,  who  do  not  send  their  families  to  the  eating- 
house.     The  supervision  of  the  eating-houses,  if  there  are 
very  many  of  them,  should  be  left  to  the  peasants  them- 
selves.    Naturally,  however,  the  greater  the  interest  which 
the  persons  opening  the  eating-houses  will  show  in  this 
matter,  the  closer  will  their  relations  be  with  the  keepers, 
and  the  guests  of  the  eating-houses,  —  the  better  will  the 
whole  business  proceed,  the  less  waste  and  dissatisfaction 
will  there  be,  and  the  better  the  food.     And,  above  all 
else,  the  more  cheerful  will  the  mood  of  the  people  be. 
But  it  may  boldly  be  said  that,  even  with  the  most  dis- 
tant supervision,  with  being  all  left  to  themselves,  the 
eating-houses  will  satisfy  a  demand  and,  in  consequence 
of    the  supervision   exercised  by  the  interested  peasants 
themselves,  the  useless  waste  of  provisions  will  in  no  case 
be  greater  than  ten  per  cent.,  if  we  may  call  it  useless 
waste  at  all  when  people  carry  off  some  bread,  or  give  it 
to  those  who  have  none.     Such  is  the  theory  of  the  estab- 
lishment of  the  eating-houses,  and  any  person  who  wants 
to  apply  it  will  see  how  easily  and  how  naturally  this 
business  is  carried  on. 

The  advantages  and  the  disadvantages  of  the  eating- 
houses  are  as  follows : 

The  disadvantage  of  the  eating-houses  is,  in  the  first 
place,  this,  that  the  provisioning  in  them  costs  a  little 
more  than  the  personal  distribution  of  flour.  If  thirty 
pounds  of  flour  are  given  as  an  assistance  to  every  eater, 
the  same  thirty  pounds  of  flour  are  used  up  in  the  eating- 


ARTICLES    ON    THE    FAMINE  293 

houses,  and,  in  addition,  what  is  used  for  cooking,  potatoes, 
beets,  salt,  fuel,  and  now  oats.  This  disadvantage,  to  say 
nothing  of  the  fact  that  the  eating-houses  provide  better 
for  the  people  than  does  the  distribution  of  flour,  is  re- 
deemed by  the  introduction  of  new,  cheap,  and  wholesome 
foodstuffs,  such  as  lentils,  peas  in  various  forms,  oat-broth, 
beets,  Indian  meal  porridge,  sunflower  and  hemp-seed  meal, 
whereby  the  quantity  of  the  bread  used  up  can  be  dimin- 
ished and  the  food  itself  improved. 

Another  disadvantage  is  this,  that  the  eating-houses 
keep  from  starvation  only  a  few  feeble  members  of  the 
family,  aud  not  the  young  and  adult  people  who  do  not 
frequent  the  eating-houses,  considering  this  debasing  to 
themselves.  Thus,  in  determining  those  persons  who  are 
privileged  to  feeding  in  the  eating-houses,  the  peasants 
always  exclude  the  grown  lads  and  girls,  as  they  consider 
this  disgraceful  for  them.  This  disadvantage  is  redeemed 
by  the  fact  that  the  very  shame  which  they  feel  in  using 
the  eating-houses  prevents  the  possibility  of  misusing  them. 
There  comes,  for  example,  a  peasant  demanding  an  increase 
of  his  monthly  allowance,  and  asserting  that  he  has  not 
eaten  for  two  days.  He  is  asked  to  attend  the  eating- 
house.  He  blushes  and  refuses,  while  another  peasant  of 
the  same  age,  who  was  left  without  any  means  and  could 
find  no  work,  comes  to  the  eating-house.  Or  another 
example :  a  woman  complains  of  her  condition  and  begs 
for  assistance.  It  is  proposed  to  her  that  she  should  send 
her  daughter.  But  her  daughter  is  already  a  prospective 
bride,  and  the  woman  refuses  to  send  her.  And  yet  the 
daughter  of  the  pope,  who  is  a  prospective  bride,  and 
whom  I  have  mentioned  before,  comes  to  the  eating- 
house. 

The  third  disadvantage,  the  greatest  of  them  all,  is  this, 
that  a  few  feeble  persons,  old  and  young,  and  children 
without  clothes,  cannot  attend,  especially  in  bad  weather. 
This    inconvenience  is  removed    by  allowing    those  who 


294  ARTICLES    ON    TBE    FAMINE 

attend  from  the  same  farm,  or  their  neighbours,  to  carry 
the  food  to  them. 

I  know  no  other  disadvantages  and  inconveniences. 

Now  the  advantages  of  the  eating-houses  are  as  follows : 

The  food  is  incomparably  better  and  more  varied  than 
what  is  prepared  in  the  families.  It  is  possible  to  make 
use  of  cheaper  and  more  wholesome  foodstuffs.  The  food 
is  purchased  at  a  lower  price.  There  is  a  saving  in  fuel 
for  the  baking  of  bread.  The  poorest  families,  those  where 
the  eating-houses  are  established,  are  completely  provided 
for.  There  is  excluded  the  possibility  of  an  inequality  in 
the  distribution  of  food  which  is  frequently  met  with 
in  families  in  respect  to  the  members  of  it  who  are  dis- 
liked ;  the  old  and  the  children  receive  the  food  which 
corresponds  to  their  age.  The  eating-houses,  instead  of 
irritating  and  causing  envy,  evoke  good  sentiments.  Mis- 
use, that  is,  the  receiving  of  assistance  by  persons  who  are 
least  in  need  of  it,  may  be  less  than  with  any  other  method 
of  assistance.  The  limits  of  the  misuse  which  may  arise 
in  the  use  of  the  eating-houses  are  set  by  the  dimensions 
of  the  stomachs.  A  man  may  receive  as  nmch  flour  as  he 
wishes,  but  nobody  can  eat  more  than  a  very  limited 
amount.  And  above  all  else,  the  chief  advantage  of  the 
eating-houses,  for  which  alone  they  can  and  ought  to  be 
established  everywhere,  is  this,  that  in  the  village  in  which 
there  is  an  eating-house,  a  man  cannot  get  sick  or  die  from 
a  lack  of  food,  or  from  its  poor  quahty ;  there  cannot  be 
what  unfortunately  is  constantly  repeated,  —  an  old,  feeble 
man,  a  sickly  child,  receiving  poor  and  insufficient  food 
now  and  then,  falls  off,  grows  sick,  and  dies,  —  if  not 
directly  from  hunger,  at  least  from  the  want  of  good  food. 
And  this  is  most  important. 

The  other  day,  wishing  to  avoid  all  those  examinations 
which  had  to  be  undertaken  in  the  eating-houses  formerly 
opened,  as  to  who  should  be  admitted  and  who  not,  we  in 
a  newly  opened  eating-house  made  use  of  a  meeting  of 


ARTICLES   ON   THE   FAMINE  295 

the  peasants  to  decide  some  of  their  affairs,  by  leaving  it 
to  them  to  determine  who  should  attend  the  eating-houses. 
The  first  opinion,  as  expressed  by  many,  was  this,  that  it 
was  impossible  for  them  to  do  so,  as  there  would  be  dis- 
putes and  quarrels,  and  they  would  never  be  able  to  agree. 
Then  the  opinion  was  expressed  that  one  person  from  each 
farm  should  be  admitted.  But  this  opinion  was  soon 
rejected.  There  were  farms  from  w^hicli  nobody  needed  to 
be  admitted,  and  there  were  others  where  there  was  not 
one  feeble  person,  but  many.  And  so  they  agreed  to 
accept  our  proposition,  —  to  rely  on  people's  honesty. 
"  Meals  will  be  prepared  for  forty  persons,  and  whoever 
will  come  is  welcome,  and  when  all  is  eaten  up,  you  must 
not  think  ill  of  us."  This  opinion  was  approved  of.  One 
man  said  that  a  healthy,  strong  man  would  himself  be 
ashamed  to  come  and  eat  up  an  orphan's  portion.  To 
this,  however,  a  dissatisfied  voice  replied :  "  I  should 
gladly  refuse  to  come,  but  I  cannot  help  it,  for  lately  I 
have  not  eaten  for  two  days." 

This  forms  the  chief  advantage  of  the  eating-houses. 
Whoever  it  may  be,  —  whether  he  be  listed  in  the  village 
commune  or  not,  a  servant  of  the  manor,  a  cautonist, 
a  soldier,  whether  of  the  days  of  Nicholas  or  of  Alexan- 
der, the  wife  of  a  pope,  a  burgher,  a  member  of  the  gen- 
try, an  old  or  a  young  man,  healthy,  lazy,  or  industrious, 
a  drunkard  or  sober,  —  so  long  as  he  is  a  man  who  has  had 
nothing  to  eat  for  two  days,  —  will  receive  the  communal 
food.  This  is  the  chief  advantage  of  the  eating-houses. 
Where  they  exist,  nobody  will  die  of  starvation  and  no 
one  can  be  driven  to  work  wliile  he  is  hungry. 

Everything  you  please  except  hunger  may  be  a  motive 
for  more  or  less  work.  Animals  may  be  trained  by  means 
of  hunger  and  may  be  compelled  to  do  things  which  are 
contrary  to  their  nature,  but  it  is  time  to  understand  that 
it  is  a  shame  to  compel  people  by  means  of  hunger  to  do, 
not  what  they  wish,  but  what  we  want  them  to  do. 


29  G  ARTICLES    ON    THE    FAMINE 

But  is  the  establishment  of  eating-houses  everywhere 
possible  ?  Is  it  a  common  measure,  which  may  be  ap- 
phed  anywhere  and  on  a  large  scale  ?  At  first  it  seems 
that  it  is  not  possible,  that  it  is  but  a  private,  local,  acci- 
dental measure  which  can  be  applied  only  in  certain 
spots,  where  people  specially  adapted  to  this  business 
may  be  found.  I  myself  thought  so  at  first,  when  I  im- 
agined that  it  would  be  necessary  to  rent  a  hall  for  the 
eating-house,  hire  a  cook,  buy  dishes,  think  out  and  de- 
termine what  kind  of  food,  when,  and  for  how  many  per- 
sons to  prepare ;  but  the  method  of  eating-houses  which, 
thanks  to  I.  I.  Ea^vski,  has  now  been  established  removes 
all  these  difficulties  and  makes  this  measure  most  acces- 
sible, simple,  and  popular. 

With  our  feeble  powers  and  without  any  special  effort, 
we  opened  in  four  weeks  and  set  a-going  in  twenty  villages 
thirty  eating-houses,  in  which  about  fifteen  hundred  per- 
sons are  fed.  But  our  neighbour,  Mrs.  N.  F.,  herself  in 
the  course  of  one  month  opened  and  has  conducted  on  the 
same  principle  sixteen  eating-houses,  in  which  not  less 
than  seven  hundred  persons  are  fed. 

The  opening  of  the  eating-houses  and  their  supervision 
present  no  difficulties,  and  their  maintenance  costs  but 
a  little  more  than  the  distribution  of  the  flour,  if  it  is 
supplied  to  the  extent  of  thirty  pounds  per  month. 
(Though  we  have  not  made  any  exact  calculations,  we 
assume  that  the  support  of  each  person  in  the  eating- 
houses  will  in  no  case  surpass  one  rouble  fifty  kopeks 
per  month.) 

This  measure  (the  establishment  of  the  eating-houses), 
which  does  not  provoke  any  ill  feelings  in  the  masses, 
but,  on  the  contrary,  completely  satisfies  them,  attains 
the  chief  end  which  now  stands  before  society,  which  is, 
to  secure  people  against  the  possibility  of  a  death  from 
famine,  and  so  ought  everywhere  to  be  accepted.  If  it  is 
possible  for  the  County  Council,  —  for  the  orators  and  the 


ARTICLES    ON    THE    FAMINE  297 

administration,  —  to  figure  out  the  wants  of  the  peasants 
and,  providing  flour,  to  give  it  to  those  who  are  in  need, 
it  will  cost  these  people  incomparably  less  labour  to 
establish  storehouses  for  the  provisioning  of  the  eating- 
houses,  and  the  eating-houses  themselves. 

The  other  day  we  received  a  visit  from  an  inhabitant 
of  Kaluga,  who  brought  the  following  proposition  for  our 
locahty :  a  few  landed  proprietors  and  peasants  of  the 
Government  of  Kaluga,  who  have  an  abundance  of  fodder 
for  cattle,  sympathizing  with  the  condition  of  the  peasants 
of  our  locality,  who  are  obliged  at  a  great  sacrifice  to  part 
with  their  horses,  which  they  will  not  be  able  to  buy  back 
again  in  the  spring  for  nearly  ten  times  the  price,  have 
proposed  to  winter  ten  wagon-loads,  that  is,  eighty  horses 
from  our  locahty.  With  the  horses  are  to  go  some  chosen 
men  from  those  villages  from  which  the  horses  will  be 
taken  ;  after  taking  them  to  their  destination,  they  are  to 
return  home.  In  the  spring  chosen  persons  are  to  go  for 
the  horses  and  bring  them  back. 

On  the  day  following  this  proposition,  there  were  found 
in  the  two  villages  where  the  announcement  was  made 
enough  persons  who  were  willing  to  send  off  these  eighty 
horses,  all  of  them  young  and  good  animals.  Since  then 
peasants  have  come  every  day,  begging  us  to  take  their 
horses. 

There  can  be  no  stronger  and  more  definite  answer  to 
the  question  whether  there  is  any  famine,  and  of  what 
dimensions.  The  want  must  be  very  great  for  the 
peasants  to  be  willing  so  easily  to  part  with  their  horses 
and  to  trust  them  to  strangers.  Besides,  the  offer  and  its 
acceptance  are  strikingly  touching  and  instructive  to  me. 
The  Kaluga  peasants,  who  are  not  wealthy,  are  taking 
upon  themselves  considerable  expense  and  labour  and 
care  for  their  brother  peasants,  whom  they  do  not  know 
and  have  never  seen,  and  the  peasants  of  our  locality, 
who  evidently  comprehend  the  motives  of  their  Kaluga 


298  ARTICLES    ON    THE    FAMINE 

brothers  and  apparently  feel  that  in  case  of  need  they 
would  do  the  same,  without  the  least  hesitation  entrust 
to  a  few  people  almost  their  last  possessions,  —  their 
good,  young  horses,  for  which,  even  at  present  prices, 
they  could  get  as  much  as  five,  ten,  fifteen  roubles. 

If  but  one-hundredth  part  of  such  living,  brotherly 
consciousness,  of  such  union  of  men  in  the  name  of  the 
God  of  love,  existed  in  all  men,  —  how  easily,  nay,  not 
how  easily,  but  how  joyously  we  should  be  bearing  this 
famine,  and  all  possible  material  calamities ! 

ByegicMvha,  Ddnkov  County, 
November  26,  1891. 


AMONG  THE  SUFFERING 
REPORT    UP   TO    APRIL   12,    1892 

Our  activity  from  the  time  of  the  last  report  consisted 
in  the  following : 

Our  first  and  chief  business  consisted  in  the'  establish- 
ment and  management  of  eating-houses. 

The  eating-houses,  of  which,  at  the  time  of  our  former 
report,  there  were  seventy-two,  continue  to  multiply,  and 
now  they  exist  in  four  counties,  Epiphany,  Efr^mov, 
Dankov,  and  Skopin,  in  all  187.  This  multiplication  has 
taken  place  in  the  following  manner:  from  the  villages 
adjoining  those  in  which  we  have  eating-houses,  there 
come  to  us,  now  individual  peasants,  now  representatives 
of  the  Commune  with  the  elder,  to  ask  us  to  open  eating- 
houses  among  them.  One  of  us  goes  to  the  particular 
village  from  which  the  petitioners  have  come,  and,  mak- 
ing the  round  of  the  farms,  writes  out  a  list  of  the  property 
of  the  poorer  inhabitants.  At  times,  though  very  rarely, 
it  turns  out  that  a  village  from  which  deputies  have  come 
does  not  belong  to  the  poorest  and  that  there  is  as  yet 
no  urgent  need  of  assistance ;  but  in  the  majority  of 
the  cases  the  one  who  has  made  the  round  of  tlie  village 
has  found,  as  is  always  the  case  upon  close  observation 
of  peasant  needs,  that  the  condition  of  the  poorest  families 
is  so  bad  that  assistance  is  indispensable ;  and  this  assist- 
ance has  been  given  by  means  of  establishing  eating- 
houses,  to  which  the  weakest  members  of  the  poorest 
families    were    admitted.      In    this    manner    the    eating- 

299 


300  ARTICLES    ON    THE    FAMINE 

houses  have  grown  up,  and  still  contmue  to  grow  up,  in 
those  directions  where  the  need  is  greater  and  less  pro- 
vided for,  namely,  in  the  direction  of  Efr^mov  County  and 
especially  of  Skdpin  County,  where  the  assistance  is  par- 
ticularly scanty.  There  are  in  all  187  eating-houses,  of 
which  130  are  those  where  the  guests  receive  cooked  food 
and  bread,  and  thirty-seven  those  where  they  receive  only 
cooked  food.  This  division  into  eating-houses  with  bread 
and  without  bread  took  place  in  March,  because  from 
that  time  on  the  County  Councils  began  in  the  poorest 
villages  of  Dankov  County,  where  our  eating-houses  ex- 
isted, to  loan  thirty  pounds  per  man,  and  in  Epiphany 
County  more  than  thirty,  so  that  in  these  counties  the 
poorer  population  was  either  entirely  provided  with 
bread  and  needed  only  cooked  food,  —  potatoes,  cabbage, 
and  other  things,  which,  if  the  poorer  peasants  had  had 
them,  were  entirely  exhausted  by  March.  For  these 
poorer  inhabitants  were  opened  the  eating-houses  without 
bread,  to  which  the  guests  come  with  their  own  bread. 
Having  become  accustomed  to  receive  bread,  too,  in  the 
eating-houses,  the  peasants  were  at  first  dissatisfied  with 
this  change,  and  announced  that  the  advantage  derived 
from  these  eating-houses  did  not  pay  for  the  trouble  in 
bringing  the  wood  by  rotation  from  the  groves  and  that 
they  did  not  wish  to  make  use  of  the  eating-houses.  But 
this  dissatisfaction  did  not  last  long.  Only  the  well-to-do 
refused  to  come,  and  they,  too,  very  soon  began  to  ask  to 
be  admitted  to  the  eating-houses. 

The  amount  allowed  in  these  eating-houses  without 
bread  for  each  ten  men  per  week  was  as  follows :  rye 
meal  for  kvas,  five  pounds  ;  wheat  meal  for  broth,  two 
pounds ;  pea,  oats,  or  maize  meal  for  broth,  ten  pounds ; 
peas,  ten  pounds;  millet  for  porridge  or  broth,  ten 
pounds ;  potatoes,  two  measures  ;  beets,  one  measure ; 
sauerkraut,  one-half  bucket ;  hemp  oil,  one-half  pound ; 
salt,  four  pounds ;  onions,  one    pound.     Besides,  in    the 


ARTICLES    ON    THE    FAMINE  301 

winter,  one  and  one-half  pounds  of  kerosene  and  sixty 
puds  of  wood  were  used  up  every  week. 

With  this  distribution  every  man  gets  two  pounds  of 
vegetables,  that  is,  of  potatoes,  cabbage,  and  beets,  per 
day,  and  one-half  pound  of  meal  food,  that  is,  of  millet, 
peas,  and  rye  meal,  which  gives  in  a  cooked  form  more 
than  four  pounds  per  day  for  each  man. 

These  eatiug-houses  are  especially  interesting  in  that 
they  have  given  an  object-lesson  as  to  the  faultiness  of 
the  conviction,  which  has  taken  firm  root  among  the 
majority  of  the  peasants  themselves,  that  rye  bread  is  the 
most  appetizing,  most  wholesome,  and  at  the  same  time 
the  cheapest  form  of  food.  These  eatiug-houses  have 
shown  beyond  a  doubt  that  peas,  millet,  maize,  potatoes, 
beets,  cabbage,  oats,  and  pea  broth  satisfy  the  hunger 
more  easily  and  form  a  more  wholesome  and  cheaper  food 
than  bread.  The  people  who  came  to  the  eating-houses 
without  bread  brouglit  with  them  very  small  pieces  of 
bread,  and  sometimes  came  entirely  without  any  bread, 
and  yet  passed  the  winter  with  their  hunger  well  satisfied 
and  with  good  health,  eating  each  day  about  two  kopeks' 
worth  of  cooked  food  and  two  or  three  kopeks'  worth  of 
bread,  whereas,  eating  nothing  but  bread,  they  used  up  at 
least  seven  and  one-half  kopeks'  worth  of  food. 

Here  is  the  menu  for  the  week,  made  up  by  one  of  our 
co-workers.  Monday  :  cabbage  soup,  porridge  ;  Tuesday  : 
potato  soup,  pea  broth,  and  the  same  for  supper;  Wednes- 
day :  pea  soup,  boiled  potatoes,  and,  for  supper,  peas  with 
kvas ;  Thursday :  cabbage  soup,  pea  broth,  and  the  same 
for  supper ;  Friday  :  potato  soup,  millet  broth,  and  the 
same  for  supper ;  Saturday  :  cabbage  soup,  boiled  potatoes, 
and,  for  supper,  potatoes  witli  kvas ;  Sunday  :  potato  soup, 
porridge,  and,  for  supper,  peas  with  kvas. 

The  author  of  this  menu  was  guided  by  those  products 
which  he  had  at  his  disposal  at  the  given  time.  With 
beets,  from  which  was  prepared  during  the  whole  winter 


302  ARTICLES    ON    THE    FAMINE 

the  favourite  beet  stew,  and  with  the  oats  broth,  this 
menu  can  be  varied  still  more  without  making  the  food 
more  expensive. 

Our  eating-houses  are  distributed,  according  to  localities, 
as  follows  (follows  the  list  of  eating-houses  by  counties 
and  villages). 

In  all  the  eating-houses  of  these  four  counties  9,093 
persons  at  present  receive  food. 

Such  was  one  business  of  ours,  —  the  most  important 
one. 

Another  business  for  the  last  winter  months  consisted 
in  furnishing  wood  to  the  population  in  distress.  This 
distress  has  become  more  and  more  marked  as  the  months 
advanced,  and  beginning  with  the  middle  of  winter,  espe- 
cially when  the  supplies  were  more  or  less  secured,  it  be- 
came the  most  important  business.  In  our  locality,  where 
there  is  no  fuel,  no  turf,  and  there  could  be  no  thought  of 
using  straw  as  fuel,  this  distress  became  very  great  with 
the  beginning  of  winter.  Very  frequently,  not  only  chil- 
dren, but  even  adults,  could  be  found,  not  on  the  oven, 
but  inside  the  oven,  which  had  had  a  fire  started  in  it  the 
day  before  and  which  still  retained  a  httle  heat,  and  on 
many  farms  they  tore  down  the  fences,  kilns,  sheds,  and 
even  vestibules,  using  for  fuel  the  straw,  the  wickerwork, 
and  shavings. 

Thanks  to  the  liberal  gifts  of  wood  from  various  persons, 
we  were  able,  besides  what  we  needed  for  the  eating- 
houses,  to  distribute  more  than  three  hundred  sazhens  to 
the  people. 

Our  method  of  distribution  was  as  follows  :  to  the  more 
well-to-do  peasants,  we  sold  wood  at  our  price  (counting 
five  kopeks  per  pud  as  an  average  price  for  wood  purchased 
in  the  groves  and  in  Smolensk) ;  to  the  average  peasants, 
we  gave  the  wood  on  half  shares  at  the  station  Klekotki, 
about  thirty  versts  off,  so  that  they  took  one-half  and 
hauled  the  other  half  for  us.     To  the  poor  peasants,  who 


ARTICLES    ON    THE    FAMINE  303 

had  horses,  we  gave  the  wood  gratis,  on  condition  that  they 
should  haul  it  themselves  from  the  station.  To  the  very- 
poorest  peasants,  without  any  horses,  we  gave  the  wood  on 
the  spot,  at  home,  —  the  wood  which  those  brought  who 
brought  it  to  us  on  shares. 

Our  third  business  was  the  feeding  of  the  peasant 
horses.  Besides  the  eighty  horses,  which  in  the  beginning 
of  winter  were  sent  to  the  Government  of  Kaluga,  twenty 
wore  taken  to  be  boarded  by  Prince  D.  0.  0.,  ten  by  Mer- 
chant S.,  and  forty  were  placed  on  the  farm  of  Mr.  E., 
where  they  were  fed  on  two  car-loads  of  hay,  contributed 
by  P.  A.  U.,  and  on  old  straw,  given  by  the  owner,  and  on 
other  fodder  which  was  purchased. 

Before  the  beginning  of  spring,  in  February,  two  struc- 
tures were  put  up  on  farms  for  the  feeding  of  the  peasant 
horses,  —  one  on  Mr.  S.'s  farm,  the  other  on  Mr.  M.'s  farm 
in  Efr^mov  County.  For  the  feeding  of  the  horses,  there 
were  bought  ten  thousand  puds  of  straw,  two  car-loads  of 
pressed  seeds,  and  three  hundred  puds  of  millet  meal  were 
provided  for  mash.  By  these  means  276  horses  were  fed 
for  the  period  of  the  last  two  months. 

Our  fourth  business  consisted  in  the  distribution  of  flax 
and  bast  for  work,  and  gratis  to  those  who  were  in  need  of 
foot-gear  and  of  cloth.  One  car-load  of  flax  at  660  roubles 
was  distributed  to  the  needy  gratis,  and  other  eighty  puds, 
and  one  hundred  puds  contributed,  were  distributed  on 
half  shares.  The  linen  which  is  due  us  as  our  share  has 
so  far  not  reached  us,  so  that  we  have  been  unable  to 
satisfy  the  demands  of  Mrs.  N.,  who  sent  us  120  roubles 
for  the  linen,  and  Mrs.  K.  M.,  who  also  offered  to  buy  the 
peasant  cloth,  in  order  to  furnish  earnings  to  the  peasant 
women. 

Of  the  bast  we  have  received  as  a  contribution  one  car- 
load from  P.  A.  U.,  one  hundred  puds  from  L.,  and  one 
thousand  bunches  were  bought  for  219  roubles.  Part  of 
this  bast  has  been  sold  at  a  low  price,  and  part  has  been 


304  ABTICLES   ON   THE    FAMINE 

distributed  gratis  to  the  most  needy,  while  another  part 
has  been  given  on  half  shares  for  the  weaving  of  bast 
shoes. 

The  bast  shoes  which  are  brought  in  are  partly  dis- 
tributed, and  partly  will  be.  This  business,  the  furnishing 
of  material  for  earnings,  was  the  least  successful  one  for 
us.  This  business  is  so  trifling,  it  is  so  inconvenient 
for  us,  who  in  relation  to  the  peasants  stand  in  a  posi- 
tion of  distributers  of  contributions,  to  take  up  the  position 
of  work-givers  who  demand  strict  account  of  the  use  of  the 
material,  that  this  matter  has  been  a  complete  failure, 
calling  forth  nothing  but  unrealized  expectations,  envy, 
and  evil  sentiments.  The  best  would  have  been,  and  we 
do  this  now,  to  sell  these  articles  at  the  lowest  prices  to 
those  who  can  purchase  them,  and  to  give  them  gratis 
to  those  who  cannot  buy  them,  —  to  the  poorest. 

Our  fifth  business,  which  began  in  February,  consisted 
in  the  establishment  of  eatim^-houses  for  the  smallest 
children,  from  a  few  months  old,  suckling  babes,  to  those 
who  are  three  years  old.  We  established  these  eating- 
houses  as  follows :  having  described  all  the  farms  where 
there  are  children  of  that  age,  and  where  there  is  no  milk, 
we  chose  a  woman  wlio  had  a  cow  that  had  come  in,  and 
offered  her  a  remuneration  of  fifteen  puds  of  wood  and  four 
puds  of  pressed  seeds  (which  in  price  is  equal  to  three 
roubles),  if  she  would  make  a  millet  porridge  with  milk 
for  ten  babies  of  from  one  and  one-half  to  three  years  old, 
and  buckwheat  porridge  for  suckhng  babes.  For  a  babe 
of  from  one  and  one-half  to  three  years  old,  two  pounds  of 
millet  per  week  are  furnished,  and  for  suckling  babes,  one 
pound  of  buckwheat  groats. 

In  the  large  villages  these  eating-houses  are  arranged  as 
follows :  milk  is  bought  at  forty  kopeks  per  bucket.  For 
suckling  babes  of  less  than  a  year,  one  pound  per  week  is 
supplied  ;  for  children  of  from  one  to  three  years,  two 
pounds.     The  youngest  children  receive  one  glass  of  mdk 


A-RTICLES    ON    THE    FAMINE  305 

per  day,  the  older,  two  glasses.  Those  who  have  no  cows 
receive  milk  and  millet  in  the  form  of  porridge  ;  those  who 
have  a  cow,  receive  the  porridge,  in  return  for  which  they 
give  milk. 

The  mothers  sometimes  come  themselves  for  the  porridge, 
which  they  carry  home ;  at  times  they  bring  their  babes 
with  them  and  feed  them  on  the  spot.  As  a  rule,  in  estab- 
lishing these  homes,  the  mothers,  and  so  far  as  that  goes, 
all  peasants,  propose,  in  the  place  of  an  eating-house  in 
the  hut  of  a  certain  peasant  woman,  that  the  millet  and  the 
groats  be  given  out  to  them,  asserting  that  they  can  get 
the  milk  anywhere  from  some  good  people.  But  we  think 
that,  to  secure  the  health  of  the  little  children,  precisely 
such  an  arrangement  is  necessary.  Upon  receiving  five  to 
ten  pounds  of  millet  or  groats,  every  peasant  woman,  no 
matter  how  good  a  mother  she  may  be,  looks  upon  the 
millet  and  the  groats  as  upon  provision  which  belongs  to 
the  whole  house,  and  makes  use  of  it  to  the  best  of  her 
knowledge  and  her  needs,  or  as  her  husband  may  order,  so 
that  frequently  the  millet  or  the  groats  do  not  reach  the 
children.  But  if  she  every  day  receives  a  portion  of  pre- 
pared milk  gruel  for  her  child,  she  will  certainly  feed  it 
out  to  the  child. 

We  have  now  some  eighty  such  homes,  and  every  day 
new  ones  are  established.  These  homes,  which  at  first 
called  forth  doubts,  have  now  become  a  habitual  phenom- 
enon, and  nearly  every  day  women  come  with  their  chil- 
dren from  the  villages  in  which  there  are  not  yet  such 
homes,  begging  us  to  establish  thera.  These  homes  cost 
about  sixty  kopeks  per  month  for  every  child. 

Since  it  is  absolutely  impossible,  in  the  complex  and 
constantly  changing  matter  with  which  we  are  occupied, 
to  figure  out  exactly  how  much  money  we  shall  need  in 
order  to  carry  on  everything  undertaken  by  us  until  the 
next  harvest,  and  we,  therefore,  do  not  begin  anything 
which  we  cannot  carry  out  to  the  end,  we  shall,  in  all 


306  ARTICLES    ON    THE    FAMINE 

probability,  have  unexpended  money  left  from  the  late 
contributions  and  from  the  sums  expended  in  the  form  of 
loans,  which  are  to  be  refunded  in  the  fall.  The  best 
placement  of  such  moneys,  I  think,  will  be  the  continua- 
tion of  such  homes  for  children  for  the  next  year.  But  if, 
as  I  am  convinced,  money  and  men  will  be  found  for 
it,  why  should  they  not  be  continued  for  ever  ?  The  gen- 
eral estabhshment  of  such  homes,  I  assume,  could  greatly 
diminish  the  percentage  of  child  mortality.  Such  was  our 
fifth  business. 

The  sixth  business,  which  is  beginning  now,  and  which, 
in  all  probability,  will  be  ended  in  one  way  or  another 
when  this  report  shall  have  appeared  in  print,  consists  in 
the  distribution  to  the  needy  peasants  of  oats,  potatoes, 
hemp,  millet  for  sowing.  The  distribution  of  such  seeds 
is  particularly  needed  in  our  locality,  because,  besides  the 
sowing  of  the  summer  fields,  it  has  unexpectedly  become 
necessary  to  make  a  new  sowing  of  a  considerable  part  of 
the  rye,  which  in  some  localities  has  been  spoiled  nearly 
one-third.  These  seeds  are  distributed  by  us  to  the  most 
needy  peasants,  whose  land  will  inevitably  remain  un- 
sowed  if  they  do  not  receive  seeds ;  but  the  seeds  are  not 
given  to  them  gratis,  but  on  condition  that  they  will 
return  them  in  grain  from  the  new  crops,  independently 
of  the  present  prices  and  of  those  prices  which  they  may 
bring.  The  money  received  from  these  articles  may  be 
used  for  the  establishment  of  homes  for  babes  for  the  next 
winter. 

The  purchase  of  horses  and  their  distribution  forms 
our  seventh  business.  Besides  the  immense  number  of 
those  who  have  no  horses,  who  never  have  a  horse,  which 
in  some  villages  is  as  high  as  one-third,  there  are  in  the 
present  year  some  peasants  who  have  sold  their  horses 
and  have  spent  the  proceeds  in  food,  and  who  now  will 
inevitably  fall  into  absolute  poverty  or  slavery,  if  they 
are  not  provided  with  horses.     We  buy  horses  for  such 


ARTICLES    ON    THE    FAMINE  307 

peasants.  This  spring  we  have  bought  sixteen  such 
horses,  and  it  is  uecessar}'-  to  buy  one  hundred  more 
horses  in  the  locahties  occupied  by  our  eating-houses. 
We  purchase  these  horses  at  the  rate  of  about  twenty-five 
roubles  per  horse,  under  the  following  conditions :  the 
njan  who  receives  a  horse  puts  himself  under  obhgation 
t(j  work  the  allotments  of  two  souls  for  the  poorer  peas- 
ants who  have  no  horses,  for  widows  and  orphans. 

Our  eighth  business  was  the  sale  of  rye,  meal,  and 
baked  bread  at  cheap  prices.  This  business,  —  the  sale 
of  baked  bread,  —  which  was  continued  to  a  small  extent  in 
the  winter,  was  renewed  with  the  arrival  of  spring.  We 
have  established  bakeries  for  the  sale  of  cheap  bread 
at  sixty  kopeks  per  pud. 

Besides  these  definite  divisions,  for  which  the  money 
contributed  has  been  used,  small  sums  have  been  used  by 
us  iu  direct  assistance  to  the  needy  for  needs  wliich  can- 
not be  put  ofi*,  such  as  funerals,  payment  of  debts,  support 
of  small  schools,  purchase  of  books,  building,  and  so 
forth ;  there  were  very  few  such  expenditures,  as  may 
be  seen  from  the  financial  report. 

Such  has  been  our  business  in  general  outline  for  the 
past  six  months.  Our  chief  business  for  this  time  has 
been  the  feeding  of  the  distressed  by  means  of  eating- 
houses.  During  the  winter  months  this  form  of  aid,  in 
spite  of  the  misuse  which  occurred  with  it,  in  the  main 
completely  attained  its  end,  which  was,  to  provide  for  all 
the  poorer  and  weaker  population,  for  the  children,  old 
people,  the  sick,  the  convalescent,  and  thus  save  them 
from  starvation  and  poor  food.  But  with  the  approach  of 
spring  there  present  themselves  certain  considerations 
which  demand  a  change  in  the  existing  order  of  the  ar- 
rangement and  management  of  the  eating-houses. 

With  the  approach  of  spring  there  presents  itself,  in 
the  first  place,  the  new  concUtion  that  many  who  come 
to  the  eating-houses  will  be  at  work  or  attending  to  the 


308  ARTICLES    ON    THE    FAMINE 

horses,  and  will  be  unable  to  attend  the  eating-houses 
during  dinner  and  supper  time  ;  in  the  second  place,  in  the 
summer,  when  the  heat  from  the  ovens  in  the  eating- 
houses  is  intense,  conflagrations  may  easily  occur.  We 
shall  in  its  proper  time  give  an  account  of  how  our  activ- 
ity will  be  changed  in  consequence  of  this,  if  we  shall  have 
a  chance  to  do  so. 

We  add  a  short  general  account  of  the  contributions 
received  by  us,  and  of  the  use  to  which  they  have  been 
put.  We  shall  give  and  print  later  a  complete  account; 
if  we  have  time  for  it. 


ACCOUNT    OF   THE   MONEY   CONTRIBUTED 
FROM    APRIL    12    TO    JULY    27,    1892 

During  the  summer  our  business  consisted  in  the  fol- 
lowing :  (1)  in  the  maintenance  of  the  formerly  existing 
eating-houses  and  the  establishment  of  new  ones ;  (2) 
in  the  establishment  of  homes  for  suckling  babes  and 
children  of  two  years  of  age ;  (3)  in  the  distribution  of 
seeds  for  the  summer  sowing ;  (4)  in  the  purchase  of 
horses ;  and  (5)  in  the  establishment  of  bakeries  and  the 
sale  of  baked  bread.  Our  first  business,  the  eating-houses, 
lasted  from  April  12th  to  July  20th,  almost  in  the  same 
form  as  in  the  preceding  months,  with  this  difference 
only,  that,  fearing  fires  from  overheating,  we  stopped  the 
baking  of  bread  in  the  eating-houses.  Where  we  were 
able  to  do  so,  we  distributed  baked  bread,  and  where  it 
was  not  possible  to  prepare  a  sufficient  quantity  of  bread 
we  distributed  flour  to  the  individuals.  In  many  villages 
a  few  of  our  colabourers  proposed  to  distribute  the  food 
for  cooking  to  the  individuals.  At  first  this  change  was 
accepted  witli  joy,  but  very  soon  the  peasants  in  the  great 
majority  of  the  villages  themselves  wished  to  return  to 
the  old  order. 

.  The  need  of  eating-houses  was  more  felt  in  the  sum- 
mer, during  the  long  day  and  tense  labour,  than  in  winter. 
Very  frequently  the  women  in  many  villages  asked  that, 
instead  of  having  their  dinner,  to  which  they  were  en- 
titled, their  husbands  or  fathers,  who  came  home  late 
from  work,  might  be  accepted  for  supper. 

The  number  of  the  eating-houses  at  that  time  was  con- 
siderably increased. 

309  . 


310  ARTICLES   ON   THE    FAMINE 

There  were  in  all  246  eating-houses,  and  in  them  were 
fed,  at  some  times  more  than  at  others,  between  ten  and 
thirteen  thousand  men. 

The  second  business  —  the  establishment  of  homes  (thus 
the  kitchens  for  the  cooking  of  the  gruel  for  the  chil- 
dren were  incorrectly  called)  —  was  continued  on  the  old 
bases  and  became  very  popular.  For  some  of  the  homes 
in  the  villages,  where  there  were  few  cows  (and  in  our 
district  there  were  villages  in  which  sixty  per  cent,  of  the 
farms  had  no  cows),  we  bought  cows  on  condition  that 
those  who  received  the  cows  should  supply  the  milk  for 
the  children  who  were  put  on  their  hsts.  "Wherever  it 
was  possible,  the  milk  was  bought. 

There  were  in  all  two  to  three  thousand  children  who 
were  fed  in  124  homes. 

The  third  business,  which  consisted  in  the  distribution 
of  summer  seeds,  —  oats,  potatoes,  millet,  hemp,  —  we 
did  as  follows :  upon  arriving  in  a  village  where  there 
were  petitioners,  we  in\dted  three  or  four  well-to-do  farm- 
ers, who  were  not  in  need,  and  read  to  them  a  list  of 
persons  in  need  of  seeds,  and  by  the  indication  of  these 
honest  men  we  determined  the  necessary  quantity  for 
every  petitioner ;  sometimes  we  diminished,  sometimes  we 
increased  it,  and  sometimes  entirely  scratched  out  some 
of  them,  and  in  their  place  put  down  others,  who  were 
not  marked  down  on  the  hst. 

The  fourth  business,  the  distribution  of  horses  to  those 
who  had  regular  farms,  but  whose  horses  had  been  sold 
for  food  or  had  been  lost  by  some  unfortunate  accident, 
was  particularly  troublesome,  because  the  aid  for  one  per- 
son was  too  great  and  so  provoked  envy,  recriminations, 
and  dissatisfaction  on  the  part  of  those  whom  we  had  to 
refuse.  We  determined  on  this  kind  of  aid,  as  in  the 
case  of  the  seeds,  by  the  indication  of  the  honest  men  of 
the  villages  from  which  there  appeared  petitioners. 

In  these  two  matters  we  saw  with  pecuhar  clearness 


ARTICLES    ON    THE    FAMINE  311 

what  a  difference  there  was  between  an  activity  which  had 
for  its  purpose  the  feeding  of  a  hungry  man,  and  which  was 
attained  by  the  eating-houses,  and  an  activity  which  has 
for  its  aim  the  aiding  of  the  peasant  farms,  into  which 
we  were  drawn  by  the  distribution  of  oats,  millet,  hemp, 
potatoes,  and  horses. 

Having  undertaken  in  a  certain  locality  to  save  men 
from  the  danger  of  suffering,  growiug  ill,  and  perishing 
from  the  lack  of  food,  we  fully  attained  this  end  by  es- 
tablishing eating-houses  in  that  locality.  If  there  could 
occur  misuses  in  connection  with  this,  that  is,  if  there 
were  men  who  would  have  been  able  to  provide  food  for 
themselves  at  home,  and  yet  attended  the  eating-houses, 
these  misuses  were  limited  to  the  consumption  of  from 
two  to  five  kopeks'  worth  of  food  per  day.  But  having 
made  it  our  aim  to  assist  the  peasant  farms,  we  immedi- 
ately encountered,  in  the  first  place,  an  insuperable  diffi- 
culty in  determining  who  was  to  be  helped,  and  to  what 
extent,  and  with  what :  in  the  second  place,  the  enormity 
of  the  want,  to  meet  which  one  hundred  times  the  means 
we  had  at  our  disposal  would  not  have  been  sufficient, 
and  in  the  third  place,  the  possibility  of  the  greatest 
misuses,  which  always  accompany  a  free  or  even  a  loan 
distribution. 

Neither  of  these  matters,  in  spite  of  the  great  efforts 
made  l)y  us  to  carry  them  out,  left  in  us  the  consciousness 
of  our  having  been  of  any  actual  use  to  the  peasants  of 
our  locality. 

Our  fifth  business  was  the  baking  of  bread  and  the  sale 
of  bread  at  a  low  price.  At  first  we  sold  bread  at  eighty 
kopeks,  later  at  sixty  kopeks  per  pud,  and  so  we  have 
continued  to  do  until  now. 

This  business  has  been  going  very  nicely  all  the  time. 
The  masses  think  very  highly  of  the  possibility  of  always 
having  cheap  corn  within  reach.  Frequently,  especially 
in  the  summer,  people  came  from  a  distance  of  ten  versts 


312  ARTICLES    ON    THE    FAMINE 

and  more,  and,  having  come  too  late  for  the  first  baking, 
which  was  all  given  away,  had  themselves  booked,  as  in 
the  cities  for  theatre  boxes,  for  ten  pounds  for  the  next 
baking,  and  waited  until  noon  for  their  portions. 

At  the  end  of  July  we  intended  to  make  an  interrup- 
tion in  the  eating-houses,  continuing  only  the  bread-bak- 
ing and  the  children's  homes,  which  are  always  necessary, 
and  on  which  we  proposed  to  expend  whatever  money 
was  left  at  our  disposal.  But  we  did  not  succeed  in 
making  this  interruption,  because,  in  consequence  of  the 
cessation  of  the  activity  of  the  Red  Cross,  it  was  necessary 
immediately  to  establish  eating-houses  for  all  those  who 
had  been  under  the  charge  of  the  Red  Cross,  and  who 
since  July  20th  had  been  left  without  any  care.  Since 
the  first  of  August  we  have  established  seventy  eating- 
houses  for  the  most  needy  Red  Cross  charges,  to  whom 
soon  were  added  the  poorest  of  the  landed  peasants. 
Their  number  has  been  growing  all  the  time. 

The  crops  for  this  year,  in  the  locality  where  we  have 
been  active,  are  like  this :  In  a  circle  of  about  fifty  versts 
diameter,  in  the  centre  of  which  we  are,  the  rye  crop  is 
worse  than  last  year.  In  many  villages  along  the  Don,  — 
Nikitskoe,  Myasnovka,  Pashkovo,  —  in  which  I  was  in  the 
beginning  of  September,  there  was  no  rye  whatsoever  left. 
What  had  been  left  was  either  sowed  or  eaten  up.  There 
was  no  crop  of  oats  at  all,  —  there  are  very  few  who  will 
have  enough  for  seed.  There  are  oat-fields  that  have  not 
been  mowed  at  all.  The  potatoes  and  millet  are  good,  but 
not  universally  so.     Besides,  not  all  peasants  sow  millet. 

I  should  not  be  able  to  give  any  definite  answer  as  to 
the  economic  condition  of  the  masses  in  the  present  year. 
I  could  not  do  so,  because,  in  the  first  place,  all  of  us,  who 
last  year  busied  ourselves  with  the  feeding  of  the  masses, 
are  now  in  the  condition  of  a  doctor,  who,  being  called  to 
a  man  who  has  wrenched  his  foot,  discovers  that  the  whole 
man  is  sick.    What  shall  the  doctor  say,  when  asked  as 


ARTICLES    ON    THE    FAMINE  313 

to  the  condition  of  the  sick  man  ?  "  What  do  you  want 
to  tind  out  ? "  the  doctor  would  ask.  "  Are  you  asking 
about  the  foot  or  about  the  whole  condition  of  the  patient? 
The  foot  is  all  right,  —  there  is  a  simple  sprain, —  but  the 
general  condition  is  bad." 

Besides,  I  could  not  answer  the  question  as  to  what 
the  condition  of  the  masses  is,  "  Is  it  hard,  very  hard,  or 
nothing? "  because  all  of  us,  who  have  lived  close  with  the 
masses,  have  got  too  much  used  to  their  condition,  which 
has  been  getting  worse  and  worse. 

If  some  one  of  the  city  inhabitants  should  in  a  severe  cold 
in  winter  come  into  a  peasant  room,  which  was  only  slightly 
heated  the  day  before,  and  should  see  the  inhabitants  of 
the  room  climbing,  not  down  from  the  oven,  but  out  of  the 
oven,  in  which  tliey  pass  their  days  by  rotation,  since  this 
is  the  only  means  for  getting  warm,  or  the  people  burning 
the  roofs  of  the  outhouses  and  of  the  vestibule  for  fuel, 
eating  nothing  but  bread  which  is  baked  from  equal  parts 
of  meal  and  the  worst  kind  of  bran,  and  adult  people  dis- 
puting and  quarrelling  because  a  slice  of  bread  cut  ofi"  does 
not  come  within  one-eighth  of  a  pound  of  the  established 
weight,  or  people  not  leaving  the  hut,  because  they  have 
nothing  to  put  on,  they  would  be  startled  by  what  they 
saw.  But  we  look  upon  such  phenomena  as  upon  some- 
thing very  common.  And  so  the  question  as  to  the  con- 
dition of  the  masses  in  our  locality  will  be  better  answered 
by  him  who  will  come  to  our  places  for  the  first  time  than 
by  us.  We  have  become  accustomed  to  the  suffering,  and 
we  do  not  see  anything  now. 

Some  kind  of  a  conception  may  be  formed  as  to  the 
condition  of  the  masses  in  our  locality  from  the  follow- 
ing statistical  data,  excerpted  from  the  Tula  Government 
Gazette.  During  years  with  good  crops,  from  1886  to 
1890,  there  died,  in  the  four  counties  of  Bogoroditsk, 
Epiphany,  Efrdmov,  and  Novosilsk,  on  an  average,  9,761 
men,  and  were  born  12,069  persons,  during  the  five  months 


314  ARTICLES    ON    THE    FAMINE 

from  February  tec  June  inclusive.  In  the  famine  year, 
1892,  there  died  14,309  persons  and  were  born  11,383 
persons,  during  the  same  months.  In  the  ordinary  year, 
the  births  surpass  tlie  deaths  by  an  average  of  2,308 
persons,  while  in  the  present  year  the  deaths  surpassed 
the  births  by  2,926  persons.  Thus  the  consequence  of 
the  failure  of  crops  in  these  four  counties  was  the  diminu- 
tion of  the  population  as  against  other  years  by  5,234 
persons.  In  comparison  with  other  good  years  we  get  the 
following :  In  the  four  good  counties,  Tiila,  Kashir,  Odoev, 
By^lev,  there  were  born,  during  the  same  live  months, 
8,268  persons,  and  there  died,  6,468  persons.  But  in  the 
counties  with  poor  crops  there  were  born  11,383  persons, 
and  there  died  14,409,  so  that,  while  in  the  good  counties 
the  births  are  to  the  deaths  approximately  as  four  to  three, 
in  the  bad  counties  the  mortality  is  to  the  birth-rate  as  seven 
to  five,  that  is,  while  in  the  good  counties  there  were  three 
deaths  to  every  four  births,  in  the  bad  counties  there  were 
five  births  only  to  seven  deaths. 

When  we  consider  the  relation  in  per  cent.,  the  con- 
dition of  the  bad  localities  is  most  strikingly  expressed  in 
the  mortality  during  the  month  of  June.  In  Epiphany 
County  there  died,  in  1892,  sixty  per  cent.,  in  Bogoro- 
ditsk  County  112  per  cent.,  and  in  Efremov  County  116 
per  cent,  more  than  in  ordinary  years. 

Such  were  the  consequences  of  the  failure  of  crops 
during  the  last  year,  in  spite  of  the  increased  aid  offered 
by  the  government,  the  Bed  Cross,  and  private  charity. 
What,  then,  will  happen  this  year  in  our  locality,  where 
the  rye  has  turned  out  worse  than  last  year,  oats  have 
been  a  complete  failure,  fuel  does  not  exist,  and  the  last 
stores  of  the  strength  of  the  masses  have  been  sapped 
during  the  last  year  ? 

Well,  shall  we  again  have  starving  people  ?  Starving  ! 
Eating-houses  !  Eating-houses,  —  starving,  —  all  that  is 
so  old,  and  we  are  so  tired  of  it  all. 


ARTICLES    ON    THE    FAMINE  315 

We  are  tired  of  it  in  Moscow,  in  St.  Petersburg ;  but 
here,  where  they  stand  from  morning  until  evening  beneath 
the  windows  or  at  the  doors,  and  it  is  impossible  to  cross 
the  street  without  hearing  eternally  the  same  phrases, 
"  Have  not  eaten  for  two  days,  have  sold  the  last  sheep. 
What  shall  we  do  ?  The  last  end  has  come.  Shall  we 
die  ? "  etc.,  here,  however  ashamed  we  are  to  confess  this, 
we  have  become  so  sick  of  it  that  we  look  upon  them  as 
upon  our  enemies. 

I  get  up  very  early ;  a  clear,  frosty  morning  with  a  red 
sunrise  ;  the  snow  squeaks  on  the  steps  ;  I  go  out,  hoping 
that  no  one  has  come  yet,  and  I  shall  be  able  to  take  a 
walk.  But  no ;  I  have  barely  opened  the  door,  when, 
behold,  two  of  them  are  already  there,  waiting :  one  is  a 
tall,  broad  peasant,  in  a  short,  ragged  fur  coat  and  torn 
bast  shoes,  with  a  wallet  over  his  shoulder ;  his  face  is 
haggard  (they  all  have  haggard  faces,  so  that  these  faces 
have  become  the  characteristic  peasant  faces).  With  them 
they  have  a  boy  of  fourteen  years  of  age,  without  a  fur  coat, 
in  a  tattered  peasant  coat,  also  in  bast  shoes  and  also  with 
a  wallet  and  a  stick.  I  want  to  pass  by  them,  but  they 
begin  to  bow  and  to  repeat  the  usual  sentences.  There  is 
nothing  to  be  done,  and  I  return  to  the  vestibule.  They 
enter  after  me. 

"  What  do  you  want  ? " 

"  To  your  Grace." 

"  What  ? " 

"  To  your  Grace." 

"  What  is  it  you  want  ? " 

"  In  regard  to  the  aid." 

"  What  aid  ? " 

"  In  reference  to  our  living." 

"  But  what  is  it  you  want  ?  " 

"  We  are  starving.     Help  us  some." 

"  Whore  do  you  come  from  ? " 

"  From  Zatvornoe." 


316  AKTICLES    ON    THE    FAMINE 

I  know  that  this  is  a  beggar  village  of  Skdpin  County, 
where  we  have  not  yet  had  time  to  open  an  eating-house. 
Beggars  come  from  there  by  the  dozen,  and  I  at  once 
class  this  man  in  my  imagination  as  a  professional  beg- 
gar, and  I  am  angry  at  him,  especially,  because  they  take 
their  children  with  them,  and  thus  corrupt  them. 

"  What  do  you  ask  ? " 

"  Do  something  for  us." 

"  How  can  I  ?  We  cannot  do  anything  here.  We 
shall  go  to  your  village." 

But  he  pays  no  attention  to  me,  and  there  begin  once 
more  the  words  which  I  have  heard  a  hundred  times  and 
which  appear  to  me  to  be  untrue : 

"  We  have  had  no  crops ;  the  family  consists  of  eight 
souls,  —  I  am  the  only  worker,  the  old  woman  is  dead ; 
last  year  we  sold  the  cow  for  food,  at  Christmas  the  last 
horse  died.  It  makes  no  difference  about  me,  —  the 
children  beg  for  something  to  eat ;  there  is  no  place  to 
go  to,  —  we  have  not  eaten  for  three  days  !  " 

All  this  is  trite.  I  am  waiting  for  him  to  get  through. 
But  he  says : 

"  I  thought  I  would  manage  somehow ;  but  I  have 
lost  all  my  strength.  I  have  not  begged  before,  but  God 
has  brouglit  me  to  this." 

"  Very  well,  —  we  shall  come  and  see,"  I  say,  wishing 
to  pass  by,  and  I  cast  a  desperate  glance  at  the  boy.  The 
boy  looks  at  me  with  pitiful,  tear-filled,  exquisite  brown 
eyes,  expressive  of  hope,  and  one  bright  tear-drop  is  already 
hanging  on  his  nose  and  that  very  moment  breaks  off  aud 
falls  on  the  snow-tracked  board  floor.  And  the  dear, 
fatigued  face  of  the  boy,  with  his  blond  hair  curling 
about  his  head,  twitches  more  and  more  from  repressed 
sobs.  For  me  the  words  of  the  father  are  an  old,  trite 
subterfuge.  But  to  him  it  is  a  repetition  of  that  terrible 
year  which  he  has  gone  through  witli  his  father,  and  the 
repetition  of  it  all  during  that  solemn  moment,  when  they 


ARTICLES    ON    THE    FAMINE  317 

have  at  last  found  their  way  to  me,  to  the  help,  stir  him, 
and  shake  his  nerves,  which  are  weakened  from  hunger. 
But  I  am  tired,  tired  of  it  all ;  I  am  only  thinking  of 
how  to  take  a  walk  as  soon  as  possible. 

To  me  it  is  old,  but  to  him  —  terribly  new. 

Yes,  we  are  tired  of  it.  But  they  want  to  eat  as  much 
as  ever;  they  want  to  live,  they  want  happiness,  they 
want  love,  as  I  could  see  by  his  charming  tear-filled  eyes, 
which  were  directed  upon  me,  —  and  such  is  the  want 
of  the  good,  wretched  boy,  who  is  worn  out  by  want  and 
full  of  naive  pity  for  himself. 

Bycgichevha,  Septcmher  11,  1892, 


CONCLUSION   TO   LAST   EEPORT   ON   THE 
AID    TO    THE    STARVING 

Our  two  years'  occupation  in  distributing  among  the 
distressed  population  such  contributions  as  passed  through 
our  hands,  more  than  anything  else  confirmed  our  old  con- 
viction that  the  major  part  of  that  distress,  those  priva- 
tions, and  those  sufferings  and  the  son-ow  which  goes  with 
them,  and  which  we  almost  vainly  tried  in  an  external 
manner  to  counteract  in  a  small  corner  of  Russia,  was 
due,  not  to  some  exclusive,  temporary  causes,  which  did 
not  depend  on  us,  but  to  the  most  common,  constant 
causes,  which  were  fully  dependent  on  us,  and  which  con- 
sisted in  nothing -but  the  anti-Christian,  non-brotherly 
relation  of  us,  the  cultured  men,  to  the  poor,  the  manual 
labourers,  who  always  bear  that  want  and  those  privations 
and  the  sufferings  and  sorrows  connected  with  them, 
though  in  the  last  two  years  these  have  been  noticed  by 
us  more  than  ever.  If  in  the  present  year  we  do  not  hear 
of  the  distress,  cold,  and  hunger,  and  the  dying  of  adults 
worn  out  by  labour,  and  of  the  young  and  old  who  do  not 
get  enough  to  eat,  by  the  hundred  thousand,  this  will 
not  be  due  to  the  fact  that  this  will  not  be,  but  because 
we  shall  not  see  it ;  we  shall  forget  it,  shall  assure  our- 
selves that  this  does  not  exist,  or,  if  it  exists,  that  it  must 
be  so  and  cannot  be  otherwise. 

But  this  is  not  true  :  it  not  only  cannot  be,  but  it 
ought  not  to  be  and  will  not  be. 

No  matter  how  well  concealed  a  glass  of  wine  seems  to 
us  in   respect  to  the   working    classes,   no  matter   how 

318 


ARTICLES    ON    THE    FAMINE  319 

clever,  old,  and  common  the  excuses  may  be  by  which 
we  justify  our  luxurious  life  amidst  the  working  people, 
who  are  worn  out  by  labour  and  do  not  get  enough  to 
eat  and  serve  our  luxury,  —  the  light  penetrates  more 
and  more  into  these  our  relations  to  the  labouring  people, 
and  we  shall  soon  show  ourselves  in  that  shameful  and 
perilous  position  in  which  a  criminal  finds  himself  when 
the  unexpected  daybreak  overtakes  him  on  the  place  of 
execution.  If  it  was  possible  formerly  for  a  merchant, 
who  was  selling  to  the  labouring  people  useless,  and  fre- 
quently harmful  and  worthless  articles,  trying  to  take  for 
them  as  much  as  possible,  or  even  selling  corn  which  was 
good  and  needful,  but  had  been  bought  cheaply  and 
was  sold  at  a  high  price,  to  say  that  he  was  serving  the 
needs  of  the  masses  by  means  of  honest  commerce ;  or 
for  a  manufacturer  of  cottons,  mirrors,  cigarettes,  or  for  a 
distiller  of  spirits,  or  for  a  brewer  of  beer,  to  say  that 
he  is  feeding  the  masses,  by  giving  them  work  to  do ;  or 
for  an  official  who  receives  thousands  in  salary,  collected 
from  the  last  pennies  of  the  masses,  to  assure  himself  that 
he  is  serving  for  the  good  of  the  masses ;  or,  what  in 
these  last  years  has  been  most  obvious  in  the  famine- 
stricken  localities,  if  it  was  formerly  possible  for  a  landed 
proprietor,  who  worked  his  land  by  means  of  the  hungry 
peasants  for  less  than  the  value  of  bread,  or  who  rented 
this  same  land  to  the  peasants  for  the  highest  possible 
price,  to  say  that,  by  introducing  improved  farming,  he 
was  contributing  to  the  welfare  of  the  country  popula- 
tion ;  —  now  that  the  masses  are  starving  from  lack  of 
land  amidst  the  enormous  fields  of  the  landed  proprietors, 
which  are  planted  with  potatoes,  to  be  sold  for  spirit, 
or  for  starch,  it  is  impossible  to  say  so.  It  is  impossible 
now,  amidst  these  masses  all  about  us,  who  are  degenera- 
ting from  the  lack  of  food  and  the  superabundance  of 
work,  not  to  see  that  every  absorption  by  us  of  the  prod- 
ucts   of   the    labour    of    the  masses    on    the   one   hand 


320  ARTICLES    ON    THE    FAMINE 

deprives  them  of  what  is  necessary  for  their  sustenance, 
on  the  other  increases  their  work,  which,  as  it  is,  has  been 
carried  to  the  highest  point  of  tension.  To  say  nothing 
of  the  senseless  luxury  of  parks,  flower  gardens,  chases,  — 
every  glass  of  brandy  swallowed,  every  piece  of  sugar, 
butter,  meat  is,  on  the  one  hand,  so  much  food  taken 
from  the  masses,  and,  on  the  other,  so  much  labour  added 
to  them. 

We  Russians  find  ourselves  in  this  respect  in  the  most 
favourable  conditions  for  seeing  clearly  our  position. 

I  remember  how  once,  long  before  the  famine  years, 
a  young,  morally  sensitive  Prague  scholar,  who  visited  me 
in  the  country,  upon  coming  in  the  winter  out  of  the 
house  of  a  comparatively  wealthy  peasant,  into  which  we 
had  gone,  and  in  which,  as  everywhere  else,  there  was 
a  prematurely  aged  old  woman,  worn  out  by  work  and 
clad  in  rags,  a  sickly  child  which  had  ruptured  itself  by 
crying,  and,  as  always  in  the  spring,  a  calf  tied  up  and 
a  ewe  with  its  new-born  lamb,  and  dirt,  and  dampness, 
and  infected  air,  and  a  gloomy  householder,  crushed  by 
life,  —  I  remember  how,  coming  out  of  it,  my  young  ac- 
quaintance began  to  say  something  to  me,  and  suddenly 
his  voice  faltered,  and  he  burst  out  weeping.  It  was  for 
the  first  time  that  he,  after  several  months  passed  in 
Moscow  and  in  St.  Petersburg,  where,  walking  on  asphalt 
sidewalks,  past  elegant  shops,  from  one  wealthy  house  to 
another,  from  one  luxurious  museum,  library,  palace,  into 
another,  a  building  just  as  superb,  saw  those  men,  on 
whose  labour  rested  all  that  luxury,  and  he  was  horrified 
and  startled  by  it.  He,  in  his  wealthy  and  cultured  Bo- 
hemia, like  any  European,  especially  a  Swede,  a  Swiss, 
a  Belgian,  may  imagine,  though  he  will  be  wrong,  that 
where  there  is  relative  freedom,  where  culture  is  widely 
diffused,  where  every  man  is  given  the  chance  of  entering 
into  the  ranks  of  the  cultured,  that  luxury  is  only  a 
legitimate  reward  of  labour  and  does  not  ruin  the  lives 


ARTICLES   ON   THE    FAMINE  321 

of  others.  He  may  somehow  forget  those  generations  of 
men,  in  the  mines  of  that  coal  by  means  of  which  the 
greater  part  of  the  articles  of  his  luxury  are  made ;  he  can 
forget,  since  he  does  not  see  them,  that  other  breed  of 
men,  who  die  in  the  colonies,  working  for  the  gratification 
of  his  desires ;  but  we  Kussians  can  by  no  means  think 
so  :  the  connection  between  our  luxury  and  the  sufierings 
and  privations  of  the  people  of  the  same  breed  with  us,  is 
entirely  too  obvious.  We  cannot  help  but  see  that  price 
of  human  life  at  which  we  buy  our  comforts  and  our 
luxury. 

For  us  the  sun  has  already  risen,  and  it  is  evident  that 
nothing  can  be  hidden.  We  can  no  longer  hide  ourselves 
beliind  the  government,  behind  the  necessity  of  governiug 
the  masses,  behind  the  sciences,  the  arts,  which  are  sup- 
posed to  be  indispensable  to  the  masses,  behind  the  sacred 
rights  of  property,  behind  the  necessity  of  sustaining  tra- 
dition, aud  so  forth.  The  sun  has  risen,  and  all  these 
transparent  shrouds  do  not  conceal  anything  from  any 
one.  All  see  and  know  that  the  men  who  serve  the  gov- 
ernment do  not  do  this  for  the  good  of  the  people,  who 
do  not  ask  for  it,  but  only  because  they  need  a  salary ; 
and  the  men  who  busy  themselves  with  the  sciences  and 
the  arts,  busy  themselves  with  them,  not  for  the  enlight- 
enment of  the  people,  but  for  the  fee  and  the  pension ; 
and  that  the  men  who  keep  the  land  from  the  people  and 
raise  the  price  on  it  do  not  do  so  for  the  purpose  of  main- 
taining certain  sacred  rights,  but  for  the  increase  of  their 
incomes,  whicli  they  need  for  the  gratification  of  their 
lusts.     There  is  no  possibihty  of  concealment  or  of  lying. 

There  are  but  two  ways  out  for  the  ruling,  wealthy, 
non-working  classes,  —  one  is,  to  renounce,  not  only  Chris- 
tianity in  its  real  meaning,  but  also  every  semblance  of 
it,  —  to  renounce  luunanily  and  justice,  and  to  say:  "I 
possess  these  advantages  and  prerogatives,  and  I  shall 
retain  them  at  all  costs.     Any  one  who  wants  to  take 


322  AKTICLES    ON    THE    FAMINE 

them  from  me  will  have  his  dealings  with  me.  I  have 
the  power  in  my  hands,  —  soldiers,  gallows,  prisons, 
scourges,  and  capital  punishment." 

Another  way  out  consists  in  recognizing  the  injustice, 
ceasing  to  lie,  repenting,  not  in  words  only,  or  by  coming 
to  the  aid  of  the  masses  with  pennies  which  have  been 
taken  from  them  with  suffering  and  pain,  as  has  been 
done  during  the  last  two  years,  but  by  breaking  down 
that  artificial  barrier  which  stands  between  us  and  the 
working  people ;  in  recognizing  them,  not  in  words,  but 
in  deeds,  as  our  brothers,  and  for  this  purpose  changing 
our  lives  ;  in  renouncing  those  advantages  and  prerogatives 
which  we  have,  and,  having  renounced  them,  in  putting 
ourselves  on  an  equal  footing  with  the  masses,  and  to- 
gether with  them  attaining  those  benefits  of  government, 
science,  civilization,  which  we  pretend  we  are  trying  to 
transmit  to  them  in  an  external  manner,  without  asking 
their  wish  about  it. 

We  are  standing  on  the  cross-road,  and  the  choice  is 
inevitable. 

The  first  way  out  means  devoting  ourselves  to  a  con- 
stant lie,  to  a  constant  terror  of  this  lie  being  discovered, 
and  yet  the  consciousness  that  sooner  or  later  we  shall 
inevitably  be  driven  away  from  the  position  which  we  are 
holding  now  with  such  stubbornness. 

The  second  way  out  means  a  voluntary  recognition  and 
execution  in  life  of  what  we  ourselves  are  proposing,  what 
our  heart  and  our  reason  demand,  and  what  sooner  or 
later  will  be  fulfilled,  if  not  by  us,  at  least  by  others,  be- 
cause only  in  this  renunciation  of  the  power  by  the  ruling 
people  lies  the  one  way  out  from  those  torments  from 
which  suffers  our  pseudo-Christian  humanity.  This  way 
out  hes  only  in  the  renunciation  of  what  is  false  and  in 
the  recognition  of  true  Christianity. 

October  28, 1893. 


NICHOLAS    STICK 

1886 


NICHOLAS  STICK 


We  passed  the  night  at  the  house  of  a  soldier  ninety- 
five  years  old,  —  he  had  served  under  Alexander  I,  and 
under  Nicholas. 

"  Well,  grandfather,  do  you  want  to  die  ?  " 

"  To  die  ?  Of  course  I  want  to  very  much  !  I  used 
to  be  afraid  to,  but  now  I  beg  God  for  nothing  but  this, 
—  to  give  me  a  chance  to  repent  and  to  receive  the  ex- 
treme unction.     I  have  so  many  sins  upon  me." 

"  What  are  your  sins  ? " 

"  What  sins  ?  Do  you  know  when  I  served  ?  I  served 
under  Nicholas !  It  was  a  different  kind  of  service  from 
what  it  is  nowadays.  What  was  it  then  ?  Ugh  !  It 
makes  me  shudder  to  think  of  it.  I  served  even  under 
Alexander,  and  him  the  soldiers  used  to  praise,  —  they 
said  that  he  was  merciful." 

I  recalled  the  last  period  of  Alexander's  reign,  when 
twenty  out  of  each  hundred  men  used  to  be  beaten  to 
death.  A  fine  man  Nicholas  must  have  been,  if  in  com- 
parison with  him  Alexander  was  called  merciful  ! 

"It  was  my  fate  to  serve  under  Nicholas,"  said  the 
old  man. 

He  immediately  became  enlivened  and  began : 

"  How  was  it  then  ?  Then  they  did  not  even  take  off 
the  breeches  for  fifty  rods  ;  one  hundred  and  fifty,  two 

325 


826  NICHOLAS    STICK 

hundred,  three  hundred,  —  they  used  to  beat  men  to 
death ! " 

He  spoke  with  disgust  and  terror,  and  not  without 
pride  about  the  ancient  exploits. 

"  Not  a  week  passed  but  that  a  man  or  two  of  the  regi- 
ment was  beaten  to  death  with  sticks.  Nowadays  they 
do  not  know  what  a  stick  is,  but  then  the  word  did  not 
leave  the  mouth  :  '  Sticks,  sticks  ! ' 

"  Our  soldiers  nicknamed  Nicholas,  calling  him  '  Stick.' 
He  was  Nicholas  Pavlovich,  but  they  used  to  say  '  Nicho- 
las Stick.'  And  this  nickname  stuck  to  him.  So,  as  I 
think  of  those  days,"  continued  the  old  man,  "  well,  I 
have  outlived  it  all,  it  is  time  for  me  to  die,  —  as  I  think 
of  it  all,  I  feel  horribly. 

"  Many  a  sin  did  I  take  upon  my  soul.  It  was  all 
a  question  of  subordination.  They  count  you  off  one 
hundred  and  fifty  rods  for  a  soldier "  (the  old  man  had 
been  an  under-officer  and  sergeant,  and  now  was  a  candi- 
date), "  and  you  count  off  two  hundred  to  him.  Your 
wounds  do  not  heal  up  from  it,  but  you  torment  him, — 
and  so  here  is  a  sin. 

"  The  under-officers  used  to  beat  the  young  soldiers  to 
death.  They  would  strike  with  the  butt  of  a  gun  or  the 
fist  on  some  chosen  spot,  —  the  chest  or  the  head,  —  and 
he  would  die.  And  there  was  never  any  inquest  about 
the  matter.  He  died  from  beating,  but  the  authorities 
wrote,  '  Died  by  the  will  of  God,'  and  that  was  the  end  of 
it.  Did  I  understand  anything  then  ?  I  only  thought 
of  myself.  But  now,  as  I  toss  about  on  the  oven,  unable 
to  sleep  through  the  night,  I  cannot  help  but  think  and 
see  it  all ;  it  will  be  well  if  I  have  a  chance  to  get  my 
extreme  unction  in  Christian  fashion,  and  am  forgiven, 
for  I  am  seized  by  terror.  As  I  think  what  I  myself  suf- 
fered and  what  others  suffered  from  me,  I  do  not  need 
any  hell,  —  it  was  worse  than  any  hell." 

I  vividly  imagined  what  this  dying  man  must  be  re- 


NICHOLAS   STICK  327 

calling  in  his  old  man's  loneliness,  and  a  chill  passed 
through  me.  I  recalled  all  those  horrors,  besides  the 
sticks,  in  which  he  must  have  taken  part,  —  the  driving 
to  death  between  two  rows,  the  shooting,  the  murder,  and 
the  pillage  of  cities  and  villages  in  war  (he  himself  had 
taken  part  in  the  Polish  war),  and  I  began  to  ask  him 
about  it.  I  asked  him  about  the  driving  between  two 
rows. 

He  told  me  in  detail  about  this  terrible  affair,  —  how 
they  led  a  man  tied  to  guns  between  an  avenue  of  soldiers 
with  sharpened  sticks,  how  all  struck  him,  while  officers 
walked  behind  the  soldiers,  calling  out,  "  Strike  harder  !  " 
"  Strike  harder ! "  The  old  man  called  out  in  a  com- 
manding voice,  evidently  not  without  pleasure  recalling 
and  repeating  the  dashing  tone  of  a  commander. 

He  told  me  all  the  details  without  any  sign  of  repent- 
ance, as  he  might  have  told  about  killing  steers  and  curing 
beef.  He  told  me  how  they  used  to  lead  the  unfortunate 
man  up  and  down  between  the  rows,  how  the  stricken 
man  stretched  forward  and  fell  on  the  bayonets  ;  how  at 
first  the  bloody  wales  were  visible,  then  crossed,  then 
blended  together ;  how  the  blood  came  out  and  spirted ; 
how  the  blood-covered  flesh  flew  in  clusters  ;  how  the 
bones  were  laid  bare ;  how  the  unfortunate  man  at  first 
cried,  then  only  groaned  in  a  dull  voice  with  every  step 
and  every  stroke ;  how  he  then  grew  quiet,  and  how 
the  doctor,  who  was  detailed  to  do  this,  came  up,  felt  the 
pulse,  examined  the  man,  and  determined  whether  the 
man  might  be  beaten  again  without  being  killed,  or 
whether  they  had  better  wait  and  put  off  the  rest  till  an- 
other time,  when  the  wounds  had  healed  up,  in  order  to 
begin  the  torture  from  the  beginning  and  finish  the  num- 
ber of  strokes  which  certain  beasts,  with  Stick  at  their 
head,  had  decided  must  be  administered.  The  doctor 
used  his  knowledge  to  keep  the  man  from  dying  until  he 
had  endured  all  the  torments  which  his  body  could  bear. 


328  NICHOLAS    STICK 

He  told  how,  when  the  man  could  no  longer  walk,  they 
put  him  prostrate  on  a  military  cloak,  with  a  blood-cov- 
ered pillow  down  the  spine ;  how  they  carried  him  to  the 
hospital  to  be  cured,  so  that,  when  he  was  cured,  he  might 
receive  the  missing  one  or  two  thousand  strokes,  which 
he  had  not  yet  received  and  was  unable  to  bear  at  one 
time.  He  told  me  how  they  begged  for  death  and  did  not 
get  it  at  once,  but  were  cured  and  beaten  a  second,  some- 
times a  third  time.  And  the  man  lived  and  tossed  about 
in  the  hospital,  awaiting  new  torments,  which  would  bring 
him  to  death.  And  all  this,  because  a  man  ran  away 
from  the  army,  or  had  the  manliness,  daring,  and  self- 
renunciation  to  complain  for  his  comrades  that  they  were 
badly  fed,  and  that  the  authorities  stole  their  shares. 

He  told  me  all  this,  and  when  I  tried  to  evoke  his  re- 
pentanceat  these  recollections,  he  at  jfirst  looked  surprised 
and  then  frightened. 

"  No,"  he  said,  "  why  should  I  ?  It  was  according  to 
judgment !  Was  I  guilty  of  it  ?  It  was  according  to  the 
law." 

The  same  calm  and  absence  of  repentance  he  showed 
in  relation  to  the  military  horrors  in  which  he  had  taken 
part,  and  many  of  which  he  had  seen  in  Turkey  and  in 
Poland. 

He  told  me  of  the  murder  of  children,  of  the  starvation 
and  freezing  of  captives,  of  the  killing  with  a  bayonet  of 
a  young  Pole  who  pressed  himself  against  a  tree.  And 
when  I  asked  him  whether  his  conscience  did  not  torment 
him  for  these  acts,  he  absolutely  failed  to  understand  me. 
This  was  in  a  lawful  war,  for  king  and  fatherland.  Those 
were  not  only  not  bad  acts,  but  such  as  he  regarded  as 
valorous,  virtuous,  and  redeeming  his  sins.  What  troubled 
him  was  only  his  personal  acts,  when  he,  being  a  com- 
mander, used  to  beat  and  punish  his  men.  It  was  these 
acts  that  tormented  his  conscience ;  but  to  purge  himself 
from  them  he  has  a  salvation,  and  that  is  the  extreme 


NICHOLAS    STICK  329 

unction,  which  he  hopes  he  will  succeed  in  receiving 
before  death,  and  for  which  he  has  begged  his  niece. 
His  niece,  understanding  the  importance  of  it,  has  prom- 
ised it  to  him,  and  he  is  satisfied. 

His  having  ruined  and  killed  innocent  children  and 
women,  his  having  killed  men  with  bullets  and  the  bayo- 
net, his  having  beaten  to  death  people,  standing  in  the 
row,  and  having  dragged  them  to  the  hospital,  and  again 
back  to  the  torture,  —  all  this  does  not  trouble  him :  all 
this  is,  as  it  were,  not  his  affair.  All  this  was,  as  it  were, 
not  done  by  him,  but  by  another  person. 

What  would  happen  to  this  old  man,  if  he  compre- 
hended, what  ought  to  be  so  clear  to  him  who  was  stand- 
ing on  the  threshold  of  death,  that  between  him,  his 
conscience,  and  God,  as  now,  on  the  eve  of  death,  there 
was  no  mediator,  and  there  can  be  none,  just  as  there  could 
be  none  at  that  moment,  when  he  was  made  to  torment 
and  kill  people  ?  What  would  happen  to  him,  if  he  now 
understood  that  there  is  nothing  to  redeem  the  evil  which 
he  did  to  men,  when  he  was  able  not  to  do  it  ?  If  he 
understood  that  there  is  one  eternal  law,  which  he  has 
always  known  and  could  not  help  knowing,  a  law  de- 
manding love  and  compassion  for  people,  and  that  what 
he  called  law  was  a  detestable,  godless  deception,  to  which 
he  ought  not  to  have  submitted  ?  It  is  terrible  to  think 
what  would  present  itself  to  him  in  his  sleepless  nights 
on  the  oven,  and  what  his  despair  would  be,  if  he  under- 
stood that,  when  lie  had  the  strength  to  do  good  and  evil 
to  men,  he  did  only  evil ;  that,  when  he  has  come  to 
understand  what  the  evil  and  what  the  good  consists 
in,  he  is  no  longer  able  to  do  anything  but  be  uselessly 
tormented  and  repent  ?     His  sufferings  would  be  terrible ! 

"  Why,  then-,  wish  to  torment  him  ?  Why  torment  the 
conscience  of  a  dying  old  man  ?  It  would  be  better  to 
calm  it.  Why  irritate  the  people  and  remind  them  of 
what  is  long  past  ? " 


330  NICHOLAS   STICK 

Past  ?  What  is  past  ?  Can  that  pass  which  we  have 
not  only  not  begun  to  eradicate  and  cure,  but  which  we 
even  are  afraid  to  call  by  name  ?  Can  a  cruel  disease 
pass,  only  because  we  say  that  it  has  passed  ?  It  does 
not  pass  and  will  never  pass  and  cannot  pass,  so  long  as 
we  do  not  recognize  ourselves  as  sick.  To  cure  a  disease, 
we  must  first  recognize  it.  But  we  do  not  do  this.  We 
not  only  fail  to  do  this,  but  we  employ  all  our  efforts 
to  the  end  that  we  may  not  see  it,  may  not  call  it  by 
name. 

The  disease  does  not  pass,  but  is  only  modified  ;  it  eats 
deeper  into  the  flesh,  the  blood,  the  bones.  The  disease 
consists  in  this,  that  men  born  good  and  meek,  men  illu- 
minated by  Christian  truth,  men  with  love  implanted  in 
their  hearts,  with  compassion  for  men,  commit  —  man 
over  men  —  frightful  cruelties,  without  knowing  them- 
selves why  they  are  committing  them  and  for  what  pur- 
pose. Our  Russians,  meek,  good  men,  impressed  with  the 
spirit  of  Christ's  teaching,  who  repent  in  their  hearts  for 
having  offended  men  with  a  word,  for  not  having  given 
their  last  to  mendicants  and  not  having  shown  pity  to 
prisoners,  —  these  men  pass  the  best  period  of  their  lives 
in  murder  and  in  torturing  their  brothers,  and  not  only 
fail  to  repent  of  their  acts,  but  even  consider  these  acts 
virtuous  or,  at  least,  indispensable,  just  as  inevitable  as 
food  or  breathing.  Is  this  not  a  terrible  disease  ?  And 
is  it  not  incumbent  on  everybody  to  do  everything  he  cau, 
in  order  to  cure  it,  and,  first  of  all  and  above  all  else,  to 
point  it  out,  to  recognize  it,  to  call  it  by  its  name  ? 

The  old  soldier  has  passed  all  his  life  in  torturing  and 
killing  other  people.  We  say,  "  Why  mention  it  ?  The 
soldier  does  not  consider  himself  guilty,  and  those  terrible 
deeds  —  the  stick,  the  driving  through  the  rows,  and  the 
others  —  have  already  passed ;  why  mention  the  past  ? 
Nowadays  these  things  no  longer  exist. 

"  There   was  a  Nicholas  Stick.     Why   mention  him  ? 


NICHOLAS    STICK  331 

It  is  only  the  old  soldier  who  mentioned  him  before  his 
death.     Why  irritate  the  people  ? " 

Just  so  they  spoke  during  Nicholas's  reign  of  Alex- 
ander. The  same  was  in  Alexander's  time  said  of  the 
deeds  of  Paul.  The  same  was  said  in  Catherine's  time 
of  Peter,  and  so  forth.     Why  mention  it  all  ? 

Why  mention  it  ?  If  I  have  had  a  bad  or  a  dangerous 
disease,  which  was  hard  to  cure,  and  I  am  freed  from  it, 
I  shall  gladly  mention  it.  I  shall  refrain  from  mentioning 
it  only  when  I  am  ailing,  aihng  badly,  and  am  getting 
worse  and  want  to  deceive  myself.  Only  then  will  I  not 
mention  it.  And  we  do  not  mention  it,  only  because  we 
know  that  we  are  as  ill  as  ever. 

"  Why  pain  the  old  man  and  irritate  the  people  ?  The 
sticks  and  the  driving  between  the  rows,  —  all  that  is 
long  past."     Past  ?     Changed  in  form,  but  not  past. 

Everything  that  has  taken  place  in  some  past  we 
recall,  not  only  with  terror,  but  even  with  indignation. 
We  read  the  descriptions  of  executions,  burnings  for  her- 
esies, tortures,  military  settlements,  sticks,  and  drivings 
through  the  rows,  and  it  is  not  so  much  that  we  are 
frightened  at  the  cruelty  of  men,  as  that  we  cannot  even 
imagine  the  mental  conditions  of  those  men  who  did  all 
that.  What  was  there  in  the  soul  of  the  man  who  got 
up  in  the  morning,  washed  himself,  put  on  his  l)oyar 
garments,  prayed  to  God,  and  then  went  to  the  execution- 
room  to  wrench  joints  and  to  beat  old  men  and  women 
with  the  knout,  and  at  this  occupation  passed  his  customary 
five  hours,  like  a  modern  official  of  the  Senate,  then  returned 
to  his  family  and  calmly  sat  down  to  dinner,  and  then 
read  the  Holy  Scripture  ?  What  was  there  in  the  souls 
of  those  commanders  of  regiments  and  of  companies  (I 
knew  one  such)  who  the  evening  before  danced  with  a 
beauty  at  a  ball,  and  went  away  earlier  than  usual,  in 
order  early  on  the  following  morning  to  attend  to  the 
execution  by  driving  through  the  rows  of  a  fugitive  sol- 


332  NICHOLAS    STICK 

dier,  a  Tartar,  and  who  had  this  man  beaten  to  death, 
and  then  returned  home  to  dine  with  his  family  ?  All 
this  happened  in  the  time  of  Peter,  and  of  Catherine,  and 
of  Alexander,  and  of  Nicholas.  There  was  no  time  when 
there  did  not  exist  those  terrible  deeds,  which  we,  reading 
of  them,  are  unable  to  understand.  We  cannot  under- 
stand how  people  failed  to  see  those  horrors  which  they 
committed,  how  they  failed  to  see,  if  not  the  bestial  inhu- 
manity of  those  terrors,  at  least  their  senselessness.  This 
happened  at  all  times. 

Is  our  time  indeed  so  particularly  fortunate  that  we  do 
not  have  those  horrors,  those  deeds,  which  to  our  descend- 
ants will  appear  just  as  incomprehensible  ?  There  are  the 
same  deeds,  the  same  horrors,  but  we  do  not  see  them, 
just  as  our  ancestors  did  not  see  the  horror  of  their  horrors. 
We  now  see  clearly,  not 'only  the  cruelty,  but  also  the  sense- 
lessness of  the  burning  of  heretics  and  of  judicial  tortures 
for  the  purpose  of  discovering  the  truth.  A  child  sees  the 
senselessness  of  these  things.  But  the  men  of  that  time 
did  not  see  it.  Clever,  learned  men  asserted  that  the  rack 
was  an  indispensable  condition  of  the  life  of  men,  that  it 
was  hard,  but  that  it  was  impossible  to  get  along  without 
it.  The  same  was  the  case  with  the  sticks,  with  slavery. 
And  the  time  has  passed,  and  it  is  hard  for  us  to  imagine 
the  condition  of  men,  in  wliich  such  a  gross  aberration 
was  possible.  But  this  has  existed  at  all  times,  and  so  it 
must  exist  in  our  time,  and  we  are,  no  doubt,  just  as  much 
blinded  in  respect  to  our  horrors. 

Where  are  our  tortures,  our  slavery,  our  sticks  ?  We 
imagine  that  they  do  not  exist,  that  this  was  before,  but 
is  now  past.  We  imagine  so,  because  we  do  not  wish  to 
understand  the  past,  and  because  we  carefully  close  our 
eyes  to  it. 

But  if  we  look  into  the  past,  our  present  situation  and 
its  causes  will  be  revealed  to  us.  If  only  we  will  call 
the   stakes,  brandings,  tortures,  executioner's   blocks,  re- 


NICHOLAS    STICK  333 

cruitments,  by  their  real  names,  we  shall  also  find  the 
true  name  for  the  prisons,  penitentiaries,  armies  with 
universal  military  service,  prosecuting  attorneys,  and 
gendarmes. 

If  we  will  not  say,  "  Why  recall  it  ? "  but  will  look 
attentively  at  what  used  to  be  done  in  former  times,  we 
shall  understand  and  see  clearly  what  is  being  done  now. 

If  it  is  clear  to  us  that  it  is  silly  and  cruel  to  chop 
heads  off  on  the  block  and  to  find  out  the  truth  from 
people  by  means  of  wrenching  their  bones,  it  will  become 
equally  clear  that  it  is  just  as  silly  and  cruel,  if  not  more 
so,  to  hang  people  and  to  put  them  in  solitary  confine- 
ment, which  is  equal  to  or  worse  than  death,  and  to  find 
out  the  truth  by  means  of  hired  lawyers  and  prosecuting 
attorneys.  If  it  shall  become  clear  to  us  that  it  is  silly 
and  cruel  to  kill  an  erring  man,  it  will  become  equally 
clear  that  it  is  sillier  still  to  put  such  a  man  in  the  peni- 
tentiary, in  order  completely  to  demoralize  him ;  when  it 
becomes  clear  that  it  is  silly  and  cruel  to  catch  peasants 
for  the  army  and  brand  them  like  cattle,  it  will  become 
clear  that  it  is  just  as  silly  and  cruel  to  put  into  the  army 
every  man  of  twenty-one  years  of  age.  If  it  is  clear  how 
silly  and  cruel  John  the  Terrible's  guard  was,  the  silliness 
and  cruelty  of  the  body-guard  and  the  protective  guard 
will  become  much  clearer  still. 

If  we  only  stop  closing  our  eyes  to  the  past,  and  saying, 
"  Why  remember  the  past  ? "  it  will  become  clear  to  us 
that  in  our  time  there  are  just  such  horrors,  only  in  new 
forms. 

We  say,  "  All  this  has  passed ;  we  have  no  longer  the 
rack,  harlot  Catherines  with  their  plenipotentiary  lovers, 
no  longer  any  slavery,  nor  beating  to  death  with  sticks, 
etc." 

But  this  only  seems  so  !  Three  hundred  thousand  men 
in  penitentiaries  and  prisons  sit  locked  up  in  narrow, 
stinking    apartments    and   die  a  slow  bodily  and    moral 


334  NICHOLAS    STICK 

death.  Their  wives  and  children  are  cast  away  without 
any  support,  while  these  men  are  kept  in  dens  of  debauch- 
ery, in  prisons  and  penitentiaries,  and  it  is  only  to  the 
wardens,  the  complete  masters  of  these  slaves,  that  this 
cruel,  senseless  confinement  is  of  any  use. 

Tens  of  thousands  of  men  with  "  harmful  ideas  "  carry 
these  ideas  in  their  exile  to  the  most  distant  corners  of 
Russia,  lose  their  minds,  and  hang  themselves.  Thousands 
sit  in  fortresses,  and  are  either  secretly  killed  by  the  chiefs 
of  the  prisons,  or  lose  their  minds  in  their  solitary  confine- 
ment. Millions  of  people  perish,  physically  and  morally, 
in  slavery  to  manufacturers.  Hundreds  of  thousands  are 
every  autumn  taken  away  from  their  families,  from  their 
young  wives,  are  taught  to  commit  murder,  and  are  system- 
atically corrupted. 

The  Russian  Tsar  cannot  drive  out  anywhere  without 
having  about  him  a  visible  chain  of  hundreds  of  thousands 
of  soldiers,  who  are  stationed  along  the  road  at  a  distance 
of  fifty  feet  from  one  another,  and  a  secret  chain,  which 
follows  him  everywhere. 

A  king  collects  the  tribute  and  builds  a  tower,  and  on 
the  tower  he  makes  a  pond,  and  on  the  pond,  which  is 
painted  with  blue  paint,  and  which  is  made  to  produce 
the  semblance  of  a  storm  by  means  of  a  machine,  he  goes 
rowing  in  a  boat.  And  the  people  starve  in  factories  in 
Ireland,  in  France,  in  Belgium. 

It  does  not  take  special  penetration  to  see  that  every- 
thing is  the  same  in  our  time,  and  that  our  time  is  full  of 
the  same  horrors,  the  same  tortures,  which  for  subsequent 
generations  will  be  just  as  remarkable  on  account  of  their 
cruelty  and  their  silliness.  The  disease  is  the  same,  and 
those  who  are  diseased  are  not  those  who  take  advantage 
of  these  horrors.  Let  them  take  a  hundred  and  a  thousand 
times  more  advantage  of  the  horrors  ;  let  them  build  towers 
and  theatres,  and  give  balls ;  let  them  fleece  the  people ; 
let  Stick  beat  the  people  to  death;  let  Pobyedonostsev 


NICHOLAS    STICK  335 

and  Orzh^vski  secretly  hang  people  by  the  hundred  in 
the  prisons,  —  so  long  as  they  do  it  themselves.  Let 
them  stop  corrupting  the  people,  deceiving  them,  causing 
them  to  take  part  in  it,  as  the  old  soldier  took  part  in  it. 

This  terrible  disease  is  in  the  deception,  in  the  fact  that 
for  a  man  there  can  be  some  holiness  and  some  law  which 
is  higher  thau  the  holiness  and  law  of  love  of  neighbour ; 
in  the  deception,  which  conceals  the  fact  that  a  man,  to  fulfil 
the  demands  of  other  men,  is  able  to  commit  many  acts, 
except  one  kind  of  acts,  which  he,  as  a  man,  is  never  able 
to  commit :  he  can  at  no  man's  request  go  against  God's 
will,  —  he  cannot  kill  and  torture  his  brothers. 

Eighteen  hundred  years  ago  it  was  said,  in  reply  to 
the  Pharisees'  question  whether  tribute  ought  to  be  given 
to  Csesar :  "  Unto  Ca-sar  the  things  which  are  Csesar's ; 
and  unto  God  the  things  that  are  God's."  If  men  had 
any  faith  at  all,  and  regarded  even  so  little  as  due  to 
God,  they  would  first  of  all  consider  themselves  under 
obligation  to  God,  not  only  in  respect  to  what  God  taught 
man  in  words,  when  he  said,  "  Thou  shalt  not  kill ; " 
when  he  said,  "  Do  not  unto  another  what  thou  dost  not 
wish  shall  be  done  unto  thee  ; "  when  he  said,  "  Love 
thy  neighbour  as  thyself,"  —  but  also  in  respect  to  what 
God  wrote  in  indelible  characters  in  the  heart  of  every 
ruan,  —  love  of  his  neighbour,  compassion  toward  him, 
horror  of  murder  and  of  the  torturing  of  his  fellow  men. 

If  men  believed  in  God,  they  could  not  help  but 
recognize  this  first  obligation  toward  Him,  which  is,  not  to 
torture,  not  to  kill.  And  then  the  words,  "  Unto  God  the 
things  that  are  God's,  unto  Ca;sar  the  things  which  are 
Cpesar's,"  would  have  for  them  a  definite  meaning.  "  To 
the  Tsar,  or  to  anybody  else,  everything  you  please,"  the 
believer  would  say,  "  only  not  what  is  contrary  to  God's 
will.  Cresar  needs  my  money,  let  him  take  it ;  my  house, 
my  labours,  let  him  take  them  ;  my  wife,  my  children, 
my    life,   let   him   take    them ;    all   that   is    not   God's. 


336  NICHOLAS   STICK 

But  if  Caesar  needs  that  I  should  raise  and  let  fall  a  rod 
on  the  back  of  my  neighbour,  —  that  is  God's.  This  is 
my  act,  my  life,  that  of  which  I  shall  give  an  account 
to  God,  and  God  has  commanded  me  not  to  do  this,  and 
this  I  cannot  give  to  Caesar.  I  cannot  bind,  lock  up,  per- 
secute, kill  a  man :  all  this  is  my  life,  and  that  is  God's, 
and  I  cannot  give  it  to  any  one  but  God." 

The  words,  "  Unto  God  the  things  that  are  God's," 
mean  to  us  that  we  are  to  give  to  God  penny  candles, 
masses,  words,  —  in  general,  everything  which  nobody 
needs  for  any  purpose,  least  of  all  God ;  but  every- 
thing else,  our  whole  life,  the  whole  holiness  of  our 
soul,  which  belongs  to  God,  we  give  to  Caesar,  that  is 
(according  to  the  meaning  which  "  Caesar "  has  for  the 
Jews),  to  a  hateful  stranger. 

This  is  terrible !  Men,  come  to  your  senses  I 


WHY     PEOPLE    BECOME 
INTOXICATED 

1890 


WHY   PEOPLE   BECOME 
INTOXICATED 


Whence  the  use  of  intoxicating  substances,  —  of 
whiskey,  wine,  beer,  hashish,  opium,  tobacco,  and  other 
less  common  substances,  —  ether,  morphine,  nmscarine  ? 
Why  (lid  it  begin,  and  why  has  it  so  rapidly  spread 
among  all  kinds  of  people,  among  savages  and  civihzed 
men  alike  ?  What  does  this  mean,  that  wherever  there 
is  no  whiskey,  wine,  or  beer,  there  is  opium  or  hashish, 
muscarine,  and  other  substances,  and  tobacco  everywhere  ? 

Why  must  people  become  intoxicated  ? 

Ask  a  man  why  he  has  begun  to  drink  wine  and  con- 
tinues to  do  so,  and  he  will  answer  you :  "  For  no  reason, 
it  is  agreeable,  all  men  drink,"  and  he  will  add :  "  For 
a  pastime."  Others  again,  who  have  never  once  given 
themselves  the  trouble  to  think  out  whether  it  is  good  or 
bad  that  they  drink  wine,  will  add  that  wine  is  whole- 
some, gives  strength  ;  that  is,  they  will  say  what  has  long 
ago  been  proved  to  be  untrue. 

Ask  a  smoker  why  he  began  to  smoke  tobacco  and 
still  continues  to  do  so,  and  he  will  answer :  "  For  no 
reason,  from  tedium,  everybody  smokes." 

In  the  same  way,  no  doubt,  will  answer  the  users  of 
opium,  hashish,  morphine,  muscarine. 

m 


340         WHY   PEOPLE   BECOME    INTOXICATED 

"  For  no  reason,  from  tedium,  for  pleasure,  everybody 
does  so."  But  it  is  good,  for  no  reason,  from  tedium,  for 
^pleasure,  because  evei^yhody  does  so,  to  twirl  the  fingers, 
to  whistle,  to  sing  songs,  to  play  the  pipe,  and  so  forth,  that 
is,  to  do  something  for  which  it  is  not  necessary  to  waste 
natural  riches,  nor  to  spend  great  forces  of  labour,  to  do 
something  which  does  not  do  any  palpable  evil  to  oneself 
or  to  others.  But  for  the  production  of  tobacco,  wine, 
hashish,  opium,  millions  and  millions  of  the  best  lands 
are  taken  up,  frequently  among  populations  in  need  of 
land,  by  plantations  of  rye,  potatoes,  hemp,  poppy,  grape- 
vines, and  tobacco,  and  millions  of  labourers  —  in  Eng- 
land one-eighth  of  the  population  —  are  busy  all  their 
life  producing  these  intoxicating  substances.  Besides,  the 
use  of  these  substances  is  apparently  harmful,  produces 
terrible  calamities,  which  are  known  to  all  and  recog- 
nized by  them,  and  from  which  more  men  perish  than 
from  all  wars  and  infectious  diseases  taken  together. 
And  people  know  this ;  go  this  cannot  happen  for  no 
reason,  from  tedium,  for  pleasure,  only  because  all  do  so. 

There  must  be  something  else  in  this.  One  constantly 
and  everywhere  meets  people  who  love  their  children, 
who  are  ready  for  their  good  to  make  all  kinds  of  sacri- 
fices, and  who  at  the  same  time  spend  on  whiskey,  wine, 
beer,  or  opium,  or  hashish,  or  even  tobacco,  what  would 
either  completely  provide  for  their  suffering  and  starving 
children,  or  would  at  least  free  them  from  privations.  It 
is  evident  that  if  a  man,  who  is  put  to  the  necessity 
of  choosing  between  the  privations  and  sufierings  of  his 
family,  which  he  loves,  and  abstinence  from  intoxicating 
substances,  none  the  less  chooses  the  first,  he  is  incited 
to  this  by  something  more  important  than  because  every- 
body does  so  and  because  it  is  agreeable.  Evidently  this 
is  not  done  for  no  reason,  from  tedium,  for  pleasure,  but 
there  is  some  more  important  reason. 

This  reason,  so  much  as  I  have  been  able  to  understand 


WHY   PEOPLE    BECOME    INTOXICATED         341 

it  from  reading  about  this  subject  and  observing  other 
people,  and  especially  myself,  when  I  used  to  drink  wine 
and  smoke  tobacco,  according  to  my  observations  consists 
in  the  following : 

During  the  period  of  his  conscious  life  a  man  may  fre- 
quently observe  two  separate  beings  in  himself:  one  —  a 
blind,  sensuous  being ;  the  other  —  a  seeing,  spiritual  being. 
The  blind,  animal  being  eats,  drinks,  rests,  sleeps,  breeds, 
and  moves  as  moves  a  wound-up  machine ;  the  seeing, 
spiritual  being,  which  is  bound  up  with  the  animal  being, 
does  not  do  anytliing  itself,  but  only  estimates  the  activ- 
ity of  the  animal  being  by  coinciding  with  it,  when  it 
approves  of  this  activity,  and  disagreeing  with  it,  when 
it  does  not  approve  of  it. 

This  seeing  being  may  be  compared  with  the  hand  of 
a  compass,  which  with  one  end  points  to  the  north,  and 
with  the  other  to  the  opposite,  the  south,  and  which  along 
its  whole  extent  is  covered  by  a  strip  that  is  invisible  so 
long  as  that  which  carries  the  hand  moves  in  its  direction, 
and  which  steps  out  and  becomes  visible,  as  soon  as  that 
which  bears  the  hand  declines  from  the  direction  pointed 
out  by  it. 

Similarly  the  seeing,  spiritual  being,  whose  manifesta- 
tion in  life  we  call  conscience,  always  points  with  one  end 
to  the  good,  with  the  other,  the  opposite  end,  to  evil,  and 
we  do  not  see  this,  so  long  as  we  do  not  decHne  from  the 
direction  given  by  it,  that  is,  from  evil  to  good.  But  we 
need  only  commit  an  act  which  is  contrary  to  the  direc- 
tion of  our  conscience,  and  there  appears  the  conscious- 
ness of  the  spiritual  being,  wliich  indicates  the  deviation 
of  the  animal  activity  from  the  direction  indicated  by 
the  conscience.  And  as  a  navigator  would  not  be  able  to 
continue  to  work  with  the  oars,  the  engine,  or  the  sails, 
knowing  that  he  is  not  going  whither  he  ought  to  go,  so 
long  as  he  did  not  give  to  his  motion  the  direction  which 
corresponds  to  the  hand  of  the  compass,  or  did  not  conceal 


342         WHY    PEOPLE    BECOME    INTOXICATED 

from  himself  its  declination,  so  also  any  man,  who  has 
come  to  feel  the  doubling  of  his  conscience  with  the 
animal  activity,  cannot  continue  this  activity,  unless  he 
brings  it  into  harmony  with  his  conscience  or  conceals 
from  himself  the  indications  of  his  conscience  as  to  the 
irregularity  of  the  animal  life. 

Man's  whole  life,  it  may  be  said,  consists  only  in  these 
two  activities:  (1)  the  bringing  of  its  activity  into  har- 
mony with  conscience,  and  (2)  the  concealment  of  the 
indications  of  his  conscience  for  the  sake  of  continuing 
life. 

Some  do  the  first,  others  the  second.  In  order  to  accom- 
plish the  first  there  is  but  one  method,  —  a  moral  illu- 
mination, the  increase  of  light  in  oneself,  and  attention 
to  what  it  illuminates ;  for  the  second,  —  for  the  conceal- 
ment of  the  indications  of  conscience,  —  there  are  two 
methods  :  an  external  and  an  internal  one.  The  external 
method  consists  in  occupations  which  distract  the  atten- 
tion from  the  indications  of  conscience ;  the  internal  one 
consists  in  the  obscuration  of  conscience  itself. 

As  a  man  is  able  in  two  ways  to  conceal  from  his  view 
an  object  in  front  of  him,  by  an  external  distraction  of 
attention  toward  other,  more  striking  objects,  and  by  a 
soihng  of  the  eyes,  so  also  may  a  man  conceal  from  him- 
self the  indications  of  his  conscience  in  a  twofold  manner : 
by  an  external  distraction  of  attention  through  all  kinds 
of  occupations,  cares,  amusements,  plays,  and  by  an  inter- 
nal soiling  of  the  organ  of  attention  itself.  For  people 
with  a  dulled,  limited  moral  sense  external  distractions 
are  frequently  quite  sufficient  to  prevent  their  seeing  the 
indications  of  conscience  as  to  the  irregularity  of  life. 
But  for  morally  sensitive  people  these  means  are  fre- 
quently insufficient. 

The  external  methods  do  not  completely  distract  the 
attention  from  the  consciousness  of  the  discord  between 
hfe  and  the  demands  of  conscience ;    this  consciousness 


WHY    PEOPLE    BECOME    INTOXICATED         343 

impedes  life,  and  men,  to  have  the  possibility  of  living, 
have  recourse  to  the  indubitable  inner  method  of  the 
obscuration  of  conscience  itself,  which  consists  in  the 
poisoning  of  the  brain  by  means  of  intoxicating  sub- 
stances. 

Life  is  not  such  as  it  ought  to  be  according  to  the 
demands  of  conscience.  The  strength  is  lacking  to  turn 
life  in  accordance  with  these  demands.  The  distractions 
which  may  divert  one  from  the  recognition  of  this  discord 
are  insufficient,  or  they  have  become  tedious,  and  so,  to 
be  able  to  continue  to  live  in  spite  of  the  indications  of 
conscience  as  to  the  irregularity  of  life,  men  poison,  for  a 
time  stopping  its  activity,  that  organ  through  which  the 
indications  of  conscience  are  manifested,  just  as  a  man 
who  purposely  throws  dust  into  his  eyes  would  conceal 
from  himself  what  he  does  not  wish  to  see. 


11. 

Not  in  the  taste,  not  in  the  gratification,  not  in  the 
distraction,  not  in  the  pleasure  hes  the  cause  of  the  uni- 
versal diffusion  of  hashish,  opium,  wine,  tobacco,  but  only 
in  the  necessity  of  concealing  from  oneself  the  indications 
of  conscience. 

One  day  I  walked  along  the  street,  and  passing  by 
some  drivers  who  were  conversing,  I  heard  one  of  them 
say  to  another,  "  Everybody  knows  a  sober  man  feels 
conscience-stricken." 

A  sober  man  feels  conscience-stricken  at  what  does  not 
so  affect  a  drunken  man.  With  these  words  was  ex- 
pressed the  essential  fundamental  cause  for  which  men 
have  recourse  to  intoxicating  substances.  Men  have 
recourse  to  them,  either  that  they  may  have  no  stricken 
conscience  after  committing  an  act  which  is  contrary  to 
their  conscience,  or  that  they  may  in  advance  bring  them- 
selves to  a  state  in  which  they  can  commit  an  act  which 
is  contrary  to  their  conscience,  but  toward  which  they  are 
drawn  by  their  human  nature. 

A  sober  man  feels  conscience-stricken  to  go  to  lewd 
women,  to  steal,  to  kill.  A  drunken  man  has  no  such 
feeling,  and  so,  if  a  man  wants  to  commit  an  act  which 
his  conscience  forbids,  he  intoxicates  himself. 

I  remember  the  declaration  of  the  cook  under  trial, 
who  had  killed  a  relative  of  mine,  an  old  lady,  whose 
servant  he  had  been.  He  said  that  when  he  sent  away 
the  chambermaid,  his  mistress,  and  the  time  came  for 
action,  he  started  for  the  sleeping-room  with  a  knife,  but 
felt  that  a  sober  man  could  not  commit  the  act  he  had 

344 


WHY    PEOPLE    BECOME    INTOXICATED         345 

undertaken,  —  "A  sober  man  is  conscience-stricken." 
He  went  back,  swallowed  two  glasses  of  whiskey,  which 
he  had  provided  for  himself  in  advance,  and  only  then 
felt  himself  ready  to  commit  the  deed. 

Nine-tenths  of  the  crimes  are  committed  in  this  manner, 
—  "  To  brace  myself  I  will  take  a  drink  ! " 

Half  the  falls  of  women  take  place  under  the  influence 
of  wine.  Nearly  all  the  visits  to  lewd  houses  are  made 
in  a  drunken  condition.  Men  know  this  property  of 
wine  to  drown  the  voice  of  conscience,  and  consciously 
use  it  for  this  purpose. 

Not  only  do  men  intoxicate  themselves  in  order  to 
drown  their  conscience,  —  knowing  the  action  of  wine, 
they,  with  the  intention  of  compelling  other  people  to 
commit  acts  which  are  contrary  to  conscience,  purposely 
get  them  intoxicated,  organize  the  intoxication  of  men, 
in  order  to  deprive  them  of  their  conscience.  In  a  war 
soldiers  are  always  made  drunk,  when  it  becomes  necessary 
to  fight  a  hand-to-hand  fight.  All  the  French  soldiers 
were  at  the  stormings  of  Sevastopol  made  drunk. 

Everybody  knows  of  men  who  have  become  insensibly 
drunk  in  consequence  of  crimes  which  tormented  their 
conscience.  Everybody  may  observe  that  men  who  live 
immorally  more  than  any  other  are  prone  to  use  intoxi- 
cating substances.  Gangs  of  robbers  and  thieves,  and 
prostitutes  do  not  live  without  liquor. 

All  know  and  recognize  the  fact  that  the  use  of  intoxi- 
cating substances  is  the  consequence  of  bites  of  conscience, 
that  in  certain  immoral  professions  intoxicating  substances 
are  used  for  the  sake  of  drowning  one's  conscience.  All 
know  also  and  recognize  the  fact  that  the  use  of  intoxica- 
tinff  substances  drowns  the  conscience,  that  a  drunken 
man  is  capable  of  acts  which  he  would  not  have  the 
courage  to  think  of  in  his  sober  state.  All  agree  to  this, 
but,  —  strange  to  say,  —  when  in  consequence  of  the  use 
of  intoxicating  substances  there  do  not  appear  such  acts 


346         WHY    PEOPLE    BECOME    INTOXICA.TED 

as  murder,  violence,  and  so  forth ;  when  intoxicating 
substances  are  not  taken  as  the  result  of  some  terrible 
crimes,  but  by  men  of  professions  that  are  not  considered 
by  us  to  be  criminal,  and  when  these  substances  are  not 
taken  at  once  in  a  great  quantity,  but  constantly  in 
moderate  quantities,  —  it  is  for  some  reason  assumed  that 
the  intoxicating  substances  no  longer  act  upon  the  con- 
science, drowning  it. 

Thus  it  is  assumed  that  the  daily  drinking  by  every 
well-to-do  Russian  of  a  glass  of  vodka  before  each  meal 
and  of  a  glass  of  wine  after  it,  by  a  Frenchman  of  his 
absinthe,  by  the  Enghshman  of  his  port  and  porter,  by  a 
German  of  his  beer,  by  a  well-to-do  Chinaman  the  smok- 
ing of  his  moderate  amount  of  opium,  and  the  smoking 
of  tobacco,  is  done  only  for  pleasure  and  by  no  means 
affects  men's  consciences. 

It  is  assumed  that,  if  after  this  customary  intoxication 
no  crime  has  been  committed,  no  theft,  no  murder,  but 
certain  stupid  and  bad  acts,  these  acts  have  come  of  them- 
selves, and  were  not  provoked  by  the  intoxication.  It  is 
assumed  that  if  no  capital  crime  has  been  committed  by 
these  men,  they  have  no  reason  to  drown  their  conscience, 
and  tliat  the  life  led  by  the  men  who  abandon  themselves 
to  constant  intoxication  is  absolutely  good,  and  would  be 
just  as  good  if  the  people  did  not  become  intoxicated. 
It  is  assumed  that  the  constant  use  of  intoxicating  sub- 
stances in  no  way  obscures  their  conscience. 

Although  everybody  knows  by  experience  that  the  mood 
changes  from  the  use  of  wine  and  tobacco  ;  that  what  with- 
out a  stimulus  would  make  a  person  feel  ashamed  now  no 
longer  causes  shame ;  that  after  each  ever  so  small  bite 
of  conscience  a  man  is  attracted  to  some  kind  of  intoxi- 
cation ;  that  under  the  influence  of  intoxicating  substances 
it  is  hard  to  reflect  upon  one's  life  and  condition,  and  that 
the  constant,  regular  use  of  intoxicating  substances  pro- 
duces the  same  physiological  effect  as  a  single  immoderate 


WHY    PEOPLE    BECOME    INTOXICATED         347 

use  of  it,  —  it  seems  to  moderate  drinkers  and  smokers 
that  they  do  not  at  all  use  the  intoxicating  substances 
for  the  purpose  of  drowning  their  conscience,  but  only  be- 
cause they  taste  good  and  give  pleasure. 

But  a  man  need  but  seriously  and  impassionately  think 
of  this,  without  excluding  himself,  in  order  to  understand 
that,  in  the  first  place,  if  the  use  of  intoxicating  substances 
at  one  time  in  large  quantities  drowns  man's  conscience, 
the  constant  use  of  these  substances  must  produce  the 
same  effect,  because  the  intoxicating  substances  always 
act  physiologically  in  the  same  way,  always  exciting  and 
then  dulhug  the  activity  of  the  brain,  whether  they  be 
taken  in  large  or  in  small  doses ;  in  the  second  place,  that 
if  the  intoxicating  substances  have  the  property  of  drown- 
ing the  conscience,  they  have  this  property  at  all  times, 
both  when  under  their  influence  a  murder,  a  theft,  an  act 
of  violence  is  committed,  and  when  under  their  influence 
a  word  is  said  which  would  not  be  said  without  them, 
and  people  think  and  feel  as  they  have  not  thought  or 
felt  before;  and,  in  the  third  place,  that  if  the  use  of 
intoxicating  substances  is  necessary  for  thieves,  robbers, 
prostitutes,  in  order  to  drown  their  consciences,  it  is  just 
as  indispensable  to  people  who  busy  themselves  with 
professions  which  are  condemned  by  their  consciences, 
even  though  these  professions  may  be  considered  lawful 
and  honourable  by  other  people. 

In  short,  it  is  impossible  to  avoid  seeing  that  the  use 
of  intoxicating  substances  in  large  or  small  quantities, 
periodically  or  constantly,  in  the  higher  or  in  the  lower 
circles,  is  provoked  by  one  and  the  same  cause,  —  the 
necessity  of  drowning  the  voice  of  conscience,  in  order 
that  the  discord  between  life  and  the  demands  of  con- 
science may  not  be  seen. 


III. 

In  this  alone  lies  the  cause  of  the  diffusion  of  all 
intoxicating  substances  and,  among  others,  of  tobacco, 
almost  the  most  widely  diffused  and  the  most  harmful 
of  all. 

It  is  assumed  that  tobacco  cheers  one  up,  clarifies  one's 
thoughts,  attracts  people  toward  itself  like  any  other 
habit,  without  ever  producing  that  effect  of  drowning  the 
conscience,  which  is  recognized  in  the  case  of  wine.  But 
one  need  but  look  more  attentively  at  the  conditions  in 
which  a  special  necessity  for  smoking  is  manifested, 
in  order  to  become  convinced  that  the  intoxication  by 
means  of  tobacco,  like  that  by  means  of  wine,  acts  upon 
the  conscience,  and  that  men  consciously  have  recourse 
to  this  intoxication,  especially  when  they  need  it  for  this 
purpose.  If  tobacco  merely  cheered  one  up  and  clarified 
one's  thoughts,  there  would  not  be  this  passionate  need  of 
it,  particularly  in  certain  definite  cases,  and  people  would 
not  say  that  they  would  prefer  to  be  without  bread 
than  without  tobacco,  and  would  not  often  actually  prefer 
smoking  to  food. 

That  cook  who  cut  his  lady's  throat  said  that,  as  he 
entered  the  lady's  sleeping-room  and  cut  her  throat  with 
a  knife  and  she  fell  down  with  a  rale  and  the  blood  burst 
forth  in  a  stream,  he  lost  courage.  "  I  could  not  finish 
her  up,"  he  said,  "  and  I  went  out  of  the  sleeping-room 
into  the  sitting-room,  where  I  sat  down  and  smoked  a 
cigarette."  Only  after  he  had  intoxicated  himself  with 
tobacco,  did  he  feel  sufficient  strength  to  return  to  the 

348 


WHY  PEOPLE  BECOME  INTOXICATED    349 

sleeping-room,  where  he  finished  up  the  old  lady  and 
rummaged  through  her  things. 

Apparently  the  necessity  for  smoking  was  at  that 
moment  evoked  in  him,  not  by  the  desire  to  clarify  his 
thoughts  or  cheer  himself  up,  but  by  the  demand  for 
drowning  that  which  kept  him  from  accomplishing  what 
he  had  undertaken  to  do. 

Every  smoker  may  observe  in  himself  this  definite  neces- 
sity for  intoxicating  himself  with  tobacco  at  certain  diffi- 
cult moments.  I  remember  when  it  was  during  the  period 
of  my  smoking  that  I  used  to  feel  a  special  necessity  for 
tobacco.  This  was  always  in  such  minutes  when  I  was 
anxious  not  to  remember  what  I  did  remember,  when 
I  wanted  to  forget,  not  to  think.  I  am  sitting  alone,  doing 
nothing,  and  I  know  that  I  must  begin  to  work,  but  I  do 
not  feel  like  working.  I  smoke  a  cigarette,  and  continue 
to  sit.  I  promised  somebody  to  call  on  him  at  five  o'clock, 
and  I  have  stayed  too  long  in  another  place ;  I  recall  that 
I  am  late,  but  I  do  not  want  to  think  of  it,  —  so  I  smoke.  I 
am  excited,  and  I  tell  a  man  a  lot  of  disagreeable  things, 
and  I  know  that  I  am  doing  wrong,  and  1  see  that  it  is 
time  to  stop,  but  I  want  to  give  vent  to  my  excitability, 
and  I  smoke  and  continue  to  excite  myself.  I  play  cards 
and  lose  more  than  I  intended  to  limit  myself  to,  —  and 
I  smoke.  I  have  placed  myself  in  an  awkward  situation, 
I  have  acted  badly,  have  made  a  mistake,  and  I  must 
recognize  my  situation,  in  order  that  I  may  get  out  of  it, 
but  I  do  not  wish  to  recognize  it,  —  so  I  accuse  others, 
and  I  smoke.  I  write  and  am  not  quite  satisfied  with 
what  I  write.  I  ought  to  give  it  up,  but  I  want  to  finish 
writing  what  I  have  planned,  —  I  smoke.  I  quarrel,  and 
I  see  that  my  adversary  and  I  do  not  understand  and  can- 
not understand  one  another ;  but  I  want  to  express  my 
thoughts,  —  I  continue  to  talk,  and  I  smoke. 

The  peculiarity  of  tobacco,  as  compared  with  other 
intoxicating  substances,  besides  the  ease  with  which  one 


350         WHY    PEOPLE    BECOME    INTOXICATED 

is  intoxicated  by  it  and  besides  its  apparent  harmlessness, 
consists  also  in  its  portativeness,  so  to  speak,  in  the  possi- 
bility of  applying  it  to  small,  separate  cases.  To  say 
nothing  of  the  fact  that  the  use  of  opium,  wine,  hashish, 
is  connected  with  certain  appliances  which  one  cannot 
always  have,  while  one  can  always  carry  about  tobacco 
and  paper,  and  that  the  smoker  of  opium,  the  alcoholic, 
excite  horror,  while  a  tobacco  smoker  does  not  represent 
anything  repulsive,  the  superiority  of  tobacco  over  other 
intoxicants  is  this,  that  the  intoxication  from  opium, 
hashish,  wine,  covers  all  impressions  and  actions  received 
and  produced  during  a  certain  sufficiently  long  period  of 
time,  while  the  intoxication  from  tobacco  may  be  directed 
to  every  separate  occasion.  You  want  to  do  what  ought 
not  to  be  done,  so  you  smoke  a  cigarette,  you  become 
intoxicated  to  the  extent  you  wish  to  be,  in  order  that 
you  may  do  what  ought  not  to  be  done,  and  you  are  again 
fresh,  and  you  can  think  and  speak  clearly ;  or  you  feel 
that  you  have  done  what  ought  not  to  be  done,  —  again 
a  cigarette,  and  the  unpleasant  consciousness  of  a  bad  or 
awkward  act  is  destroyed,  and  you  can  busy  yourself  with 
something  else. 

But,  to  say  notliing  of  those  individual  cases  in  which 
every  smoker  has  recourse  to  smoking,  not  as  to  a  gratifi- 
cation of  a  habit  and  a  pastime,  but  as  to  a  means  for 
drowning  the  conscience  in  the  case  of  acts  which  are  to 
be  committed  or  have  already  been  committed,  —  can 
one  fail  to  observe  that  strict,  definite  interdependence 
between  the  manner  of  life  of  people  and  their  bias  for 
smoking  ? 

When  do  boys  begin  to  smoke  ?  Almost  always  when 
they  begin  to  lose  their  child  innocence.  Why  can 
smokers  stop  smoKing  the  moment  they  get  into  more 
moral  conditions  of  life,  and  begin  to  smoke  again  the 
moment  they  fall  into  a  corrupt  sphere  ?  Why  do  almost 
all  gamblers  smoke  ?    Why  do  women  who  lead  a  regular 


WHY  PEOPLE  BECOME  INTOXICATED    351 

mode  of  life  smoke  least  of  all  women  ?  Why  do  all 
prostitutes  and  insane  persons  smoke  ?  Deducing  what 
is  due  to  habit,  it  is  evident  that  smoking  stands  in  a 
definite  relation  to  the  demand  for  dro^vning  the  con- 
science, and  that  it  attains  this  aim. 

The  observation  as  to  what  extent  smoking  drowns  the 
voice  of  conscience  may  be  made  on  almost  any  smoker. 
Every  smoker,  in  surrendering  himself  to  his  passion, 
forgets  or  neglects  the  very  first  demands  of  social  life, 
which  he  demands  from  others  and  which  he  observes  in 
all  other  cases,  so  long  as  his  conscience  is  not  drowned 
by  tobacco.  Every  man  of  our  medium  degree  of  educa- 
tion regards  it  as  impermissible,  rude,  and  inhuman  for 
his  own  pleasure  to  impair  the  quiet  and  the  comfort,  and 
much  more  the  health,  of  other  people.  Nobody  will 
permit  himself  to  wet  a  room  in  which  people  are  sitting, 
to  be  noisy,  yell,  to  let  in  cold,  hot,  or  foul  air,  to  commit 
acts  which  interfere  with  others  or  harm  them.  But  out 
of  one  thousand  smokers  not  one  will  feel  any  embar- 
rassment at  filling  with  foul  air  a  room,  the  air  of  which 
non-smoking  women  and  children  breathe.  Even  though 
smokers  usually  ask  the  persons  present,  "  Does  it  in- 
commode you  ? "  all  know  that  these  persons  are  supposed 
to  answer,  "  Not  in  the  least "  (although  it  cannot  be 
agreeable  for  a  non-smoker  to  breathe  the  infected  air  and 
to  find  ill-smelling  stubs  in  glasses,  cups,  plates,  on  candle- 
sticks, or  even  in  ash-trays).  But  even  if  adult  non- 
smokers  were  able  to  endure  the  tobacco,  this  can  in  no 
way  be  agreeable  and  useful  to  children,  whose  permis- 
sion nobody  asks.  And  yet  honourable  people,  who  are 
humane  in  every  other  respect,  smoke  in  the  presence  of 
children,  at  dinner,  in  small  rooms,  infecting  the  air  with 
the  tobacco  smoke,  without  feeling  therewith  the  least 
scruples. 

People  generally  say,  and  T  used  to  say  so,  that  smok- 
ing contributes  to  mental  work.     This  is  unquestionably 


352         WHY    PEOPLE    BECOME    INTOXICATED 

SO,  if  one  considers  the  amount  of  mental  work.  A 
smoker,  who  therefore  has  ceased  to  vahie  strictly  or  to 
weigh  his  thoughts,  imagines  that  a  mass  of  ideas  has  sud- 
denly come  to  him.  But  this  does  not  mean  at  all  that 
he  has  acquired  a  mass  of  thoughts,  but  only  that  he  has 
lost  control  over  his  tli oughts. 

When  a  man  works,  he  always  recognizes  two  beings  in 
himself :  one  —  the  worker,  the  other  —  the  one  who  puts 
a  value  on  the  work.  The  stricter  the  valuation,  the 
slower  and  the  better  is  the  work,  and  vice  versa.  But 
if  the  valuator  is  under  the  influence  of  intoxication,  there 
will  be  more  work,  but  its  quality  will  be  lowered. 

"  If  I  do  not  smoke,  I  shall  not  be  able  to  write. 
Thoughts  do  not  come  to  me ;  I  begin  writing,  and  I  can- 
not go  on,"  people  generally  say,  and  so  did  I  say.  What 
does  this  mean  ?  Either  that  you  have  nothing  to  write 
about,  or  that  what  you  wish  to  write  about  has  not  yet 
matured  in  your  consciousness,  but  only  begins  to  present 
itself  dimly  to  you,  and  the  appraising  critic,  who  lives  in 
you  and  is  not  intoxicated  by  tobacco,  tells  you  so.  If 
you  did  not  smoke,  you  would  give  up  what  you  have 
begun,  and  would  wait  for  the  time  when  what  you  are 
thinking  about  has  become  clear  to  you,  or  you  would 
try  to  think  out  what  dimly  presents  itself  to  you,  or  you 
would  consider  the  objections  that  have  arisen  and  would 
strain  all  your  attention  to  elucidate  your  thoughts.  But 
you  light  a  cigarette,  the  critic  within  you  is  intoxicated, 
and  the  impediment  to  your  work  is  removed :  what  to 
you,  sober  from  tobacco,  has  seemed  insignificant  again 
presents  itself  as  significant ;  what  has  seemed  obscure  no 
longer  appears  as  such  ;  the  objections  that  arose  before  you 
have  disappeared,  and  you  continue  to  write,  and  write 
much  and  fast. 


IV. 

"But  is  it  possible  that  such  a  small,  such  a  tiny 
change  as  a  slight  intoxication,  produced  by  a  moderate 
use  of  wine  and  tobacco,  can  ^produce  any  important  con- 
sequences ?  Of  course,  if  a  man  fills  himself  with  opium 
or  hashish,  or  with  wine,  so  that  he  falls  and  loses  his 
reason,  the  consequences  of  such  an  intoxication  may  be 
very  serious ;  but  a  man's  being  under  a  very  slight  influ- 
ence of  liquor  or  tobacco  can  in  no  way  have  any  serious 
consequences,"  people  generally  say.  It  seems  to  people 
that  a  slight  intoxication,  a  slight  dimming  of  one's  con- 
science, cannot  produce  any  serious  results.  But  to  think 
thus  is  the  same  as  to  think  that  it  may  hurt  a  watch  to 
strike  it  against  the  stone,  but  that  sand  getting  into  the 
middle  of  its  mechanism  cannot  hurt  it. 

The  chief  work,  which  moves  all  human  life,  does  not 
take  place  in  the  motion  of  human  hands,  feet,  spines,  but 
in  the  consciousness.  For  a  man  to  do  anything  with  liis 
feet  and  hands,  it  is  necessary  first  for  a  certain  change 
to  take  place  in  the  consciousness.  And  this  change  de- 
termines all  the  subsequent  actions  of  a  man.  But  these 
changes  are  always  very  small,  almost  imperceptible. 

Bryiillov  corrected  the  study  of  one  of  his  students.  As 
the  student  looked  at  the  changed  study,  he  said  :  "  You 
barely  touched  the  study,  and  it  is  entirely  changed." 
Bryiillov  answered,  "Art  begins  only  where  the  hardy 
begins." 

This  utterance  is  strikingly  correct,  and  not  merely  in 
relation  to  art,  but  also  to  life.  It  may  be  said  that  true 
life  begins  where  the  barely  begins,  where  the  infinitely 

353 


354         WHY    PEOPLE    BECOME    INTOXICATED 

small  changes  that  are  barely  perceptible  to  us  begin. 
The  true  life  does  not  take  place  where  great  external 
changes  occur,  where  people  change  places,  conflict,  fight, 
kill  one  another,  but  only  where  barely  perceptible,  dif- 
ferential changes  occur. 

Easkoluikov's  true  life  did  not  take  place  when  he 
killed  the  old  woman  and  her  sister.  As  he  killed  the 
old  woman  herself,  and  especially  her  sister,  he  did  not 
live  his  true  life,  but  acted  like  a  machine,  —  he  did  what 
he  could  not  help  doing :  he  exploded  the  charge  with 
which  he  had  long  been  loaded.  One  old  woman  was 
dead,  another  lay  before  him,  the  axe  was  in  his 
hand. 

Easkohiikov's  true  life  did  not  take  place  when  he  met 
the  old  woman's  sister,  but  when  he  had  not  yet  killed 
one  old  woman ;  when  he  had  not  yet  been  in  a  strange 
apartment  with  the  purpose  of  killing ;  when  he  did  not 
have  the  axe  in  his  hand ;  when  he  did  not  have  the 
noose  in  his  overcoat,  to  hang  the  axe  in ;  when  he  did 
not  even  have  the  old  woman  in  his  mind,  and,  lying  on 
his  sofa,  did  not  even  reflect  on  the  old  woman  and 
whether  it  was  right,  or  not,  by  the  will  of  one  person  to 
wipe  another  useless  and  harmful  man  from  the  face  of 
the  earth,  but  reflected  whether  he  ought  to  live  in  St.  Pe- 
tersburg or  not,  whether  he  ought  to  take  money  from  his 
mother,  and  on  other  questions  which  had  nothing  to  do 
with  the  old  woman.  It  was,  then,  in  this  sphere  which 
was  independent  of  the  vital  activity  that  the  questions 
were  answered  as  to  whether  he  would  kill  the  old  woman 
or  not.  The  questions  were  not  decided  when  he,  having 
killed  one  old  woman,  was  standing  with  the  axe  before 
the  other  woman,  but  when  he  was  not  acting,  but  only 
thinking,  when  nothing  but  his  consciousness  worked  and 
in  this  consciousness  were  taking  place  barely  perceptible 
changes.  It  is  then  that  for  the  regular  solution  of  the 
rising  question  the  greatest  clearness  of   thought   is    of 


WHY  PEOPLE  BECOME  INTOXICATED    355 

especial  importance,  and  then  one  glass  of  beer,  one 
cigarette  may  interfere  with  the  solution  of  the  question, 
may  put  off  the  solution,  may  drown  the  voice  of  con- 
science and  contribute  ta  the  solution  of  the  question  in 
favour  of  the  lower  animal  nature,  as  was  the  case  with 
Easkolnikov. 

The  changes  are  barely  perceptible,  but  from  them 
come  the  most  enormous,  most  terrible  consequences. 
From  what  will  happen  when  a  man  has  made  up  his 
mind  and  has  begun  to  act,  many  material  things  may 
change,  houses,  wealth,  men's  bodies  may  be  ruined,  but 
there  can  happen  nothing  more  than  what  has  lodged 
itself  in  man's  consciousness.  The  limits  of  what  may 
happen  are  given  by  the  consciousness. 

But  from  barely  perceptible  changes,  which  take  place 
in  the  sphere  of  consciousness,  there  may  happen  the 
most  unexpected  and  most  significant  consequences,  for 
which  there  are  no  limits. 

Let  no  one  think  that  what  I  say  has  anything  in 
common  with  the  questions  about  the  freedom  of  the 
will,  or  determinism.  Discussions  about  these  subjects 
are  superfluous  for  my  purpose,  or  for  any  other  purpose. 
Without  solving  the  question  whether  a  man  can  act  as 
he  wants  to  (a  question  which,  in  my  opinion,  is  not 
correctly  put),  I  speak  only  of  this,  that,  as  the  human 
activity  is  determined  by  barely  perceptible  changes  in 
the  consciousness  (no  matter  whether  the  so-called  free- 
dom of  the  will  is  assumed  or  not),  it  is  necessary  to  be 
particularly  attentive  to  that  state  in  which  these  barely 
perceptible  changes  take  place,  as  one  has  to  be  particu- 
larly attentive  to  the  condition  of  the  scales  by  means  of 
which  we  weigh  objects.  We  must,  in  so  far  as  this 
depends  upon  us,  try  to  put  ourselves  and  others  under 
conditions  in  which  the  clearness  and  delicacy  of  thought 
which  are  indispensable  for  the  regular  work  of  the  con- 
sciousness will  not  be  impaired,  and  not  act  in  a  contrary 


356         WHY    PEOPLE    BECOME    INTOXICATED 

way,  by  trying  to  encumber  and   confuse  this  work  of 
the  consciousness  by  the  use  of  intoxicating  substances. 

A  man  is  both  a  spiritual  and  an  animal  being.  A 
man  can  be  moved  by  acting  upon  his  spiritual  being, 
and  he  may  be  moved  by  acting  on  his  animal  existence, 
—  even  as  a  watch  may  be  moved  through  the  hand  or 
through  the  chief  wheel.  And  as  it  is  more  advanta- 
geous to  guide  the  motion  through  the  inner  mechanism, 
so  it  is  more  advantageous  to  move  a  man  —  oneself  or 
another  —  through  the  consciousness.  And  as  in  a 
watch  we  must  take  the  best  care  of  what  most  advan- 
tageously moves  the  inner  mechanism,  so  we  must  in 
man  look  after  the  purity,  the  clearness  of  the  conscious- 
ness, by  means  of  which  it  is  most  advantageous  to  move 
a  man.  It  is  impossible  to  have  any  doubts  about  this, 
and  all  men  know  it.  But  there  appears  the  necessity 
for  deceiving  oneself.  People  do  not  wish  so  much  that 
their  consciousness  should  work  regularly,  as  that  it 
should  seem  to  them  that  what  they  are  doing  is  regular, 
and  they  consciously  use  such  substances  as  impair  the 
regular  working  of  the  consciousness. 


V. 

People  drink  and  smoke,  not  for  no  reason,  not  from 
tedium,  not  for  pleasure,  because  it  is  agreeable,  but  in 
order  to  drown  their  consciences.  And  if  this  is  so,  how 
terrible  must  the  consequences  be  !  Indeed,  imagine  what 
the  building  would  be  which  men  would  not  build  with  a 
solid  level,  to  straighten  the  walls,  nor  with  a  T  square, 
to  measure  the  angles,  but  with  a  soft  level  which  would 
adapt  itself  to  all  the  inequalities  in  the  wall,  and  with  a 
square  which  would  be  adjustable  and  adaptable  to  any 
acute  or  obtuse  angle. 

And  yet,  thanks  to  the  self-intoxication,  this  very  thing 
is  being  done  in  life.  Life  does  not  agree  with  the 
conscience,  and  so  the  conscience  is  made  to  bend  to 
hfe. 

This  is  being  done  in  the  lives  of  separate  individuals  ; 
this  is  also  being  done  in  the  life  of  all  humanity,  which 
is  composed  of  the  lives  of  individuals. 

In  order  fully  to  understand  the  whole  significance  of 
such  intoxication  of  one's  consciousness,  let  every  man 
well  recall  his  spiritual  condition  at  every  period  of  his 
life.  Every  man  will  find  that  at  every  period  of  his  life 
there  stood  before  him  certain  moral  questions,  which  he 
had  to  solve,  and  on  the  solution  of  which  depended  the 
whole  good  of  his  life.  For  the  solution  of  these  ques- 
tions a  great  straining  of  the  attention  is  necessary.  This 
straining  of  the  attention  is  labour.  But  in  everv  labour, 
especially  in  its  beginnhig,  there  is  a  period  when  the 
labour  appears  difficult  and  agonizing,  and  human  weak- 
ness urges  the  desire  to  drop  it.     Physical  labour  appears 

357 


358         WHY    PEOPLE    BECOME    INTOXICATED 

tormenting  in  its  beginning ;  still  more  tormenting  is 
mental  labour.  As  Lessing  says,  men  have  the  property 
of  ceasing  to  think  when  the  thinking  begins  to  present 
difficulties,  and,  I  shall  add,  especially  when  the  thinking 
begins  to  be  fruitful.  A  man  feels  that  the  solution  of 
questions  before  him  demands  strained,  frequently  agoniz- 
ing labour,  and  he  feels  like  rejecting  it.  If  he  did  not 
have  any  internal  means  for  intoxicating  himself,  he  would 
not  be  able  to  expel  from  his  consciousness  the  questions 
which  arise  before  him,  and  he  would  involuntarily  be 
led  to  the  necessity  of  solving  them.  The  moment  ques- 
tions that  are  subject  to  solution  begin  to  torment  a  man, 
he  has  recourse  to  these  means  and  saves  himself  from 
the  unrest  which  is  evoked  by  the  agitating  questions. 
The  consciousness  stops  asking  for  a  solution  of  them, 
and  the  unsolved  questions  remain  unsolved  until  the  next 
enlightenment.  But  at  the  next  enlightenment  the  same 
is  repeated,  and  a  man  for  months,  and  years,  and  often 
during  his  whole  hfe,  continues  to  stand  before  the  same 
moral  questions,  without  moving  a  step  toward  their  solu- 
tion. And  yet  it  is  in  the  solution  of  the  moral  questions 
that  the  whole  motion  of  life  consists. 

What  takes  place  is  like  what  a  man  would  do, 
who  has  to  look  through  roiled  water  to  the  bottom,  in 
order  to  get  out  of  it  a  costly  pearl,  and  who,  not  wish- 
ing to  enter  into  the  water,  should  consciously  roil  the 
water,  as  soon  as  it  began  to  settle  and  become  trans- 
parent. During  a  whole  life  a  man  who  intoxicates  him- 
self frequently  stands  motionless  on  the  same  once 
acquired,  obscure,  contradictory  world-conception,  at 
every  successive  period  of  enlightenment  pressing  against 
the  same  wall  against  which  he  pressed  ten  or  twenty 
years  ago,  and  which  he  cannot  break  down  because  he 
consciously  dulls  that  acumen  of  thought  which  alone 
could  break  through  it. 

Let  each  man  recall  for  himself  that  period  during 


WHY  PEOPLE  BECOME  INTOXICATED    359 

which  he  has  been  drinking  and  smoking,  and  let  him 
verify  the  same  on  others,  and  he  will  see  one  constant 
feature  which  distinguishes  people  who  surrender  them- 
selves to  intoxication  from  people  who  are  free  from  it : 
the  more  a  man  is  subject  to  intoxication,  the  more  he  is 
morally  immobile. 


VI. 

The  consequences  of  the  use  of  opium  and  hashish,  as 
described  to  us,  are  terrible  for  individual  persons  ;  terrible 
are  the  familiar  consequences  from  the  use  of  alcohol  by 
confirmed  drunkards ;  but  incomparably  more  terrible  are 
the  consequences  for  the  whole  of  society  which  result 
from  that  moderate  use  of  whiskey,  wine,  beer,  and  to- 
bacco, which  is  considered  harmless,  and  to  which  the 
majority  of  men  are  subject,  especially  the  so-called  cul- 
tured classes  of  our  world.  These  consequences  must  be 
terrible,  if  we  recognize,  what  we  cannot  help  recognizing, 
that  the  guiding  activities  of  society  —  the  political, 
official,  scientific,  literary,  artistic  activities  —  are  pro- 
duced for  the  most  part  by  men  who  are  in  an  abnormal 
state,  by  drunken  men.  It  is  generally  assumed  that  a 
man,  who,  like  the  majority  of  the  men  of  our  well-to-do 
classes,  uses  alcoholic  drinks  every  time  he  partakes  of 
food,  on  the  following  day,  during  the  period  of  his  work, 
is  in  an  absolutely  normal  and  sober  state.  But  this  is 
quite  untrue.  A  man  who  on  the  day  before  has  drunk 
a  bottle  of  wine,  a  glass  of  whiskey,  or  two  mugs  of 
beer,  finds  himself  in  the  usual  condition  of  intoxication 
or  oppression  which  follows  upon  the  excitation,  and  so 
in  a  mentally  depressed  state,  which  is  intensified  through 
smoking.  For  a  man  who  smokes  and  drinks  constantly 
and  moderately,  to  bring  his  brain  into  a  normal  state,  he 
must  pass  at  least  a  week  without  the  use  of  wine  or  of 
tobacco.^     But  this  can  hardly  ever  be, 

1  But  why  are  people  who  do  not  drink  or  smoke  frequently  on  an 
infinitely  lower  mental  and  moral  level  than  those  who  drink  and 

360 


WHY    PEOPLE    BECOME    INTOXICATED         361 

Thus  the  greater  part  of  what  is  being  done  in  our 
world,  —  by  men  who  guide  and  instruct  others,  and  by 
men  who  are  guided  and  instructed,  —  is  not  done  in 
a  sober  state. 

Let  not  any  one  take  this  as  a  joke  or  exaggeration : 
the  monstrousuess  and,  above  all,  the  senselessness  of  our 
life  is  chiefly  due  to  the  constant  state  of  intoxication, 
which  the  majority  of  men  induce  in  themselves.  Is  it 
possible  that  people  who  are  sober  would  calmly  do  all 
that  is  done  in  our  world,  —  from  the  Eiffel  Tower  to  the 
universal  military  service  ?  Without  any  necessity  what- 
soever a  society  is  formed,  capital  is  collected,  plans  are 
formed ;  millions  of  work-days,  of  pounds  of  iron,  are 
wasted  on  the  construction  of  a  tower ;  and  millions  of 
people  consider  it  their  duty  to  climb  on  this  tower,  to 
stay  on  it,  and  to  come  down  again ;  and  the  construction 
of  this  tower  and  tiie  visit  to  it  do  not  evoke  in  men  any 
other  judgment  than  the  desire  and  intention  of  building 
elsewhere  higher  towers  still.  Could  sober  people  do  this  ? 
Or  another  thing :  all  the  European  nations  have  for 
decades  been  busy  inventing  the  best  means  for  killing 
people  and  instructing  all  young  men  who  have  reached 

smoke  ?     And  why  do  drinkers  and  smokers  frequently  manifest  the 
highest  mental  and  spiritual  (lualities  ? 

The  answer  to  this  is,  in  the  lirst  place,  that  we  do  not  know  the 
height  which  the  drinkers  and  smokers  would  have  reached  if  they 
had  not  drunk  or  smoked.  But  from  this,  that  spiritually  strong 
men,  subjecting  themselves  to  the  debasing  influence  of  intoxicating 
substances,  have  none  tlu;  less  produced  great  things,  we  can  only 
conclude  that  they  would  liave  produced  even  greater  things  if  they 
had  not  been  subject  to  intoxications.  It  is  very  likely,  as  an  ac- 
quaintance of  mine  told  me,  that  Kant's  books  would  not  have  been 
written  in  so  strange  and  bad  a  language  if  he  had  not  smoked  so 
much.  In  the  second  place,  we  must  not  forget  that  the  lower  a  man 
stands  mentally  and  morally,  the  less  does  he  feel  the  discord  between 
con.sciousness  and  life,  and  so  the  less  he  experiences  the  necessity  for 
intoxication,  and  that  therefore  it  happens  so  frequently  that  the  most 
sensitive  natures,  tho.se  who  morbidly  feel  the  discord  between  life 
and  conscience,  are  addicted  to  the  use  of  narcotics,  from  which  they 
perish.  — Author's  Note. 


362         WHY    PEOPLE    BECOME    INTOXICATED 

maturity  to  commit  murder.  All  know  that  there  can 
be  no  incursions  of  barbarians,  that  the  preparations  for 
murder  are  directed  against  each  other  by  civilized  Chris- 
tian nations ;  all  know  that  this  is  hard,  painful,  incon- 
venient, destructive,  immoral,  godless,  and  senseless, — 
and  all  prepare  themselves  for  mutual  murder :  some,  by 
inventing  political  combinations  as  to  who  shall  be  in 
alliance  with  whom  and  who  is  to  be  killed,  others, 
by  commanding  those  who  are  being  prepared  to  commit 
murder,  and  others  again,  by  submitting,  against  their 
will,  against  their  conscience,  against  reason,  to  these 
preparations  for  murder.  Could  sober  men  have  done 
this  ?  Only  drunkards,  men  who  have  never  sobered 
down,  could  have  committed  these  deeds  and  could  live 
in  this  terrible  contradiction  of  life  and  conscience  in 
which  the  men  of  our  world  live,  not  only  in  this  respect, 
but  in  many  other  respects  as  well. 

Never,  it  seems  to  me,  have  men  lived  in  such  evident 
contradiction  between  the  demands  of  their  conscience 
and  their  acts. 

The  humanity  of  our  time  seems  to  have  caught  in 
something.  It  is  as  though  there  were  some  external 
cause  which  kept  it  from  taking  up  a  position  which  is 
proper  for  it  according  to  its  consciousness.  And  this 
cause  —  if  not  the  only  one,  it  is  the  most  important  — 
is  that  physical  condition  of  stupefaction,  which  the 
great  majority  of  the  men  of  our  world  induce  in  them- 
selves by  means  of  wine  and  tobacco. 

The  liberation  from  this  terrible  evil  will  be  an  epoch 
in  the  life  of  humanity,  and  this  epoch,  it  seems,  is  at 
hand.  The  evil  has  been  recognized.  The  change  in  the 
consciousness  in  relation  to  the  use  of  intoxicating  sub- 
stances has  already  taken  place,  people  have  come  to  under- 
stand their  terrible  harm  and  begin  to  point  it  out,  and 
this  imperceptible  change  in  the  consciousness  will  inevi- 
tably bring  with  it  the  liberation  of  men  from  the  use  of 


I 


WHY    PEOPLE    BECOME    INTOXICATED         363 

intoxicating  substances.  But  the  liberation  of  men  from 
the  use  of  intoxicating  substances  will  open  their  eyes  to 
the  demands  of  their  conscience,  and  they  will  begin 
to  pass  their  lives  in  accord  with  their  conscience. 

And  it  seems  to  me  that  this  is  already  beginning. 
And,  as  always,  it  begins  in  the  higher  classes,  when  all 
the  lower  classes  are  already  infected. 


THE    FIRST    STEP 

1892 


THE   FIRST  STEP 


When  a  man  does  a  thing,  not  for  the  sake  of  appear- 
ances, but  with  a  desire  to  accomplish  something,  he  inev- 
itably acts  in  a  certain  consecutive  manner,  which  is 
determined  by  the  essence  of  the  matter.  If  a  man  does 
later  what  by  the  essence  of  the  case  ought  to  have  been 
done  before,  or  entirely  omits  what  ought  necessarily  to 
be  done,  in  order  that  he  may  be  able  to  continue  the 
work,  he  certainly  does  not  do  it  seriously,  but  is  only 
pretending.  This  rule  remains  unchangeably  true  in  ma- 
terial as  well  as  in  immaterial  affairs.  As  it  is  impossible 
seriously  to  wish  to  bake  bread  without  having  first  mixed 
the  flour,  and  then  made  a  fire,  and  then  swept  the  oven, 
and  so  forth,  so  it  is  impossible  seriously  to  wish  to  lead 
a  good  hfe  without  observing  a  certain  consecutiveness 
in  the  acquirement  of  the  qualities  which  are  necessary 
for  it. 

This  rule  in  matters  of  a  good  life  is  especially  impor- 
tant, because  in  a  material  matter,  as,  for  example,  in  the 
baking  of  bread,  it  is  possible  to  find  out  whether  a 
man  is  seriously  busying  himself  with  the  matter,  or 
whether  he  is  only  pretending,  by  judging  from  the 
results  of  his  activity ;  but  in  the  leading  of  a  good  life 
this  verification  is  impossible.  When  people,  without 
mixing  the  flour  and  making  a  fire  in  the  oven,  pretend 

3G7 


368  THE    FIRST    STEP 

that  they  are  baking  bread,  as  in  the  theatre,  it  is  evident 
to  every  one  from  the  consequences,  the  absence  of  bread, 
that  they  only  pretended ;  but  when  a  man  only  makes  it 
appear  that  he  is  leading  a  good  life,  we  have  no  such 
direct  indications,  from  which  it  would  be  possible  to  find 
out  whether  he  is  seriously  striving  after  living  a  good 
life,  or  wiiether  he  is  only  pretending,  because  the  conse- 
quences of  a  good  life  are  not  only  not  always  apparent 
and  palpable  for  the  people  surrounding  him,  but  fre- 
quently even  appear  harmful  to  them  ;  and  the  respect 
and  the  acknowledgment  of  usefulness  and  pleasure  for 
his  contemporaries  do  not  prove  anything  in  favour  of  the 
actuality  of  his  good  life. 

And  so,  to  distinguish  the  actuality  of  a  good  life  from 
its  appearances,  we  have  a  very  precious  symptom,  which 
consists  in  the  regular  consecutiveness  of  the  acquisition 
of  properties  necessary  for  a  good  life.  This  symptom  is 
particularly  precious,  not  in  order  to  find  out  the  veracity 
of  the  striving  after  a  good  life  in  others,  but  in  order  to 
find  it  out  in  ourselves,  because  in  this  respect  we  are 
inclined  to  deceive  ourselves  more  than  others. 

The  correct  consecutiveness  of  the  acquisition  of  good 
qualities  is  an  indispensable  condition  of  the  motion 
toward  a  good  life,  and  all  the  teachers  of  humanity  have 
always  prescribed  to  men  a  certain  invariable  consecutive- 
ness in  the  acquisition  of  good  qualities. 

In  all  the  moral  teachings  there  is  established  that 
ladder  which,  as  Chinese  wisdom  says,  extends  from  earth 
to  heaven,  and  which  cannot  be  ascended  except  by  be- 
ginning with  the  lowest  rung.  As  in  the  teachings  of  the 
Brahmins,  Buddhists,  Confucianists,  so  also  in  the  teaching 
of  the  sages  of  Greece,  there  are  established  degrees  of 
virtues,  and  the  higher  cannot  be  attained  before  the 
lower  has  been  acquired.  All  the  moral  teachers  of 
humanity,  both  the  religious  and  the  non-religious,  have 
recognized  the  necessity  of  a  definite  consecutiveness  in 


THE    FIRST    STEP  369 

the  attainment  of  the  virtues  necessary  for  a  good  hfe; 
this  necessity  arises  from  the  very  essence  of  the  thing, 
and  so,  one  would  think,  ought  to  be  acknowledged  by  all 
men. 

But,  strange  to  say,  the  consciousness  of  the  necessary 
consecutiveness  of  the  qualities  and  actions  essential  for  a 
good  life  is,  it  seems,  more  and  more  lost  sight  of  and 
remains  only  in  the  ascetic,  monastic  societies.  In  the 
society  of  worldly  men  it  is  assumed  and  recognized  that 
it  is  possible  to  attain  the  highest  qualities  of  a  good  life 
not  only  with  an  absence  of  the  lower  good  qualities, 
which  condition  the  higher,  but  also  with  the  broadest 
development  of  vices ;  in  consequence  of  which  the  con- 
ception as  to  what  the  good  life  consists  in  has  in  our 
time  become  exceedingly  mixed  in  the  society  of  the 
majority  of  worldly  men.  We  have  lost  the  concept 
of  what  constitutes  a  good  life. 


n 

This  happened,  I  think,  in  the  following  manner : 

Christianity,  in  taking  the  place  of  paganism,  put  forth 
more  elevated  moral  demands  than  were  those  of  the 
pagans,  and,  as  could  not  have  been  otherwise,  in  putting 
forth  its  demands,  established,  as  in  the  pagan  morality, 
one  necessary  consecutiveness  in  the  attainment  of  the 
virtues,  or  in  the  degrees  for  the  attainment  of  a  good 
life. 

Plato's  virtues,  beginning  with  continence,  through 
manliness  and  wisdom  attained  to  justice ;  the  Christian 
virtues,  beginning  with  self-renunciation,  through  devotion 
to  God's  will  attain  to  love. 

The  men  who  seriously  accepted  Christianity,  and  strove 
to  make  the  good  Christian  life  their  own,  understood 
Christianity  in  this  sense,  and  always  began  the  good 
life  with  the  renunciation  of  their  lusts,  which  included 
the  pagan  continence. 

The  Christian  teaching  took  the  place  of  the  pagan  for 
the  very  reason  that  it  is  different  from  and  higher  than 
the  pagan.  But  the  Christian  teaching,  like  the  pagan, 
leads  men  to  truth  and  to  the  good ;  and  since  truth  and 
the  good  are  always  one,  the  path  leading  to  them  must 
be  one,  and  the  first  steps  on  this  path  must  inevitably  be 
one  and  the  same  for  a  Christian  as  for  a  pagan. 

The  difference  between  the  Christian  and  the  pagan 
teaching  of  the  good  consists  in  this,  that  the  pagan  teach- 
ing is  the  teaching  of  a  finite  perfection,  while  the  Chris- 
tian is  that  of  an  infinite  perfection.     Plato,  for  example, 

makes  justice  a  model  of  perfection ;  but  Christ  makes  a 

370 


THE    FIRST    STEP  371 

model  of  the  infinite  perfection  of  love.  "  Be  ye  as  per- 
fect as  your  Father  in  heaven  is  perfect."  From  this 
follow  the  different  relations  of  the  pagan  and  the  Chris- 
tian teachings  to  the  various  degrees  of  the  virtues.  The 
attainment  of  the  highest  virtue  according  to  the  pagan 
teachiug  is  possible,  and  every  step  of  attainment  has  its 
relative  significance:  the  higher  the  step,  the  greater  the 
desert,  so  that  men,  from  the  pagan  point  of  view,  are 
divided  into  virtuous  and  unvirtuous,  into  more  or  less 
virtuous.  But  according  to  the  Christian  teaching,  which 
pointed  out  the  infinitude  of  perfection,  all  steps  are  equal 
among  themselves  in  relation  to  the  infinite  ideal.  The 
difference  of  the  deserts  in  paganism  consists  in  the  step 
which  has  been  attained  by  a  man ;  in  Christianity  the 
deserts  consist  only  in  the  process  of  attainment,  in 
the  greater  or  lesser  celerity  of  motion.  From  the  pagan 
point  of  view,  a  man  who  is  in  possession  of  the  virtue  of 
reflection  stands  in  tlie  moral  sense  higher  than  a  man 
who  does  not  possess  this  virtue ;  a  man  who  in  addition 
to  reflection  is  also  in  possession  of  bravery  stands  higher 
still;  a  man  who  is  in  possession  of  reflection  and  of 
bravery,  and,  besides,  of  justice,  stands  liigher  still ;  but 
a  Christian  can  be  regarded  neither  as  the  one,  nor  as 
higher,  nor  as  lower  in  the  moral  sense ;  a  Christian  is 
the  more  a  Christian  the  faster  he  moves  toward  the 
infinite  perfection,  independently  of  the  step  on  which  he 
is  standing  at  a  given  minute.  Thus  the  immovable 
righteousness  of  the  Pharisee  is  lower  than  the  motion 
of  the  repentant  thief  on  the  cross. 

But  there  can  be  no  difference  in  this,  that  the  motion 
toward  virtue,  toward  perfection,  cannot  take  place  by 
avoidmg  the  lower  steps  of  virtue,  either  in  paganism  or 
in  Christianity. 

A  Christian,  like  a  pagan,  cannot  do  otherwise  than 
begin  the  work  of  perfection  from  the  very  beginning,  that 
is,  where  the  pagan  begins  it,  with  abstinence,  just  as  he 


372  THE    FIRST    STEP 

who  ascends  a  staircase  must  begiu  with  the  first  step. 
The  only  difference  is  this,  that  for  the  pagan  abstinence 
in  itself  presents  itself  as  a  virtue,  while  for  a  Christian 
abstinence  is  only  a  part  of  self-renunciation,  which  forms 
a  necessary  condition  of  a  striving  after  perfection.  And 
so  true  Christianity  in  its  manifestation  could  not  reject 
the  virtues  which  even  paganism  pointed  out. 

But  not  all  men  understood  Christianity  as  a  striving 
after  the  perfection  of  the  Father  in  heaven  ;  Christianity, 
falsely  understood,  destroyed  the  sincerity  and  seriousness 
of  the  relation  of  men  to  its  teaching. 

If  a  man  believes  that  he  may  be  saved,  even  though 
he  does  not  fulfil  the  moral  teaching  of  Christianity,  it  is 
natural  for  him  to  think  that  his  efforts  to  be  good  are 
superfluous.  And  so  a  man  who  believes  tbat  there 
are  means  for  salvation  other  than  the  personal  efforts  for 
attaining  perfection  (as,  for  example,  the  indulgences  of 
the  Catholics)  cannot  strive  after  it  with  the  same  energy 
and  seriousness  with  which  a  man  strives  who  does  not 
know  any  other  means  than  those  of  personal  efforts. 
But,  not  striving  after  this  with  complete  seriousness, 
and  knowing  other  means  than  those  of  personal  efforts,  a 
man  will  inevitably  neglect  the  one  invariable  order,  in 
which  may  be  acquired  the  good  qualities  w^hich  are  nec- 
essary for  a  good  life.  This  same  thing  has  happened 
with  the  majority  of  men  who  in  an  external  manner 
profess  Christianity. 


in. 

The  teaching  that  personal  efforts  are  not  needed  for  a 
man  to  attain  spiritual  perfection,  but  that  there  are  other 
means,  appears  as  the  cause  of  weakening  of  the  striving 
after  a  good  life  and  of  the  departure  from  the  consecutive- 
ness  indispensable  for  a  good  life. 

An  immense  mass  of  people,  who  accepted  Christianity 
only  in  an  external  manner,  took  advantage  of  the  substi- 
tution of  Christianity  for  paganism,  in  order,  by  freeing 
themselves  from  the  demands  of  the  pagan  virtues,  as  no 
longer  of  any  use  to  a  Christian,  to  free  themselves  from 
every  necessity  of  a  struggle  with  their  animal  nature. 

The  same  was  done  by  the  men  who  stopped  believing 
in  the  external  Christianity  alone.  Like  those  other  be- 
lievers, they  in  place  of  the  external  Christianity  put  forth 
some  imaginary  good  work,  accepted  by  the  majority,  such 
as  serving  science,  art,  humanity,  —  and  in  the  name  of 
this  imaginary  good  work  freed  themselves  from  the  con- 
secutiveness  of  attaining  the  qualities  which  are  necessary 
for  a  good  life,  and  were  satisfied  with  pretending,  as  in 
the  theatre,  that  they  were  living  a  good  life. 

Such  men,  who  have  fallen  away  from  paganism  and 
have  not  joined  Christianity  in  its  true  meaning,  began  to 
preach  love  of  God  and  of  men  without  self-renunciation, 
and  justice  without  abstinence,  that  is,  the  higher  virtues 
without  the  attainment  of  the  lower,  that  is,  not  the 
virtues  themselves,  but  only  their  semblance. 

Some  preach  the  love  of  God  and  men  without  self- 
reinmciation,  others  —  humanitarianism,  serving  men  and 
humanity  without  abstinence. 

373 


374  THE    FIRST    STEP 

And  since  this  advocacy  encourages  man's  animal  nature 
under  the  guise  of  introducing  him  into  the  higher  moral 
spheres,  by  freeing  him  from  the  most  elementary  demands 
of  morality,  which  have  long  ago  been  expressed  by  the 
pagans,  and  which  have  not  only  not  been  rejected,  but 
have  been  accentuated  by  true  Christianity,  it  was  readily 
accepted,  both  by  the  believers  and  by  the  non-behevers. 

Only  the  other  day  there  was  pubhshed  the  Pope's 
encyclical  in  regard  to  socialism.  After  rejecting  the 
opinion  of  the  socialists  as  to  the  illegality  of  ownership, 
it  says  there  that  "  no  one  is  certainly  obliged  to  help  his 
neighbour  by  taking  from  what  he  needs  for  himself  or  for 
his  family  {nul  assurement  n'est  tcnu  de  soulager  le  pro- 
chain  en  prenant  sur  son  necessaire  ou  sur  celui  de  sa 
famille),  nor  even  to  diminish  anything  of  what  the  pro- 
prieties demand  of  him.  No  one  must,  indeed,  live  con- 
trary to  custom."  (This  place  is  taken  out  of  St.  Thomas  : 
Nullus  enim  inconvenienter  dehet  vivere.)  "  But  after  the 
due  has  been  given  to  what  one  needs  and  to  external 
proprieties,"  the  encyclical  continues,  "  it  is  the  duty  of 
every  man  to  give  the  surplus  to  the  poor." 

Thus  preaches  the  chief  of  one  of  the  most  wide-spread 
churches  of  the  present  time.  And  side  by  side  with  this 
sermon  on  egoism,  which  prescribes  giving  to  our  neigh- 
bour what  we  do  not  need,  love  is  preached,  and  they 
constantly  adduce  with  pathos  the  famous  words  of  Paul, 
from  the  thirteenth  chapter  of  the  first  epistle  to  the 
Corinthians,  about  love. 

In  spite  of  the  fact  that  the  whole  teaching  of  the 
Gospel  is  filled  with  demands  for  self-renunciation  and 
indications  that  self-renunciation  is  the  first  condition  of 
Christian  perfection ;  in  spite  of  such  clear  utterances, 
as,  "  He  that  shall  not  take  up  his  cross,  he  that  shall 
not  forsake  father  and  mother,  he  that  shall  not  lose  his 
life,"  people  assure  themselves  and  others  that  it  is  possible 
to  love  men,  without  renouncing  not  only  what  they  have 


THE    FIRST    STEP  375 

become  used  to,  but  even  that  which  they  themselves 
consider  to  be  proper. 

Thus  speak  the  false  Christians,  and  precisely  in  the 
same  way  think  and  speak  and  write  and  act  the  people 
who  reject  not  only  the  external,  but  also  the  true  Chris- 
tian teaching,  —  tlie  freethinkers.  These  people  assure 
themselves  and  others  that,  without  diminishing  their 
necessities,  without  vanquishing  their  passions,  they  can 
serve  men  and  humanity,  that  is,  lead  a  good  life. 

Men  have  rejected  the  pagan  consecutiveness  of  the 
virtues  and,  without  adopting  the  Christian  teaching  in 
its  true  significance,  have  not  accepted  even  the  Christian 
consecutiveness  and  have  remained  without  any  guide 
whatsoever. 


I 


IV. 

Anciently,  when  there  was  no  Christian  teaching,  all 
the  teachers  of  life,  beginning  with  Socrates,  had  absti- 
nence —  i'yKpdreLa  and  aux^poavvr]  —  for  their  first  virtue 
of  life,  and  it  was  understood  that  every  virtue  must 
begin  with  it  and  pass  through  it.  It  was  clear  that  a 
man  who  did  not  control  himself,  who  developed  in 
himself  an  immense  number  of  passions,  and  who  sub- 
mitted to  them  all,  could  not  lead  a  good  life.  It  was 
clear  that  before  a  man  could  think,  not  only  of  magna- 
nimity, of  love,  but  also  of  unselfishness,  of  justice,  he 
must  learn  to  control  himself.  But  according  to  our 
views  nothing  of  the  kind  is  needed.  We  are  fully  con- 
vinced that  a  man  who  has  developed  his  passions  to  the 
highest  degree  to  which  they  are  developed  in  our  society, 
a  man  who  cannot  live  without  gratifying  hundreds  of 
habits  which  have  taken  possession  of  him,  may  be  able 
to  live  an  absolutely  moral,  good  life. 

In  our  time  and  in  our  society  the  tendency  toward 
limiting  one's  passions  is  considered  not  only  not  the  first, 
but  not  even  the  last  act  for  leading  a  good  hfe ;  it  is 
considered  to  be  absolutely  unnecessary. 

According  to  the  now  ruling,  universal,  contemporary 
teaching  about  life,  the  increase  of  necessities  is,  on  the 
contrary,  regarded  as  a  desirable  quality,  a  sign  of  develop- 
ment, civilization,  culture,  and  perfection.  The  so-called 
cultured  people  consider  the  habits  of  comfort,  that  is,  of 
effeminacy,  not  only  not  harmful,  but  even  good,  in  that 
they  show  a  certain  moral  elevation  of   man,  almost  a 

virtue. 

376 


THE    FIRST    STEP  377 

The  more  needs  there  are,  the  more  refined  these  needs 
are,  the  better  this  is  considered  to  be. 

Nothing  shows  this  so  clearly  as  the  descriptive  poetry 
and  especially  the  novels  of  the  past  and  the  present 
centuries. 

How  are  the  heroes  and  heroines  depicted,  who  repre- 
sent the  ideals  of  virtues  ? 

In  the  majority  of  cases,  the  men  who  are  supposed  to 
represent  something  elevated  and  noble,  beginning  with 
Childe  Harold  and  ending  with  the  latest  heroes  of  Feuillet, 
TroUope,  Maupassant,  are  nothing  but  corrupt  drones, 
who  are  of  no  use  to  any  one ;  and  the  heroines  are 
mistresses,  just  as  idle  and  given  to  luxury,  who  in  one 
way  or  another  afibrd  more  or  less  enjoyment  to  the 
men. 

I  am  not  speaking  of  the  few  rare  cases  in  literature, 
where  abstinent,  labouring  persons  are  actually  described, 
—  I  am  speaking  of  the  usual  type,  which  forms  the 
ideal  of  the  masses,  of  that  person  whom  the  majority  of 
men  and  women  try  to  resemble  most.  I  remember, 
when  I  wrote  novels,  the  inexplicable  difficulty  in  which 
I  found  myself  and  with  which  I  struggled,  and  with 
which,  I  know,  struggle  all  the  novelists  who  have  even 
the  dimmest  consciousness  of  what  constitutes  moral 
beauty,  consisted  in  representing  the  type  of  a  worldly 
man  that  would  be  ideally  good  and  at  the  same  time 
true  to  reality. 


V. 

An  indubitable  proof  that  the  men  of  our  time  really 
fail  to  recognize  that  the  pagan  abstinence  and  the 
Christian  self-renunciation  are  desirable  and  good  qualities, 
but  consider  the  increase  of  the  needs  as  something  good 
and  exalted,  may  be  found  in  the  way  the  children  of 
our  class  of  society  are  brought  up  in  the  vast  majority 
of  cases.  They  are  not  only  not  taught  abstinence,  as 
was  the  case  with  the  pagans,  or  self-renunciation,  as  it 
ought  to  be  with  Christians,  but  they  are  consciously 
inoculated  with  habits  of  effeminacy,  physical  idleness, 
and  luxury. 

I  have  for  a  long  time  had  in  mind  writing  a  fairy-tale 
of  the  following  kind :  a  woman,  wishing  to  avenge  herself 
on  another  woman  by  whom  she  has  been  insulted,  seizes 
her  enemy's  child,  and  goes  to  a  wizard,  whom  she  asks 
to  teach  her  how  she  may  take  the  bitterest  revenge  on 
her  enemy  through  her  enemy's  only  child,  which  she 
has  kidnapped.  The  wizard  instructs  the  kidnapper  to 
take  the  child  to  a  place  indicated  by  him,  assuring  her 
that  the  revenge  will  be  most  terrible.  The  evil  woman 
does  so,  but  she  watches  the  child,  and  to  her  amazement 
sees  that  the  child  is  taken  up  and  adopted  by  a  childless 
rich  man.  She  goes  to  the  wizard  and  rebukes  him,  but 
the  wizard  begs  her  to  wait.  The  child  grows  up  in 
luxury  and  effeminacy.  The  evil  woman  is  perplexed, 
but  the  wizard  asks  her  to  wait  longer.  And,  indeed,  the 
time  arrives  when  the  evil  woman  is  satisfied  and  even 
takes  pity  on  the  victim.  The  child  grows  up  in  effemi- 
nacy and  looseness  of  manners,  and,  thanks  to  his  good 

378 


THE    FIRST    STEP  379 

character,  is  ruined.  Here  begins  a  series  of  physical 
sufferings,  wretchedness,  and  humiliations,  toward  which 
he  is  particularly  sensitive  and  with  which  he  does  not 
know  how  to  struggle.  The  striving  after  a  nioral  life, 
and  the  impotence  of  the  effeminate  flesh  which  is  accus- 
tomed to  luxury  and  to  idleness.  A  vain  struggle,  a  fall 
lower  and  lower,  drunkenness,  to  forget  himself,  and  crime, 
or  insanity,  or  suicide. 

Indeed,  it  is  not  possible  without  horror  to  view 
the  education  of  certain  children  in  our  time.  Only  the 
meanest  foe  could  so  carefully  inoculate  the  child  with 
those  weaknesses  and  vices,  with  which  he  is  inoculated 
by  his  parents,  especially  by  his  mother.  One  is  horrified 
as  one  sees  all  this,  and  still  more,  the  consequences  of 
this,  if  it  is  possible  to  see  what  is  going  on  in  the  souls 
of  the  best  of  these  children  who  are  with  such  care 
ruined  by  their  parents.  They  are  inoculated  with  the 
habits  of  effeminacy ;  they  are  inoculated  with  them, 
when  the  young  being  does  not  yet  understand  their 
moral  significance.  Not  only  is  the  habit  of  abstinence 
and  self-possession  destroyed,  but,  contrary  to  what  was 
done  in  education  in  Sparta  and  in  the  ancient  world 
in  general,  this  ability  is  absolutely  atrophied.  A  man 
is  not  only  not  taught  to  labour,  to  undergo  all  the 
conditions  of  every  fruitful  labour,  concentrated  attention, 
tension,  endurance,  preoccupation  with  the  work,  the 
knowledge  of  mending  what  is  spoiled,  the  habit  of 
fatigue,  the  joy  of  accomplishment,  but  he  is  taught 
idleness  and  contempt  for  every  product  of  labour ;  he 
is  taught  to  spoil,  throw  away,  and  again  for  money 
to  acquire  what  he  pleases,  without  giving  any  thought 
to  how  things  are  made.  A  man  is  deprived  of  the 
ability  to  attain  the  virtue  first  in  order,  which  is  indis- 
pensable for  the  attainment  of  all  the  rest,  —  reflection,  — 
and  is  let  out  into  the  world,  in  which  are  preached  and, 
it  is  assumed,  valued  the  high  virtues  of  justice,  service 


380  THE    FIRST    STEP 

of  men,  love.  It  is  all  very  well  if  the  young  man  has 
a  morally  weak  nature,  which  is  not  sensitive,  which 
does  not  feel  the  difference  between  a  good  life  for  show 
and  a  real  good  life,  and  which  can  be  satisfied  with 
the  evil  existing  in  life.  If  so,  everything  seems  to 
arrange  itself  properly,  and  with  an  unawakened  moral 
sentiment  such  a  man  at  times  calmly  lives  to  his 
grave. 

But  this  is  not  always  the  case,  especially  of  late,  when 
the  consciousness  of  the  immorality  of  such  a  life  is  in 
the  air  and  involuntarily  falls  deep  into  the  heart.  Fre- 
quently, and  ever  more  frequently,  it  happens  that  the 
demands  of  the  true,  not  the  seeming  morality  are  awak- 
ened, and  then  begin  an  internal  agonizing  struggle  and 
suffering,  which  rarely  end  with  the  victory  of  the  moral 
feeling.  A  man  feels  that  his  life  is  bad  and  that  he 
must  change  it  all  from  the  very  beginning,  and  he  en- 
deavours to  do  so  ;  but  here  other  people,  who  have  passed 
through  the  same  struggle  and  who  have  not  come  out 
victoriously,  from  all  sides  attack  him  who  is  trying  to 
chauge  his  life,  and  try  with  every  means  at  their  com- 
mand to  impress  upon  him  that  this  is  not  at  all  neces- 
sary, that  abstinence  and  self-renunciation  are  not  at  all 
necessary  in  order  to  be  good,  that  it  is  possible,  though 
abandoning  oneself  to  gluttony,  love  of  attire,  physical 
idleness,  and  even  fornication,  to  be  an  absolutely  good 
and  useful  man.  And  the  struggle  for  the  most  part  ends 
in  a  lamentable  manner.  Either  the  man,  worn  out  by 
his  weakness,  submits  to  this  universal  voice  and  sup- 
presses in  himself  the  voice  of  conscience,  compromises 
with  his  reason,  in  order  to  justify  himself,  and  continues 
to  lead  the  same  life  of  dissipation,  assuring  himself  that 
he  redeems  it  with  his  belief  in  the  external  Christianity 
or  with  his  service  in  the  name  of  science,  or  of  art ;  or 
he  struggles,  suffers,  and  loses  his  mind,  or  shoots  him- 
self.   It  happens  but  rarely  that,  amidst  these  temptations 


THE    FIRST    STEP  381 

which  surround  him,  a  man  of  our  society  understands 
what  is,  and  thousands  of  years  ago  was,  a  rudimentary 
truth  for  all  reasoning  men,  namely,  that  to  attain  a  good 
life  it  is  necessary  first  of  all  to  stop  living  a  bad  life,  and 
that  to  attain  any  higher  virtues  it  is  necessary  first  of  all 
to  attain  the  virtue  of  abstinence  or  self-possession,  as  the 
pagans  defined  it,  or  the  virtue  of  self-renunciation,  as 
Christianity  defines  it,  and  by  degrees,  making  efforts 
over  himself,  attains  it. 


VI. 

I  HAVE  just  read  the  letters  of  our  highly  cultured  rep- 
resentative man  of  the  forties,  the  exile  Ogar^v,  to  an- 
other, even  more  highly  cultured  and  gifted  man,  Herzen. 
In  these  letters  Ogar^v  expresses  his  intimate  thoughts, 
and  puts  forth  his  highest  strivings,  and  one  cannot  help 
but  see  that  he,  as  is  characteristic  of  a  young  man,  is 
posing  before  his  friend.  He  speaks  of  self-perfection,  of 
sacred  friendship,  of  love,  of  serving  science,  humanity, 
and  so  forth.  And  at  the  same  time  he  writes  in  a  calm 
tone  that  he  frequently  irritates  his  friend,  with  whom  he 
is  living,  because,  as  he  writes,  "  I  return  in  an  intoxicated 
state,  or  disappear  for  long  hours  with  a  fallen,  but  dear 
creature."  Apparently  the  remarkably  sincere,  gifted, 
cultured  man  could  not  even  imagine  that  there  was  any- 
thing prejudicial  in  this,  that  he,  a  married  man,  awaiting 
the  birth  of  a  child  (in  the  next  letter  he  writes  that  his 
wife  was  delivered  of  a  child),  returned  home  drunk,  dis- 
appearing among  lewd  women.  It  did  not  occur  to  liim 
that,  so  long  as  he  did  not  begin  to  struggle  and  did  not 
curb  his  proneuess  to  intoxication  and  to  fornication,  he 
had  no  business  even  to  think  of  friendship,  love,  and, 
above  all  else,  doing  something  in  the  service  of  anything. 
He  not  only  failed  to  struggle  against  these  vices,  but 
apparently  regarded  them  as  something  very  charming, 
which  did  not  in  the  least  interfere  with  his  striving  after 
perfection,  and  so  not  only  did  not  conceal  them  from  his 
friend,  before  whom  he  wished  to  appear  in  the  best  light, 
but  outright  made  a  display  of  them. 

Thus  it  was  half  a  century  ago.     I  found  these  men 

m 


THE    FIRST    STEP  383 

still  alive.  I  knew  Ogar^v  himself,  and  Herzen,  and  the 
men  of  this  calibre,  and  men  educated  in  the  same  tradi- 
tions. In  all  these  men  there  was  a  striking  absence  of 
consecutiveness  in  matters  of  life.  They  all  had  a  sin- 
cere, warm  desire  for  the  good,  and  an  absolute  laxity  in 
their  personal  passions,  which,  it  seemed  to  them,  could 
not  interfere  with  a  good  Hfe  and  their  production  of  good 
and  even  great  works.  They  put  unkneaded  loaves  into 
an  unheated  oven,  and  they  believed  that  the  loaves  would 
be  baked.  When  in  their  old  age  they  began  to  notice 
that  the  loaves  would  not  bake,  that  is,  that  no  good  had 
been  accomplished  by  their  lives,  they  saw  in  this  some- 
thing very  tragical. 

The  tragedy  of  such  a  Hfe  is  indeed  very  terrible.  And 
this  tragicalness,  such  as  it  was  in  the  days  of  Herzen, 
Ogar^v,  and  others,  it  exists  even  now  for  many,  very 
many  so-called  cultured  people  of  our  time,  who  have  re- 
tained the  same  views.  A  man  strives  to  live  a  good  life, 
but  the  indispensable  consecutiveness,  which  is  necessary 
for  this,  is  lost  in  that  society  in  which  he  lives.  As  was 
the  case  with  Ogar^v  and  Herzen  fifty  years  ago,  so  the 
majority  of  modern  men  are  convinced  that  hving  an 
effeminate  life,  eating  sweet  and  fat  food,  enjoying  one- 
self, in  every  way  gratifying  one's  lust,  does  not  interfere 
with  a  good  life.  But,  apparently,  the  good  life  does  not 
result  in  their  case,  and  they  surrender  themselves  to 
pessimism,  saying,  "  Such  is  man's  tragical  position." 


VII. 

The  error  that  the  men,  in  surrendering  themselves  to 
their  hists,  in  considering  this  lustful  life  to  be  good,  are 
able  with  all  that  to  lead  a  good,  useful,  just,  loving  life, 
is  so  startling  that  the  men  of  future  generations,  I  think, 
will  absolutely  fail  to  understand  what  these  men  of  our 
time  meant  by  the  words  "  a  good  life,"  since  they  said 
that  gluttons,  effeminate,  lustful  men,  lead  a  good  life. 
Indeed,  we  need  but  to  renounce  the  habitual  view  of  our 
life  for  a  time  and  look  upon  it,  I  do  not  say  from  the 
standpoint  of  a  Christian,  but  from  the  pagan  standpoint, 
from  the  standpoint  of  the  lowest  demands  of  justice, 
in  order  to  become  convinced  that  there  can  be  here  no 
question  of  a  good  life. 

Every  man  of  our  society  must,  I  shall  not  say,  to  be- 
gin a  new  life,  but  only  to  start  moving  in  it,  above  all 
else  to  stop  leading  a  bad  life,  —  he  must  begin  to  destroy 
those  conditions  of  a  bad  life  in  which  he  finds  himself. 

How  often  we  hear,  in  justification  of  our  not  changing 
our  bad  life,  the  reflection  that  an  act  which  goes  counter 
to  the  habitual  life  would  be  unnatural  and  ridiculous,  or 
a  desire  to  make  a  display,  and  so  would  be  a  bad  act. 
This  reflection  seems  to  be  made  in  order  to  prevent  men 
from  changing  their  bad  life.  If  all  our  life  were  good 
and  just,  every  act  which  is  in  accordance  with  the  com- 
mon life  would  be  good.  But  if  our  life  is  half-good,  half- 
bad,  there  is  as  much  probabiHty  that  every  act  which  is 
not  in  accordance  with  the  common  life  is  good  as  that 
it  is  bad.     But  if  the  whole  life   is  bad  and  irregular, 

a  man  who  hves  this  life  cannot  perform  a  single  good 

384 


THE    FIRST    STEP  385 

act,  without  impairing  the  usual  current  of  life.  It  is 
possible  to  perform  a  bad  act  without  impairing  the 
habitual  current  of  life,  but  it  is  not  possible  to  perform 
a  good  act. 

A  man  who  lives  our  life  cannot  lead  a  good  life, 
before  leaving  those  conditions  of  evil  in  which  he  finds 
himself ;  he  cannot  begin  to  do  good,  unless  he  has 
stopped  doing  evil.  It  is  impossible  for  a  man  who  lives 
luxuriously  to  lead  a  good  life.  All  his  attempts  at  doing 
good  will  be  in  vain,  until  he  changes  his  life  and  does 
that  work,  first  in  order,  which  he  has  to  do.  A  good  life, 
according  to  the  pagan  world  conception,  and  still  more 
so  according  to  the  Christian,  is  measured  by  one  thing, 
and  cannot  be  measured  by  anything  else  but  the  rela- 
tion, in  the  mathematical  sense,  of  love  of  self  to  the  love 
of  others.  The  less  there  is  of  love  of  self  and  the  result- 
ing care  for  oneself  and  labours  and  demands  from  others 
for  oneself,  and  the  more  there  is  of  love  for  others  and 
the  resulting  cares  for  others,  of  labours  for  others,  the 
better  the  life  is. 

Thus  all  the  sages  of  the  world  and  all  the  true  Chris- 
tians have  always  understood  the  good  life,  and  just  so 
all  the  simplest  people  understand  it.  The  more  a  man 
gives  to  others  and  the  less  he  asks  for  himself,  the  better 
he  is;  the  less  he  gives  to  others  and  the  more  he  de- 
mands for  himself,  the  worse  he  is. 

If  the  point  of  support  in  a  lever  be  moved  from  the 
long  to  the  short  end,  then  not  oiily  will  the  long  end  be 
lengthened,  but  the  short  end  will  also  be  shortened. 
Thus,  if  a  man,  having  the  one  given  ability  of  loving, 
increases  the  love  and  care  for  himself,  he  by  this  very 
fact  diminislies  the  ability  to  love  others  and  care  for 
them,  not  only  to  the  amount  of  love  which  he  has  trans- 
ferred to  himself,  but  many  times  more.  Instead  of  feed- 
ing others,  a  man  eats  up  more  than  is  necessary,  and 
thus  he  has  not  only  diminished  the  possibility  of  giving 


386  THE   FIRST   STEP 

this  abundance,  but  has  also,  in  consequence  of  his  glut- 
tony, deprived  himself  of  the  possibility  of  caring  for 
others. 

To  be  able,  not  in  words,  but  in  fact,  to  love  others,  we 
must  stop  loving  ourselves,  not  in  words,  but  in  fact.  As 
a  rule  it  happens  like  this  :  we  think  that  we  love  others 
and  assure  ourselves  and  others  of  this  fact ;  but  we  love 
in  words  only,  while  ourselves  we  love  in  fact.  We  shall 
forget  to  feed  others  and  put  them  to  bed,  but  ourselves 
never.  And  so,  to  love  others,  indeed,  in  fact,  we  must 
learn  to  forget  to  feed  ourselves  and  put  ourselves  to  bed, 
just  as  we  forget  to  do  so  in  reference  to  others. 

We  say,  "  a  good  man,"  and  "  leads  a  good  life,"  about 
an  effeminate  man,  who  is  used  to  a  luxurious  life.  But 
such  a  person  —  be  it  man  or  woman  —  may  have  the 
loveliest  traits  of  character,  of  meekness,  kindness  of  heart, 
but  he  cannot  lead  a  good  life,  as  a  knife  of  the  very  best 
workmanship  and  steel  cannot  cut,  if  it  is  not  sharpened. 
To  be  good  and  to  lead  a  good  life  means  to  give  more  to 
others  than  is  received  from  them.  But  an  effeminate 
man,  who  is  used  to  a  luxurious  life,  cannot  do  so,  in  the 
first  place,  because  he  himself  always  needs  much  (and  he 
needs  much,  not  on  account  of  his  egoism,  but  because 
he  is  used  to  it,  and  it  causes  him  suffering  to  be  deprived 
of  what  he  is  used  to),  and,  in  the  second,  because,  using 
up  everything  which  he  receives  from  others,  he  by  this 
very  use  weakens  himself,  deprives  himself  of  the  pos- 
sibility of  working,  and  so  of  serving  others.  An  effemi- 
nate man,  who  sleeps  softly  and  long,  who  eats  fat,  sweet 
food,  and  drinks  in  large  quantities,  who  is  dressed  warmly 
or  coolly,  as  the  case  may  demand,  who  has  not  accus- 
tomed himself  to  the  tension  of  work,  can  do  but  very 
little. 

We  have. become  so  accustomed  to. lying  to  ourselves 
and  to  the  lie  of  others,  it  is  so  convenient  for  us  not  to 
see  the  lie  of  others,  so  that  they  may  not  see  ours,  that 


THE    FIRST    STEP  387 

we  are  not  in  the  least  surprised  or  in  doubt  as  to  the 
assertion  of  the  virtue,  and  at  times  even  of  the  sanctity, 
of  men  who  live  an  absolutely  dissolute  life.  A  man  — 
man  or  woman  —  sleeps  on  a  bed  with  springs,  two  mat- 
tresses, and  two  cleanly  pressed  sheets  and  slips,  on  down 
pillows.  Near  his  bed  is  a  mat,  so  that  he  may  not  be 
cold  when  stepping  on  the  Hoor,  although  near  by  stand 
his  slippers.  Here  also  are  the  necessary  articles,  so  that 
he  does  not  need  to  go  out.  The  windows  are  shielded 
by  shades,  so  that  the  light  cannot  wake  him,  and  he 
sleeps  as  long  as  he  feels  like  sleeping.  Besides,  meas- 
ures are  taken  to  have  the  room  warm  in  winter  and  cool 
in  summer,  and  that  he  may  not  be  disturbed  by  sounds 
and  by  tlies  and  other  insects.  He  sleeps,  and  the  hot 
and  cold  water  for  washing,  and  at  times  for  a  bath  and 
his  shaving,  are  waiting  for  him.  So  also  are  the  tea,  or 
coffee,  or  bracing  drinks,  which  are  taken  immediately 
after  rising.  His  boots,  shoes,  overshoes,  several  pairs  of 
them,  which  he  soiled  yesterday,  are  being  cleaned  in 
such  a  way  that  they  shine  like  glass,  and  there  is  not  a 
dust  speck  upon  them.  Similarly  they  are  cleaning  his 
various  suits  which  he  soiled  on  the  previous  day,  and 
which  correspond  not  only  to  winter  and  summer,  but 
also  to  spring,  autumn,  rainy,  damp,  warm  weather. 
There  is  prepared  for  him  cleanly  washed,  starched, 
ironed  linen,  with  shirt  buttons,  cuff  buttons,  loops,  which 
are  all  looked  after  by  men  specially  engaged  for  this. 

If  a  man  is  active,  he  rises  early,  that  is,  at  seven 
o'clock,  still  two  or  three  hours  later  than  the  people  who 
get  all  this  ready  for  him.  Besides  the  clothes  got  ready 
for  the  day  and  the  bedding  for  the  night,  there  are  also 
the  clothes  and  foot-gear  for  the  time  of  the  dressing,  the 
gowns  and  slippers,  and  the  man  goes  to  wash,  clean,  and 
comb  himself,  for  which  several  kinds  of  brushes  and 
soaps  and  a  great  quantity  of  water  and  soap  are  used. 
(Many  English  people  are  for  some  reason  particularly 


388  THE    FIRST    STEP 

proud  of  the  fact  that  they  can  lather  a  lot  of  soap  and 
pour  upon  themselves  a  great  amount  of  water.)  Then 
the  man  dresses  himself,  combs  his  hair  before  a  special 
mirror,  which  is  different  from  those  which  hang  in  every 
room,  takes  up  his  necessary  articles,  for  the  most  part  a 
pair  of  spectacles,  or  eye-glasses,  or  a  lorgnette,  then  he 
puts  things  away  in  his  pockets :  a  clean  handkerchief 
to  clear  his  nose  with,  a  watch  on  a  chain,  although 
wherever  he  may  be,  almost  in  every  room,  there  is  a 
clock  ;  he  takes  money  of  various  denominations,  coins 
(frequently  in  a  special  contrivance,  which  saves  him  the 
trouble  of  finding  what  he  wants)  and  paper  bills ;  visit- 
ing-cards, on  which  his  name  is  printed  and  which  save 
him  the  trouble  of  telling  or  writing  it  out ;  a  white 
memorandum-book,  and  a  pencil.  A  woman's  dress  is 
much  more  complicated :  a  corset,  the  coiffure,  the  long 
hair,  the  adornments,  the  ribbons,  elastic,  pins,  hairpins, 
brooches. 

But  now  everything  is  ended ;  the  day  generally  begins 
with  eating :  coffee  or  tea,  specially  prepared,  is  taken 
with  a  large  quantity  of  sugar,  and  rolls  are  eaten ;  the 
bread  is  made  of  the  very  best  of  wheat  flour,  with  a 
large  quantity  of  butter,  sometimes  with  hog  lard.  The 
men  generally  smoke  cigarettes  or  cigars  during  this 
meal,  and  then  read  a  fresh  newspaper,  which  has  just 
been  brought  in.  Then  the  going  from  home  to  the 
office  or  on  business,  or  driving  in  carriages  which  exist 
especially  to  take  people  from  place  to  place.  Then  a 
breakfast  from  killed  animals,  birds,  fishes ;  then  a  simi- 
lar dinner,  which  with  great  moderation  consists  of  three 
courses,  a  sweet  dish,  coffee;  then  playing  of  cards,  and 
playing,  —  music,  or  the  theatre,  reading,  or  conversation 
in  soft,  springy  chairs  under  the  intensified  or  softened 
light  of  candles,  gas,  electricity,  —  again  tea,  again  eating, 
supper,  and  again  to  bed,  prepared  and  puffed  up,  with 
clear  linen,  and  rinsed  vessels. 


THE    FIRST    STEP  389 

Such  is  the  day  of  a  man  of  moderate  life,  of  whom,  if 
he  is  of  a  soft  character  and  has  no  habits  which  are 
exceedingly  disagreeable  to  others,  they  say  that  he  is  a 
man  who  is  leading  a  good  life. 

But  a  good  life  is  that  of  a  man  who  does  good    to 
others ;  how  can  a  man  who  lives  thus  and  who  is  accus- 
tomed to  live  thus  do  good  to  men  ?     Before  doing  good, 
he  must  stop  doing  evil  to  men.     But  consider  all  the 
evil  which    he,  frequently  without    knowing  it  himself, 
does  to  people,  and  you  will  see  that  he  is  far  from  doing 
good  to  people,  and  that  he  has  to  perform  many,  very 
many  acts,  in  order  to  redeem  the  evil  done  by  him,  and 
yet  he,  who  is  weakened  by  his  lustful  hfe,  is  absolutely 
unable  to  perform  any  such  acts.     He  could,  indeed,  sleep 
more  healthily,  both  physically  and  morally,  by  lying  on 
the  floor  on  a  cloak,  as  Marcus  Aurelius  slept,  and  so  all 
the  labour  and  work  of  the  mattresses  and  springs,  and 
of  the  down  pillows,  and  the  daily  work  of  the  laundress, 
a  woman,  a  weak  being  with  lier  female  troubles  and 
childbirths  and  nursing   of    children,  a  woman    who   is 
washing  the  linen  belonging  to  him,  a  strong  man,  —  all 
this  work  could  be  avoided.     He  could  go  to  bed  earlier 
and  rise  earlier,  and  the  work  of  the  shades  and  of  the 
illumination  in  the  evening  could  be  avoided.     He  could 
sleep  in  the  same  shirt  which  he  wore  in  the  daytime, 
could  step  with  his  bare  feet  on  the  floor,  and  go  out  into 
the  yard,  could  wash  himself  in  the  cold  water  at  the  well, 
—  in  short,  could  live  as  live  all  those  who  do  all  this  for 
him,  and  so  he  could  avoid  all  the  labour  which  is  put 
out    on    him.     So    also  could    be   avoided  all  the   work 
put  on  his  clothes,  his  refined  food,  his  amusements. 

How,  then,  can  such  a  man  do  good  to  people  and  lead 
a  good  life,  without  changing  his  pampered,  luxurious 
life?  A  moral  man,  1  do  not  say  a  Christian,  —  but  just 
one  who  professes  humanitarian  princi])les,  or  only  justice, 
cannot  help  but  wish  to  change  his   life  and  stop  making 


o 


90  THE    FIRST    STEP 


use  of  the  objects  of  luxury,  which  are  often  produced 
with  harm  to  other  people. 

If  a  man  really  pities  people  who  work  with  tobacco, 
the  first  thing  he  will  involuntarily  do  is  to  stop  smok- 
ing, because,  by  continuing  to  smoke  and  buy  tobacco,  he 
only  encourages  the  production  of  tobacco,  which  ruins 
the  health  of  people. 

But  the  men  of  our  time  do  not  reason  like  that.  They 
invent  the  strangest  and  cleverest  reflections,  except  the 
one  which  naturally  presents  itself  to  every  simple  man. 
According  to  their  reasoning  it  is  not  at  all  necessary  to 
abstain  from  articles  of  luxury.  We  may  have  sympathy 
for  the  condition  of  the  labourers,  make  speeches  and 
write  books  in  their  favour,  and  at  the  same  time  con- 
tinue to  make  use  of  those  labours  which  we  consider  to 
be  ruinous  for  them. 

According  to  one  kind  of  reasoning  it  turns  out  that  it  is 
right  to  make  use  of  the  ruinous  labours  of  others,  because, 
if  I  do  not  make  use  of  them,  somebody  else  will.  It  is 
like  the  reasoning  that  I  must  drink  the  wine  which  is 
injurious  for  me,  because  it  is  bought,  and  if  I  do  not 
drink  it,  others  will. 

According  to  another  kind  of  reasoning  it  appears  that 
the  use  made  of  the  labours  of  others  for  the  sake  of 
luxury  is  indeed  very  useful  for  them,  because  we  thus 
give  them  money,  that  is,  the  possibility  of  existence,  as 
though  it  were  not  possible  to  make  it  possible  for  them 
to  exist  in  any  other  way  than  by  compelliDg  them  to 
produce  articles  which  are  injurious  to  them  and  super- 
fluous for  us. 

All  this  is  due  to  the  fact  that  men  have  come  to  imag- 
ine that  it  is  possible  to  lead  a  good  life  without  having 
attained  the  first  quality  in  order,  which  is  necessary  for 
a  good  life. 

Now  the  first  quality  is  abstinence. 


vin. 

Theee  has  been  and  there  can  be  no  good  life  without 
abstinence.  No  good  life  is  thinkable  without  abstinence. 
Every  attainment  of  a  good  life  must  begin  through  it. 

There  is  a  ladder  of  virtues,  and  we  must  begin  with 
the  first  rung,  in  order  to  ascend  to  the  next ;  and  the 
first  virtue  whicli  must  be  attained  by  a  man,  if  he  wants 
to  attain  the  next,  is  what  the  ancients  called  iyKpdreia 
or  (T(0(f)poavvr],  that  is,  reflection  or  self-possession. 

If  in  the  Christian  teaching  abstinence  is  included  in 
the  concept  of  self-renunciation,  the  consecutiveness 
none  the  less  remains  the  same,  and  the  attainment  of 
no  Christian  virtues  is  possible  without  abstinence,  not 
because  somebody  has  thought  it  out  so,  but  because  such 
is  the  essence  of  the  matter. 

Abstinence  is  the  first  step  of  every  good  life. 

But  even  abstinence  is  not  attained  at  once,  but  by 
degrees. 

Abstinence  is  a  man's  liberation  from  the  lusts,  their 
subjection  to  reason,  aw^poa-vvq.  But  there  are  many  va- 
rious lusts  in  man,  and  for  the  struggle  with  them  to 
be  successful  he  must  begin  with  the  basal  ones,  those 
on  which  other,  more  complex  ones  grow  up,  and  not 
with  the  complex,  which  have  gi-owTi  up  on  the  basal 
ones.  There  are  complex  passions,  as  the  passion  for 
adorning  the  body,  games,  amusements,  gossiping,  curiosity, 
and  many  others ;  and  there  are  basal  passions,  such  as 
gluttony,  idleness,  carnal  love.  In  the  struggle  with  the 
passions  it  is   impossible  to  begin  at  the  end,  with  the 

struggle  with  the  complex  passions  ;  we  must  begin  with 

391 


392  THE    FIRST    STEP 

the  basal  ones,  and  that,  too,  in  a  definite  order.  This 
order  is  determined  both  by  the  essence  of  the  thing  and 
by  the  tradition  of  human  wisdom. 

A  glutton  is  not  able  to  struggle  against  idleness,  and 
a  gluttonous  and  idle  man  is  unable  to  struggle  with 
the  sexual  lust.  And  so,  according  to  all  teachings,  the 
striving  after  abstinence  began  with  the  struggle  against 
the  lust  of  gluttony,  began  with  fasting.  But  in  our 
society,  where  every  serious  relation  to  the  attainment  of 
the  good  life  is  lost  to  such  a  degree  and  has  been  lost  for 
so  long  a  time  that  the  very  first  virtue,  abstinence,  with- 
out which  no  others  are  possible,  is  considered  superfluous, 
there  is  also  lost  the  consecutiveness  which  is  indispen- 
sable for  the  attainment  of  this  first  virtue,  and  many  have 
forgotten  all  about  fasting,  and  it  has  been  decided  that 
fasting  is  a  foolish  superstition,  and  that  fasting  is  not  at 
all  necessary. 

And  yet,  just  as  the  first  condition  of  a  good  life  is 
abstinence,  so  the  first  condition  of  an  abstemious  life 
is  fasting. 

A  man  may  wish  to  be  good,  dream  of  goodness,  with- 
out fasting ;  but  in  reality  it  is  just  as  impossible  to  be 
good  without  fasting,  as  it  is  to  walk  without  getting  up 
on  one's  feet. 

Fasting  is  an  indispensable  condition  of  a  good  life. 
But  gluttony  has  always  been  the  first  symptom  of  the 
reverse,  of  a  bad  life,  and  unfortunately  this  symptom  has 
particular  force  in  the  life  of  the  majority  of  the  men  of 
our  time. 

Glance  at  the  faces  and  at  the  figures  of  the  men  of  our 
circle  and  time,  —  on  many  of  these  faces  with  pendent 
chins  and  cheeks,  obese  limbs  and  large  bellies,  lies  the 
ineffaceable  imprint  of  a  life  of  dissipation.  Nor  can  it 
be  otherwise.  Look  closely  at  our  life,  at  that  by  which 
the  majority  of  the  men  of  our  society  are  moved ;  ask 
yourself  what  is  the  chief  interest  of  this  majority.      No 


THE   FIRST   STEP  393 

matter  how  strange  this  may  appear  to  us,  who  are  accus- 
tomed to  conceal  our  true  interests  and  to  put  forth  false, 
artificial  ones,  the  chief  interest  of  the  life  of  the  major- 
ity of  men  of  our  time  is  the  gratification  of  the  sense 
of  taste,  the  pleasure  of  eating,  gluttony.  Beginning  with 
the  poorest  and  ending  with  the  wealthiest  classes  of 
society,  gluttony,  I  think,  is  the  chief  aim,  the  chief 
pleasure  of  our  life.  The  poor  working  people  form  an 
exception  only  to  the  extent  to  which  want  keeps  them 
from  surrendering  themselves  to  this  passion.  The  mo- 
ment they  have  time  and  means  for  it,  they,  emulating 
the  higher  classes,  provide  themselves  with  what  tastes 
best  and  is  sweetest,  and  eat  and  drink  as  much  as  they 
can.  The  more  they  eat,  the  more  they  consider  them- 
selves, not  only  happy,  but  even  strong  and  healthy. 
And  in  this  conviction  they  are  maintained  by  the  cultured 
people,  who  look  upon  food  in  precisely  this  manner. 
The  cultured  classes  imagine  happiness  and  health  to  lie 
in  savoury,  nutritive,  easily  digested  food  (in  •  which 
opinion  they  are  confirmed  by  the  doctors,  who  assert  that 
the  most  expensive  food,  meat,  is  the  most  wholesome), 
though  they  try  to  conceal  this. 

Look  at  the  life  of  these  people,  listen  to  their  talk. 
What  kiud  of  exalted  subjects  interests  them  ?  Philos- 
ophy, and  science,  and  art,  and  poetry,  and  the  distribution 
of  wealth,  and  the  welfare  of  the  people,  and  the  educa- 
tion of  youth  ;  but  all  this  is  for  the  vast  majority  a  lie. 
All  this  interests  them  only  between  business,  between 
the  real  business,  between  breakfast  and  dinner,  while  the 
stomach  is  full,  and  it  is  not  possible  to  eat  any  more. 
The  one  living,  real  interest,  the  interest  of  the  majority 
of  men  and  women,  is  eating,  especially  after  their  first 
youth.     How  to  eat,  what  to  eat,  when,  where  ? 

Not  one  solemnity,  not  one  joy,  not  one  christening, 
not  one  opening  of  anything  takes  place  without 
eating. 


394  THE   FIRST    STEP 

Look  at  people  in  their  travels.  In  them  you  can  see 
it  best.  "  The  museums,  the  libraries,  the  parliament,  — 
how  interesting  !  And  where  shall  we  dine  ?  Who  sets 
the  best  table  ? "  Yes,  just  look  at  the  people,  as  they 
come  down  to  dinner,  dressed  up,  bespriukled  with  per- 
fume, to  a  table  adorned  with  flowers,  how  joyously  they 
rub  their  hands  and  smile  ! 

If  we  could  look  into  their  souls,  —  what  do  the 
majority  of  men  long  for?  Tor  an  appetite  for  break- 
fast, for  diuner.  In  what  does  the  severest  punishment 
from  childhood  consist  ?  In  being  reduced  to  bread  and 
water.  What  artisan  receives  the  greatest  wages  ?  The 
cook.  In  what  does  the  chief  interest  of  the  lady 
of  the  house  consist  ?  Toward  what  does  in  the  majority 
of  cases  the  conversation  incline  between  the  ladies  of  the 
middle  class  ?  And  if  the  conversation  of  the  people  of 
the  higher  classes  does  not  incline  toward  it,  the  cause 
of  it  is  not  because  they  are  more  cultured  and  busy  with 
higher  interests,  but  only  because  they  have  a  house- 
keeper or  a  steward  who  is  busy  with  this  and  guarantees 
their  dinners.  But  try  to  deprive  them  of  this  comfort, 
and  you  will  see  in  what  their  cares  lie.  Everythiog 
reduces  itself  to  the  question  of  eating,  the  price  of  grouse, 
the  best  means  for  boiling  coffee,  baking  sweet  tarts,  etc. 
People  assemble,  whatever  the  occasion  may  be,  —  chris- 
tening, funeral,  wedding,  dedication  of  a  church,  farewell, 
reception,  celebration  of  a  memorable  day,  the  death  or 
birth  of  a  great  scholar,  thinker,  teacher  of  morality, — 
people  assemble,  claiming  to  be  busy  with  some  exalted 
subjects.  So  they  say ;  but  they  dissemble :  they  all 
know  that  there  will  be  something  to  eat,  good,  savoury 
food,  and  something  to  drink,  and  it  is  this  mainly  which 
has  brought  them  together.  For  several  days  previous  to 
this  animals  have  been  slaughtered  and  cut  up  for  this 
very  purpose,  baskets  with  supplies  have  been  brought 
from  the  gastronomic  shops,  and  cooks,  their  assistants, 


THE   FIRST   STEP  395 

scullions,  peasants  of  the  buffet,  especially  dressed  up  in 
clean  starched  aprons  and  caps,  have  been  "  working." 
So,  too,  chefs,  who  receive  five  hundred  roubles  per  month 
and  more,  have  been  working  and  giving  orders.  The 
cooks  have  been  chopping,  mixing,  washing,  arranging, 
adorning.  With  the  same  solemnity  and  importance 
there  has  been  working  a  similar  superintendent  of  serv- 
ice, counting,  reflecting,  castmg  his  glance,  like  an  artist. 
The  gardener  lias  been  working  for  the  flowers.  The 
dishwashers —  A  whole  army  of  men  work,  the  prod- 
ucts of  thousands  of  work-days  are  devoured,  and  all  this 
in  order  that  the  people  assembled  may  have  a  chance  to 
talk  of  the  memorable  great  teacher  of  science  or  morality, 
or  to  recall  a  deceased  friend,  or  to  say  farewell  to  a 
young  couple  who  are  entering  upon  a  new  life. 

In  the  lower  and  middle  class  it  is  evident  that  a 
holiday,  funeral,  wedding,  means  gluttony.  It  is  thus 
that  they  understand  the  matter  in  these  classes.  Glut- 
tony to  such  an  extent  takes  the  place  of  the  motive  of  as- 
semblage that  in  Greek  and  French  "  wedding  "  and  "  feast " 
have  the  same  meaning.  But  in  the  higher  circle,  amidst 
retined  people,  great  art  is  employed  in  order  to  conceal 
this  and  to  make  it  appear  that  the  eating  is  a  secondary 
matter,  that  it  exists  only  for  decency's  sake.  They  can 
conveniently  represent  this  in  such  a  way,  because  for  the 
most  part  they  are  in  the  real  sense  of  the  word  satiated, 
—  they  are  never  hungry. 

They  pretend  that  they  have  no  need  of  a  dinner,  of 
eating,  and  that  it  is  even  a  burden  to  them.  But  try, 
instead  of  the  refined  dishes  expected  by  them,  to  give 
them,  I  do  not  say  bread  and  water,  but  porridge  and 
noodles,  and  you  will  see  what  a  storm  this  will  provoke, 
and  how  the  real  facts  will  come  to  the  surface,  namely, 
that  in  the  gathering  of  these  men  the  chief  interest  is 
not  the  one  which  they  put  forth,  but  the  interest  of 
eating. 


396  THE    FIRST    STEP 

See  what  people  deal  in ;  walk  through  the  city  and 
see  what  is  being  sold :  attire  and  articles  of  food. 

In  reality  this  ought  to  be  so  and  cannot  be  otherwise. 
We  cannot  stop  thinking  of  eating,  keep  this  lust  within 
its  limits,  only  when  we  submit  to  the  necessity  of  eating ; 
but  when  a  man,  only  submitting  to  this  necessity,  that  is, 
to  the  fulness  of  the  stomach,  stops  eating,  then  it  cannot 
be  otherwise.  If  a  man  has  taken  a  liking  to  the  pleasure 
of  eating,  has  allowed  himself  to  love  this  pleasure,  and 
finds  that  this  pleasure  is  good  (as  the  vast  majority  of 
men  of  our  society  and  the  cultured  find,  although  they 
pretend  the  opposite),  then  there  is  no  limit  to  its  in- 
crease, there  are  no  limits  beyond  which  it  cannot  grow. 
The  gratification  of  a  need  has  its  limits  ;  but  enjoyment 
has  none.  For  the  gratification  of  a  need  it  is  indispen- 
sable and  sufficient  to  eat  bread,  porridge,  or  rice ;  for  the 
increase  of  enjoyment  there  is  no  end  to  dishes  and  to 
seasonings. 

Bread  is  an  indispensable  and  sufficient  food  (the  proof 
of  this :  millions  of  strong,  lithe,  healthy  men,  who  work 
much,  live  on  nothing  but  bread).  But  it  is  better  to  eat 
bread  with  some  preparation.  It  is  good  to  soak  bread  in 
water  with  meat  boiled  in  it.  It  is  still  better  to  put 
vegetables  into  this  water,  and  still  better  a  lot  of  differ- 
ent vegetables.  It  is  not  bad  to  eat  meat  itself.  But  it 
is  better  to  eat,  not  boiled,  but  roasted  meat.  And  still 
better,  meat  slightly  broiled  with  butter,  and  with  the 
blood,  and  only  certain  parts  of  it.  Add  to  this  vege- 
tables and  mustard.  And  wash  it  down  with  wine,  best 
of  all  red  wine.  You  do  not  feel  like  eating  anything 
else,  but  you  can  still  devour  some  fish,  if  it  is  seasoned 
vdth  sauce,  and  you  can  wash  it  down  with  white  wine. 
One  would  think  that  no  other  fat  or  savoury  food  would 
go  down.  But  you  may  still  eat  something  sweet,  in  the 
summer  ice-cream,  in  the  winter  preserves,  jams,  etc. 
And  this  is  a  dinner,  a  modest  dinner.     The  pleasure 


THE   FIRST    STEP  397 

of  this  dinner  may  be  greatly,  very  greatly  increased. 
And  people  do  increase  it,  and  there  is  no  limit  to  this 
increase :  there  are  appetizers,  and  entremets,  and  desserts, 
and  all  kinds  of  combinations  of  savoury  food,  and  adorn- 
ments, and  music  during  the  dinner. 

And,  strange  to  say,  the  people  who  every  day  eat  such 
dinners,  in  comparison  with  which  Belshazzar's  feast, 
which  called  forth  the  remarkable  threat,  is  nothing, 
are  naively  convinced  that  they  can  with  it  all  lead  a 
moral  hfe. 


IX. 

Fasting  is  an  indispensable  condition  of  a  good  life; 
but  in  fasting,  as  in  abstinence,  there  appears  the  ques- 
tion, with  what  to  begin  the  fasting,  how  to  fast,  how 
often  to  eat,  what  not  to  eat.  And  as  it  is  impossible 
seriously  to  busy  oneself  with  anything,  without  having 
acquired  the  consecutiveness  necessary  for  it,  so  it  is  im- 
possible to  fast,  without  knowing  with  what  to  begin  the 
fast,  with  what  to  begin  the  abstinence  from  food. 

Fasting  !  But  there  is  the  choice  to  be  made  as  to  what 
to  begin  with.  This  idea  seems  ridiculous  and  extrava- 
gant to  the  majority  of  men. 

I  remember  with  what  pride,  on  account  of  his  origi- 
nality, an  Evangelical  Protestant,  who  was  attacking  the 
asceticism  of  monasticism,  said  to  me,  "  My  Christianity  is 
not  with  fasts  and  privations,  but  with  beefsteaks."  Chris- 
tianity and  virtue  in  general  with  beefsteaks  ! 

So  many  savage  and  immoral  things  have  eaten  their 
way  into  our  life,  especially  into  that  lower  sphere  of  the 
first  step  toward  a  good  life,  the  relation  to  food,  to  which 
very  few  people  have  paid  any  attention,  that  it  is  difficult 
for  us  even  to  comprehend  the  boldness  and  madness  of 
the  assertion  in  our  time  of  a  Christianity  or  virtue  with 
beefsteaks. 

The  only  reason  why  we  are  not  horrified  at  this  asser- 
tion is  that  with  us  has  happened  the  unusual  tiling  that 
we  look  and  do  not  see,  that  we  listen  and  do  not  hear. 
There  is  no  stench,  no  sound,  no  monstrosity,  to  which  a 
man  cannot  get  used,  so  that  he  no  longer  notices  what 

898 


THE    FIRST    STEP  399 

is  startling  to  a  man  who  is  not  used  to  it.  The  same  is 
true  in  the  moral  sphere.  Christianity  and  morality  with 
beefsteaks ! 

The  other  day  I  visited  the  slaughter-house  in  our  city 
of  Tula.  The  slaughter-house  is  built  according  to  a  new, 
perfected  method,  as  it  is  built  in  large  cities,  so  that  the 
animals  killed  shall  suffer  as  little  as  possible.  This  was 
on  a  Friday,  two  days  before  Pentecost.  There  were  there 
a  large  number  of  cattle. 

Before  that,  a  long  time  before,  when  reading  the  beau- 
tiful book,  Ethics  of  Diet,  I  had  made  up  my  mind  to 
visit  the  slaughter-house,  in  order  with  my  own  eyes  to 
see  the  facts  of  the  case,  which  are  mentioned  whenever 
vegetarianism  is  mentioned.  But  I  felt  uneasy,  as  one 
always  feels  uneasy  when  going  to  see  sufferings  which 
are  sure  to  be  there,  but  which  one  cannot  prevent,  and 
so  I  kept  putting  it  off. 

But  lately  I  met  on  the  road  a  butcher,  who  had  been 
home  and  now  was  going  back  to  Tula.  He  is  not  yet  an 
experienced  butcher,  and  his  duty  consists  in  stabbing 
with  a  dagger.  I  asked  him  whether  he  did  not  feel  sorry 
that  he  had  to  kill  the  animals.  And  as  the  answer 
always  is,  so  he  answered,  "  Why  be  sorry  ?  This  has  to 
be  done."  But  when  I  told  him  that  eating  meat  was  not 
necessary,  he  agreed  with  me,  and  then  he  also  agreed 
with  me  that  it  was  a  pity  to  kill.  "  What  is  to  be  done  ? 
I  have  to  make  a  living,"  he  said.  "  At  first  I  was  afraid 
to  kill.     My  father  never  killed  a  chicken  in  all  his  life." 

The  majority  of  liussians  cannot  kill ;  they  feel  pity, 
which  they  express  by  the  word  "  afraid."  He,  too,  had 
been  afraid,  but  had  stopped.  He  explained  to  me  that 
the  busiest  day  is  Friday,  when  the  work  lasts  until 
evening. 

Lately,  too,  I  had  a  talk  with  a  soldier,  a  butcher,  and 
he,  too,  was  surprised  in  the  same  way  at  my  assertion 
that  it  is  a  pity  to  kill ;  and,  as  always,  he  said  that  this 


400  THE    FIRST    STEP 

was  the  law ;  but  later  he  agreed  with  me,  "  Especially 
when  it  is  a  tame,  kind  animal.  The  dear  animal  comes 
up  to  you,  believing  you.     It  is  truly  a  pity  ! " 

One  day  we  returned  from  Moscow  on  foot,  and  some 
drivers  of  drays,  going  from  Serpukhov  to  a  forest  to  get 
a  merchant's  timber,  gave  us  a  lift.  It  was  Maundy 
Thursday.  I  was  riding  in  the  first  telega  with  a  strong, 
red-faced,  coarse  driver,  who  was  apparently  very  drunk. 
As  we  entered  a  village,  we  saw  that  from  the  last  yard 
they  were  pulling  a  fattened,  shorn,  pink-coloured  pig,  to 
get  it  killed.  The  pig  squealed  in  a  desperate  voice, 
which  resembled  that  of  a  man.  Just  as  we  passed  by, 
they  began  to  kill  the  pig.  One  of  the  men  drew  the 
knife  down  its  throat.  It  squealed  louder  and  more  pene- 
tratingly than  before,  tore  itself  loose,  and  ran  away, 
shedding  its  blood.  I  am  near-sighted  and  so  did  not  see 
all  the  details ;  all  I  saw  was  the  pink-coloured  flesh  of 
the  pig,  which  resembled  that  of  a  man,  and  I  heard  the 
desperate  squeal ;  but  the  driver  saw  all  the  details,  and 
he  looked  in  that  direction  without  taking  his  eyes  off. 
The  pig  was  caught  and  thrown  down,  and  they  began  to 
finish  the  killing.  When  its  squeal  died  down,  the  driver 
drew  a  deep  sigh. 

"  Is  it  possible  men  will  not  have  to  answer  for  this  ? " 
he  muttered. 

So  strong  is  people's  disgust  at  any  kind  of  a  murder ; 
but  by  example,  by  encouraging  men's  greed,  by  the  asser- 
tion that  this  is  permitted  by  God,  and  chiefly  by  habit, 
people  have  been  brought  to  a  complete  loss  of  this 
natural  feeling. 

On  Friday  I  went  to  Tula,  and,  upon  meeting  an  ac- 
quaintance of  mine,  a  meek,  kindly  man,  I  invited  him 
to  go  with  me. 

"  Yes,  I  have  heard  that  it  is  well  arranged,  and  I 
should  like  to  see  it,  but  if  they  slaughter  there,  I  sha'n't 
go  in." 


THE    FIRST    STEP  401 

"  Why  not  ?  It  is  precisely  what  I  want  to  see.  If 
meat  is  to  be  eaten,  cattle  have  to  be  killed." 

"  No,  no,  I  cannot." 

What  is  remarkable  in  this  case  is,  that  this  man  is  a 
hunter  and  himseK  kills  birds  and  animals. 

We  arrived.  Even  before  entering  we  could  smell  the 
oppressive,  detestable,  rotten  odour  of  joiner's  glue  or  of 
glue  paint.  The  farther  we  went,  the  stronger  was  this 
odour.  It  is  a  very  large,  red  brick  building,  with  vaults 
and  high  chimneys.  We  entered  through  the  gate.  On 
the  right  was  a  large  fenced  yard,  about  a  quarter  of  a 
desyatina  in  size,  —  this  is  the  cattle-yard,  to  which  the 
cattle  for  sale  are  driven  two  days  in  the  week,  —  and  at 
the  edge  of  tliis  space  is  the  janitor's  little  house ;  on  the 
left  were  what  they  call  the  chambers,  that  is,"  rooms 
with  round  gates,  concave  asphalt  floors,  and  appliances 
for  hanging  up  and  handling  the  carcasses.  By  the  wall 
of  the  little  house,  and  to  the  right  of  it,  sat  six  butchers 
in  aprons,  which  were  covered  with  blood,  with  blood- 
bespattered  sleeves  rolled  up  over  muscular  arms.  They 
had  finished  their  work  about  half  an  hour  ago,  so  that  on 
that  day  we  could  see  only  the  empty  chambers.  In  spite 
of  the  gates  being  opened  on  two  sides,  there  was  in  each 
chamber  an  oppressive  odour  of  warm  blood ;  the  floor 
was  cinnamon-coloured  and  shining,  and  in  the  depres- 
sions of  the  floor  stood  coagulated  black  gore. 

One  of  the  butchers  told  us  how  they  slaughtered,  and 
showed  us  the  place  where  this  is  done.  I  did  not  quite 
understand  him,  and  formed  a  false,  but  very  terrible  con- 
ception of  how  they  slaughtered,  and  I  thought,  as  is 
often  the  case,  that  the  reality  would  produce  a  lesser  ef- 
fect upon  me  than  what  I  had  imagined.  But  I  was 
mistaken  in  this. 

The  next  time  I  came  to  the  slaughter-house  in  time. 
It  was  on  Friday  before  Pentecost.  It  was  a  hot  June 
day.     The  odour  of  glue  and  of  blood  was  even  more  op- 


402  THE   FIRST   STEP 

pressive  and  more  noticeable  in  the  morning,  than  during 
my  first  visit.  The  work  was  at  white  heat.  The  dusty 
square  was  all  full  of  cattle,  and  the  cattle  were  driven 
into  all  the  stalls  near  the  chambers. 

In  the  street  in  front  of  the  building  stood  carts  with 
steers,  heifers,  and  cows  tied  to  the  cart  stakes  and  shafts. 
Butchers'  carts,  drawn  by  good  horses,  loaded  with  live 
calves  with  dangling  heads,  drove  up  and  unloaded ;  and 
similar  carts  with  upturned  and  shaking  legs  of  the  car- 
casses of  steers,  with  their  heads,  bright  red  lungs  and 
dark  red  livers  drove  away  from  the  slaughter-house. 
Near  the  fence  stood  the  mounts  of  the  cattle-dealers. 
The  cattle-dealers  themselves,  in  their  long  coats,  with 
whips  and  knouts  in  their  hands,  walked  up  and  down  in 
the  yard,  either  marking  one  man's  cattle  with  tar  paint, 
or  haggling,  or  attending  to  the  transfer  of  bulls  and 
steers  from  the  square  to  the  stalls,  from  which  the  cattle 
entered  the  chambers.  These  men  were  obviously  all 
absorbed  in  money  operations  and  calculations,  and  the 
thought  that  it  is  good  or  bad  to  kill  these  animals  was 
as  far  from  them  as  the  thought  as  to  what  was  the  chem- 
ical composition  of  the  blood  with  which  the  floor  of  the 
chambers  was  covered. 

No  butchers  could  be  seen  in  the  yards :  they  were  all 
working  in  the  chambers.  During  this  day  about  one 
hundred  steers  were  killed.  I  entered  a  chamber  and 
stopped  at  the  door.  I  stopped,  both  because  the  cham- 
ber was  crowded  with  the  carcasses  which  were  being 
shifted,  and  because  the  blood  ran  underfoot  and  dripped 
from  above,  and  all  the  butchers  who  were  there  were 
smeared  in  it,  and,  upon  entering  inside,  I  should  cer- 
tainly have  been  smeared  with  blood.  They  were  taking 
down  one  carcass,  which  was  suspended ;  another  was  be- 
ing moved  to  the  door ;  a  third,  a  dead  ox,  was  lying  with 
his  white  legs  turned  up,  and  a  butcher  with  his  strong 
fist  was  ripping  the  stretched-out  hide. 


THE    FIRST    STEP  403 

Through  the  door  opposite  to  the  one  where  I  was 
standing  they  were  at  that  time  taking  in  a  large,  red, 
fattened  ox.  Two  men  were  pulling  him.  And  they 
had  barely  brought  him  in,  when  I  saw  a  butcher  raise 
a  dagger  over  his  head  and  strike  him.  The  ox  dropped 
down  on  his  belly,  as  though  he  had  been  knocked  off  all 
his  four  legs  at  once,  immediately  rolled  over  on  one  side, 
and  began  to  kick  with  his  legs  and  with  his  whole  back. 
One  of  the  butchers  immediately  threw  himseK  on  the 
fore  part  of  the  ox,  from  the  end  opposite  his  kicking 
legs,  took  hold  of  his  horns,  bent  his  head  to  the  ground, 
and  from  beneath  the  head  there  spirted  the  dark  red 
blood,  under  the  current  of  which  a  boy  besmeared  in 
blood  placed  a  tin  basin.  All  the  time  while  they  were 
doing  this,  the  ox  kept  jerking  his  head,  as  though  trying 
to  get  up,  and  kicked  with  all  his  four  legs  in  the  air. 
The  basin  filled  rapidly,  but  the  ox  was  still  alive  and, 
painfully  contracting  and  expanding  his  belly,  kicked 
with  his  fore  legs  and  hind  legs,  so  that  the  butchers  had 
to  get  out  of  his  way.  When  one  basin  was  filled,  the 
boy  carried  it  on  his  head  to  the  alljumen  plant,  while 
another  boy  set  down  another  basin,  which  also  began  to 
fill  up.  But  the  ox  kept  contracting  and  expanding  his 
belly  and  jerked  with  his  hind  legs.  When  the  blood 
stopped  flowing,  the  butcher  raised  the  head  of  the  ox 
and  began  to  flay  hira.  The  ox  continued  kicking.  The 
head  was  bared  and  began  to  look  red  with  white  veins, 
and  assumed  the  position  given  to  it  by  the  butchers ;  on 
both  sides  of  it  hung  the  hide.  The  ox  continued  to  kick. 
Then  another  butcher  caught  the  ox  by  a  leg,  which  he 
broke  and  cut  off.  Convulsions  ran  up  and  down  the 
belly  and  the  other  legs.  The  other  legs,  too,  were  cut 
off,  and  they  were  thrown  where  all  the  legs  belonging  to 
one  owner  were  thrown.  Then  the  carcass  was  pulled  up 
to  a  block  and  tackle  and  was  stretched  out,  and  there 
all  motion  stopped. 


404  THE   FIRST   STEP 

Thus  I  stood  at  the  door  and  looked  at  a  second,  a 
third,  a  fourth  ox.  With  all  of  them  the  same  happened : 
the  same  flayed  head  with  pinched  tongue  and  the  same 
kicking  back.  The  only  difference  was  that  the  butcher 
did  not  always  strike  in  the  right  place  to  make  the  ox 
fall.  It  happened  that  the  butcher  made  a  mistake,  and 
the  ox  jumped  up,  bellowed,  and,  shedding  blood,  tried  to 
get  away.  But  then  he  was  pulled  under  a  beam  and 
struck  a  second  time,  after  which  he  fell. 

I  later  walked  up  from  the  side  of  the  door,  through 
which  they  brought  in  the  oxen.  Here  I  saw  the  same, 
only  at  closer  range,  and,  therefore,  more  clearly.  I  saw 
here,  above  all  else,  what  I  had  not  seen  through  the 
other  door,  —  how  they  compelled  the  oxen  to  walk 
through  this  door.  Every  time  when  they  took  an  ox 
out  of  the  stall  and  pulled  him  by  a  rope,  which  was 
attached  to  his  horns,  the  ox,  scenting  the  blood,  became 
stubborn  and  bellowed,  and  sometimes  jerked  back.  It 
was  impossible  for  two  men  to  pull  him  in  by  force,  and 
so  a  butcher  every  time  went  behind  and  took  the  ox  by 
the  tail,  which  he  twisted  until  the  gristle  cracked  and 
the  tail  broke,  and  the  ox  moved  on. 

The  oxen  of  one  owner  were  all  finished,  and  they 
brought  up  the  cattle  of  another.  The  first  from  this  lot 
of  the  other  owner  was  a  bull.  He  was  a  fine-looking, 
thoroughbred  black  bull,  with  white  spots  on  his  body 
and  white  legs,  —  a  young,  muscular,  energetic  animal. 
They  began  to  pull  him ;  he  dropped  his  head  and  abso- 
lutely refused  to  move.  But  the  butcher  who  was  walk- 
ing behind  took  hold  of  his  tail,  as  a  machinist  puts  his 
hand  on  the  throttle,  and  twisted  it ;  the  cartilage  cracked, 
and  the  bull  rushed  ahead,  knocking  the  men  who  were 
pulling  at  the  rope  off  their  feet,  and  again  stood  stub- 
bornly still,  looking  askance  with  his  white,  bloodshot 
eyes.  But  again  the  tail  cracked,  and  the  bull  rushed 
forward  and  was  where   he  was  wanted.     The   butcher 


THE    FIRST    STEP  405 

walked  up,  took  his  aim,  and  struck  him.  But  the  stroke 
did  not  fall  in  the  right  place.  The  bull  jumped  up, 
tossed  his  head,  bellowed,  and,  all  covered  with  blood,  tore 
himself  loose  and  rushed  back.  All  the  people  at  the 
doors  started  back ;  but  the  accustomed  butchers,  with 
a  daring  which  was  the  result  of  the  peril,  briskly  took 
hold  of  the  rope  and  again  of  the  tail,  and  again  the  bull 
found  himself  in  the  chamber,  where  his  head  was  pulled 
under  the  beam,  from  which  he  no  longer  tore  himself 
away.  The  butcher  briskly  looked  for  the  spot  where 
the  hair  scatters  in  the  form  of  a  star,  and,  having  found 
it,  in  spite  of  the  blood,  struck  him,  and  the  beautiful 
animal,  which  was  full  of  life,  came  down  with  a  crash 
and  kicked  with  its  head  and  legs,  while  they  let  off  the 
blood  and  flayed  the  head. 

"  Accursed  devil,  he  did  not  even  fall  the  right  way,'* 
growled  the  butcher  as  he  cut  the  hide  from  his  head. 

Five  minutes  later  the  red,  instead  of  black,  head,  with- 
out the  hide,  with  glassy,  fixed  eyes,  which  but  five  minutes 
before  had  glistened  with  such  a  beautiful  colour,  was  sus- 
pended on  the  beam. 

Then  I  entered  the  division  where  they  butcher  the 
smaller  animals.  It  is  a  very  large  and  long  chamber, 
with  an  asphalt  floor  and  with  tables  with  backs,  on 
which  they  butcher  sheep  and  calves.  Here  the  work 
was  all  finished;  in  the  long  chamber,  which  was  satu- 
rated with  the  odour  of  blood,  there  were  only  two 
butchers.  One  was  blowing  into  the  leg  of  a  dead 
wether  and  patting  the  blown-up  belly ;  the  other,  a 
young  lad,  with  a  blood-bespattered  apron,  was  smoking 
a  bent  cigarette.  There  was  no  one  else  in  the  gloomy, 
long  chamber,  which  was  saturated  with  the  oppressive 
odour.  Immediately  after  me  there  came  in  one  who 
looked  like  an  ex-soldier,  who  brought  a  black  yearling 
lamb,  with  spots  on  his  neck,  which  he  put  down  on  one 
of  the  tables,  as  though  on  a  bed.     The  soldier,  apparently 


406  THE    FIRST    STEP 

an  acquaintance  of  theirs,  greeted  them  and  asked  them 
when  their  master  gave  them  days  off.  The  young  lad 
with  the  cigarette  walked  up  with  a  knife,  which  he 
sharpened  at  the  edge  of  the  table,  and  answered  that 
they  had  their  holidays  free.  The  live  plump  lamb  was 
lying  quietly  as  though  dead,  only  briskly  wagging  his 
short  tail  and  breathing  more  frequently  than  usual. 
The  soldier  lightly,  without  effort,  held  down  his  head, 
which  was  rising  up ;  the  young  lad,  continuing  the  con- 
versation, took  the  lamb's  head  with  his  left  hand  and 
quickly  drew  the  knife  down  his  throat.  The  lamb 
shivered,  and  the  little  tail  became  arched  and  stopped 
wagging.  While  waiting  for  the  blood  to  run  off,  the 
young  lad  puffed  at  the  cigarette,  which  had  nearly  gone 
out.  The  blood  began  to  flow,  and  the  lamb  began  to  be 
convulsed.  The  conversation  was  continued  without  the 
least  interruption. 

And  those  hens  and  chickens,  which  every  day  in  a 
thousand  kitchens,  with  heads  cut  off,  shedding  blood, 
jump  about  comically  and  terribly,  flapping  their  wings  ? 

And  behold,  a  tender,  refined  lady  will  devour  the 
corpses  of  these  animals  with  the  full  conviction  of  her 
righteousness,  asserting  two  propositions,  which  mutually 
exclude  one  another : 

The  first,  that  she  is  so  delicate  —  and  of  this  she  is 
assured  by  her  doctor  —  that  she  is  unable  to  live  on 
vegetable  food  alone,  but  that  her  weak  organism  de- 
mands animal  food ;  and  the  second,  that  she  is  so  sensi- 
tive that  she  not  only  cannot  cause  any  sufferings  to  any 
animal,  but  cannot  even  bear  the  sight  of  them. 

And  yet,  this  poor  lady  is  weak  for  the  very  reason,  and 
for  no  other,  that  she  has  been  taught  to  subsist  on  food 
which  is  improper  for  man ;  and  she  cannot  help  but 
cause  the  animals  suffering,  because  she  devours  them. 


X. 

We  cannot  pretend  that  we  do  not  know  this.  We  are 
not  ostriches,  and  we  cannot  believe  that,  if  we  do  not  look, 
there  will  not  be  what  we  do  not  wish  to  see.  This  is 
the  more  impossible,  when  we  do  not  wish  to  see  what 
we  wish  to  eat.  And,  above  all  else,  if  it  were  only  indis- 
pensable !  But  let  us  assume  that  it  is  not  indispensable, 
but  necessary  for  some  purpose.  It  is  not.^  It  is  good 
only  for  bringing  out  animal  sensations,  breeding  lust, 
fornication,  drunkenness.  This  is  constantly  confirmed 
by  the  fact  that  good,  uncorrupted  young  men,  especially 
women  and  girls,  leel,  without  knowing  how  one  thing 
follows  from  the  other,  that  virtue  is  not  compatible  with 
beefsteak,  and  as  soon  as  they  wish  to  be  good,  they  give 
up  animal  food. 

What,  then,  do  I  wish  to  say  ?  Is  it  this,  that  men,  to 
be  moral,  must  stop  eating  meat  ?     Not  at  all. 

What  I  wanted  to  say  is,  that  for  a  good  life  a  certain 
order  of  good  acts  is  indispensable ;  that  if  the  striving 
after  the  good  life  is  serious  in  a  man,  it  will  inevitably 
assume  one  certain  order,  and  that  in  this  order  the  first 
virtue  for  a  man  to  work  on  is  abstinence,  self-possession. 
And  in  striving  after  abstinence,  a  man  will  inevitably 

1  Let  those  who  doubt  it  read  those  numerous  books,  composed  by 
scholars  and  physicians,  in  which  it  is  proved  that  meat  is  not  neces- 
sary for  man's  alimentation.  And  let  them  not  listen  to  those  old- 
fasiiioned  doctors,  who  defend  the  necessity  of  subsisting  on  meat, 
ouly  because  their  predecessors  and  they  themselves  have  recognized 
it  as  necessary  for  a  long  time,  —  they  defend  it  with  stubbornness, 
with  malice,  as  everything  old  and  obsolete  is  always  defended. — 
Author's  Note. 

407 


408  THE    FIRST   STEP 

follow  one  certain  order,  and  in  this  order  the  first  subject 
will  be  abstinence  in  food,  fasting.  But  in  fasting,  if  he 
seriously  and  sincerely  seeks  a  good  life,  the  first  from 
which  a  man  will  abstain  will  always  be  the  use  of 
animal  food,  because,  to  say  nothing  of  the  excitation 
of  the  passions,  which  this  food  produces,  its  use  is 
directly  immoral,  since  it  demands  an  act  which  is  con- 
trary to  our  moral  sense,  —  murder,  —  and  is  provoked 
only  by  the  desire  and  craving  for  good  eating. 

Why  abstinence  from  animal  food  will  be  the  first 
work  of  fasting  and  a  moral  life  has  excellently  been 
said,  not  by  one  man,  but  by  the  whole  of  humanity,  in 
the  persons  of  its  best  representatives  in  the  course  of  the 
whole  conscious  life  of  humanity. 

"  But  why,  if  the  illegality,  that  is,  the  immorality,  of 
animal  food  has  for  so  long  a  time  been  known  to  hu- 
manity, have  men  not  yet  come  to  recognize  this  law  ? " 
is  what  those  men  will  ask  who  are  generally  guided,  not 
so  much  by  their  reason,  as  by  public  opinion.  The  an- 
swer to  this  question  is  this,  that  the  moral  progress  of 
humanity,  which  forms  the  basis  of  every  progress,  always 
takes  place  slowly ;  but  that  the  symptom  of  the  true, 
not  the  accidental,  progress  is  its  unceasingness  and  con- 
stant acceleration. 

And  such  is  the  motion  of  vegetarianism.  This  motion 
is  expressed  iu  all  the  thoughts  of  the  writers  on  this 
subject,  and  in  the  life  of  humanity  itself,  which  more 
and  more  passes  unconsciously  from  meat  eating  to  vege- 
table food,  and  consciously  in  the  motion  of  vegetarian- 
ism, which  has  been  manifesting  itself  with  especial  force 
and  is  assuming  ever  greater  dimensions.  This  motion 
has  for  the  last  ten  years  been  growing  faster  and  faster ; 
there  appear  every  year  more  and  more  books  and  periodi- 
cals which  deal  with  this  subject ;  we  constantly  meet 
more  and  more  men  who  reject  animal  food ;  and  the 
number  of  vegetarian  restaurants  and  hotels  is  growing 


THE    FIRST    STEP 


409 


every  year  abroad,  especially  in  Germany,  England,  and 
America. 

This  motion  must  be  particularly  pleasing  to  those 
who  live  striving  after  the  realization  of  the  kingdom  of 
God  upon  earth,  not  because  vegetarianism  in  itself  is  an 
important  step  toward  this  kingdom  (all  true  steps  are 
both  important  and  not  important),  but  because  it  serves 
as  a  sign  of  this,  that  the  striving  after  man's  moral  per- 
fection is  serious  and  sincere,  since  it  has  assumed  the 
proper  invariable  order,  which  begins  with  the  first  step. 

We  cannot  help  but  rejoice  in  this,  just  as  people  could 
not  help  but  rejoice  who,  striving  to  get  to  the  top  of  a 
house,  had  been  vainly  and  in  disorder  trying  to  climb 
the  walls  from  various  sides,  and  now  at  last  assemble 
near  the  first  rung  of  the  ladder,  knowing  that  there  is  no 
way  of  getting  to  the  top  but  by  beginning  at  this  first 
rung  of  the  ladder. 


THE    TEACHING    OF    THE 
TWELVE    APOSTLES 

1885 


1 


THE    TEACHING    OF    THE 
TWELVE    APOSTLES 


The  Teaching  of  the  Twelve  Apostles  is  an  ancient 
manuscript,  which  was  lately  found  in  an  old  volume  of 
collections.  This  manuscript  was  known  to  the  ancient 
fathers  of  the  church,  Athanasius,  Eusebius,  and  others, 
who  knew  it  and  mentioned  it  in  their  writings,  but  the 
manuscript  itself  was  lost. 

In  1883  the  Greek  Metropolitan  Brienios,  who  was 
living  in  Constantinople,  discovered  this  teaching  in  an 
ancient  manuscript  and  printed  it. 

This  teaching  is  the  most  ancient  exposition  of  the 
sermons  of  Jesus  Christ.  It  was  written  at  a  time  when 
the  men  who  liad  heard  Jesus  Christ  were  still  alive. 

This  teaching  is  divided  into  two  parts,  —  one,  an- 
cient, from  Chapter  T.  to  VI.,  and  the  second,  which  was 
added  later,  from  Chapter  VI.  to  the  last  chapter.  The 
last  chapters  have  reference  to  the  arrangement  of  the 
life  of  Christ's  disciples ;  but  in  the  first  five  chapters 
we  have  a  record  of  Christ's  teaching  to  men,  the  same 
which  is  recorded  in  Chapters  V.,  VI.,  and  VII.  of  the 
Gospel  of  Matthew,  and  which  Christ  had  announced  on 
the  mount  to  all  simple  people,  that  they  might  find  out 
this  teaching  and  become  spved.  This  teaching  is  the 
same  good  announcement  which  Christ  enjoined  His  dis- 
ciples to  preach  to  the  Gentiles,  the  same  of  which  He 

413 


414       TEACHING    OF    THE    TWELVE    APOSTLES 

said  to  His  disciples  (Mark  xvi.  15),  Go  ye  into  all  the 
world,  and  preach  the  Gospel  to  every  creature. 

POSTSCRIPT 

In  this  ancient  teaching  everything  is  said  which  every 
man  needs  for  the  recognition  of  Christ's  truth  and  the 
salvation  of  his  soul. 

This  teachiag  is  not  long  and  not  intricate,  and  any 
man  may  read  it,  and  any  man  may  understand  it,  and 
any  man  may  fulfil  it.  Christ  said  (Luke  x.  2 1),  I  thank 
thee,  O  Father,  Lord  of  heaven  and  earth,  that  thou  hast 
hid  these  things  from  the  wise  and  prudent,  and  hast 
revealed  them  unto  babes.  It  says  also  (Matt.  xi.  28-30), 
Come  unto  me,  all  ye  that  labour  and  are  heavy  laden, 
and  I  will  give  you  rest.  Take  my  yoke  upon  you,  and 
learn  of  me ;  for  I  am  meek  and  lowly  in  heart ;  and  ye 
shall  find  rest  unto  your  souls.  For  my  yoke  is  easy, 
and  my  burden  is  light. 

And  again  it  says  (John  vii.  37),  If  any  man  thirst,  let 
him  come  unto  me,  and  drink. 

And  here  it  is,  the  teaching  which  was  revealed  to 
babes,  that  easy  yoke  and  light  burden,  to  which  He  calls 
us,  that  spring  of  living  water,  to  which  any  man  may 
come.  It  is  the  same  teaching  which  was  preached  by 
Christ  on  the  mount,  and  was  recorded  in  Chapters  V., 
VI.,  and  VII.  of  Matthew,  and  which  is  called  the  sermon 
on  the  mount.  Everything  which  is  needed  for  the  sal- 
vation of  one's  soul  is  contained  in  this  teaching,  and 
millions  and  millions  of  Christians  have  been  saved  by  it 
and  the  world  is  saved  by  it. 

Christ  said,  I  am  the  way  and  the  truth  and  the  life, 
and  again  He  said  (Matt.  vii.  13-r4),  Enter  ye  at  the 
strait  gate:  for  wide  is  the  gate,  and  broad  is  the  way, 
that  leadeth  to  destruction,  and  many  there  be  which  go 
in  thereat :  Because  strait  is  the  gate,  and  narrow  is  the 


TEACHING    OF    THE   TWELVE    APOSTLES        415 

way,  which  leadeth  unto  life,  and  few  there  be  that 
find  it. 

And  the  teaching  begins  with  Christ's  showing,  among 
the  many,  the  broad,  ways  which  lead  to  destruction,  the 
one  narrow  way  of  truth,  which  leads  to  life. 

The  narrow  way  of  truth,  which  leads  to  Hfe,  consists 
in  loving  God  and  our  neighbour. 

The  broad  way,  —  the  way  of  the  lie,  which  leads  to 
death,  this  is  all  the  ways  on  whicli  men  walk  without 
love  of  God  and  of  their  neighbours. 

The  way  of  life  is  in  the  other  commandments :  in  love 
of  God  and  of  our  neighbours. 

In  the  first  chapter,  reference  is  made  to  the  first  com- 
mandment about  the  love  of  God.  The  love  of  God  con- 
sists in  the  love  of  all  men,  even  as  it  says  in  another 
place  that  God  is  love.  It  consists  in  loving  not  only  our 
neighbours,  but  also  those  whom  we  do  not  know,  in  loving 
those  who  love  and  those  who  hate  us ;  and  so  we  are  not 
only  not  to  take  anything  from  people,  except  what  we  are 
in  need  of,  but  we  should  give  everything  we  have  and 
our  labour  to  other  men,  without  knowing  even  for  whom 
we  are  working.  This  is  the  teaching  of  the  first  com- 
mandment, —  of  the  love  of  God. 

In  the  second  chapter  it  speaks  of  the  second  command- 
ment about  the  love  of  our  neighl)our,  of  which  it  says  in 
another  place  that  it  resembles  the  first.  The  love  of  our 
neighbour  consists  in  not  doing  to  our  neighbour  what  we 
do  not  wish  to  have  done  to  us.  We  should  not  kiU  or 
dishonour  children  and  women,  steal,  curse,  lie,  take  away 
from  others  or  retain  any  property,  and  so  we  should  ad- 
monish the  erring,  pray  for  the  feeble,  and  love  the  good 
better  than  our  soul.  This  is  the  teaching  of  the  second 
commandment  about  the  love  of  our  neighbour. 

In  the  third  chapter  it  speaks  of  the  offences.  The 
offences  consist  in  those  affairs  which  lead  to  sins  against 
the  love  of    God  and  of  our  neighbour.    There  are  five 


416        TEACHING    OF    THE    TWELVE    APOSTLES 

sins  that  are  enumerated,  —  murder,  debauchery,  idolatry, 
stealing,  cursing  ;  and  those  offences  are  pointed  out  that 
lead  to  these  sins :  anger,  quarrels,  disputes,  lead  to 
murder;  the  seeking  of  enjoyments,  impure  speeches,  the 
contemplation  of  other  people's  sins,  lead  to  debauchery  ; 
divination,  the  calling  out  of  spirits,  idle  philosophizing, 
lead  to  idolatry ;  lying,  env}',  greed,  vanity,  lead  to  steal- 
ing ;  self-confidence,  dissatisfaction,  and  pride  lead  to 
cursing.     This  is  the  teaching  of  the  offences. 

In  the  fourth  chapter  it  speaks  of  how  a  man  may 
strengthen  himself  on  the  path  of  life.  Five  means  are 
enumerated :  attention  to  the  word  of  God,  communion 
with  saints,  peaceful  intercourse  with  men,  renunciation 
of  property,  and  the  recognition  over  oneself  and  over 
others  of  no  other  power  than  the  one  which  is  given 
by  the  spirit  of  truth.  This  is  the  teaching  about  the 
strengthening  of  the  forces  on  the  path  of  life. 

In  the  fifth  chapter  it  speaks  of  that  world  of  men  who 
live  outside  the  commandments  of  God  and  walk  on  the 
path  of  death.  These  men  suffer,  torment  others,  and  all 
walk  toward  death.  This  is  the  teaching  about  what 
awaits  man  on  the  path  of  death. 

The  remaining  eleven  chapters  speak  of  the  details  of  the 
arrangement  of  the  Christian  community.  But  even  in  these 
first  five  chapters  there  is  expounded  the  whole  teaching 
which  is  necessary  for  the  salvation  of  every  man.  The 
teaching  of  these  five  chapters  is  simple  and  comprehen- 
sible. 

Christ  shows  us  the  path  of  salvation  and  the  path  of 
destruction ;  He  shows  us,  besides,  what  we  ought  not  to 
do,  and  what  we  ought,  in  order  that  it  may  be  easy  for 
us  to  walk  on  the  path  of  salvation.  By  giving  us  the 
direction  of  the  path,  Christ  points  out  to  us  those  decep- 
tions which  may  make  us  stray  from  it,  and,  besides, 
teaches  us  what  may  support  us.  He  treats  us  as  a  good 
father  would  treat  his  son,  when  sending  him  out  on  the 


TEACHING    OF    THE    TWELVE    APOSTLES        417 

road.  First  of  all  the  father  would  say  to  his  son :  "  You 
must  travel  straight  ou  the  road,  which  leads  you  where 
it  will  be  well  for  you,  and  if  you  shall  not  travel  straight 
on  the  road,  you  will  perish.  And  so,  that  you  may  not 
lose  it,  travel  in  the  daytime  with  the  sun,  and  in  the 
night  with  the  star  which  I  will  point  out  to  you."  But 
the  father  would  not  be  satisfied  with  this ;  he  loves  his 
son,  and  is  afraid  that  he  may  lose  his  way,  and  so  he 
would  say  to  him,  "  As  you  walk,  you  will  come  to  a  turn 
on  the  right :  do  not  turn  into  it ;  then  you  will  come  to 
a  cross-road  :  take  the  middle  road  ;  then  you  will  come  to 
a  turn  on  the  left :  do  not  walk  on  it ;  then  you  will  come 
to  a  forked  road :  take  the  left  one."  Thus  the  father 
would  tell  his  son  the  road  in  advance.  But  more  than 
this  :  the  father  would  give  his  son  a  staff  and  a  wallet,  so 
that  he  might  have  something  to  lean  on  and  something  to 
eat,  and  only  then  would  he  send  him  off. 

It  is  precisely  what  Christ  has  done  with  us.  First  of 
all  He  showed  us  the  road  which  will  bring  us  to  our  goal, 
—  and  showed  us  as  the  sun,  the  love  of  God,  and  as  thd- 
star,  the  love  of  our  neighbour,  and  commanded  us  to  go 
by  them  ;  then  He  showed  us  in  detail  all  the  turns  which 
might  make  us  stray.  He  said,  "  Anger,  quarrels,  will 
come,  —  stop  and  bethink  yourself,  —  this  is  one  of  the 
turns  which  may  lead  you  away  from  the  path  of  life  ;  do 
not  walk  on  it,  but  walk  straight  on. 

"There  will  come  lust, —  this  is  another  turn  ;  again 
bethink  yourself,  and  do  not  travel  on  the  false  path. 
There  will  come  ambition,  selfishness,  —  know  that  these, 
too,  are  false  paths." 

But  more  than  this :  Christ,  besides  these  indications, 
gives  us  also  something  to  strengthen  us  on  our  path, — 
He  gives  us  bread  and  the  staff  for  our  journey.  He 
teaches  us  what  can  sustain  us  on  our  path,  gives  us  food 
and  support  in  the  divine  word,  in  the  communion  with 
saints,  in  the  establishment  of  peace  among  men,  in  the 


418       TEACHING    OF    THE    TWELVE    APOSTLES 

renunciation  of  property,  in  the  liberation  from  every  dom- 
ination but  that  of  truth. 

Christ  knew  our  weakness  and  did  everything  that  we 
might  be  able  with  our  weakness  to  walk  on  His  path. 
This  teaching  is  such  that,  if  we  understand  it,  we  cannot 
excuse  ourselves  because  of  our  weakness.  If  we  believe 
that  all  paths  outside  of  Christ's  lead  to  death,  we  can  no 
longer  say  that  we  should  like  to  walk  on  the  path  of  life, 
but  are  unable  to  do  so ;  nor  can  we  excuse  ourselves 
on  the  ground  of  ignorance  of  the  road ;  everything  which 
we  need  in  order  not  to  stray  from  the  road  and  that  we 
may  walk  upon  it  has  been  given  to  us.  And  if  we  say 
that  we  are  too  weak  and  cannot  follow  Christ,  Christ 
will  answer  us,  "  It  is  for  your  weakness'  sake  that  I 
have  pointed  out  to  you  m  advance  all  those  turns  which 
may  lead  you  astray  or  may  teach  you  how  to  act ;  for 
the  sake  of  your  weakness  have  I  given  you  on  the  road 
everything  which  may  strengthen  you.  Why  do  you  not 
stop  where  I  told  you  to  stop  and  think  of  my  words  ? 
Why  do  you  not  take  with  you  on  the  road  everything 
that  I  have  told  you  will  fortify  you  ? " 

What  will  the  father  say  to  his  son,  whom  he  has  sent 
out  on  the  road,  after  supplying  him  with  instructions 
and  with  food,  when  he  finds  his  son  gone  astray  in 
another  direction  ?  He  will  no  doubt  be  sorry  for  him 
and  will  again  lead  him  out  on  the  road,  and  will  again 
furnish  him  with  instructions  as  to  how  to  walk ;  and 
again  the  same  instructions,  because  there  are  no  others ; 
but  he  will  not  listen  to  the  excuses  of  the  son  that  he 
has  gone  astray  because  it  was  hard  for  him  to  remember 
all  the  instructions  given  him  for  the  road,  because  a  man 
whose  only  business  it  is  to  walk  cannot  find  it  hard  to 
remember  whither  he  is  going.  But  if  he  says  that  he  has 
forgotten,  he  is  a  hypocrite  or  a  madman.  And  we  are 
hypocrites  or  madmen  when  we  say  that  we  believe 
in  Christ  and  do  not  walk  on   His  path. 


TEACHING    OF    THE    TWELVE    APOSTLES       419 

Christ  has  showu  us  the  path  of  the  liheration  from 
death  and  is  waiting  for  us  on  this  path.  And  if  we 
believe  Him,  we  shall  walk  on  it.  And  if  we  walk  on  it, 
we  shall  find  out,  as  He  has  told  us,  that  the  yoke  is  good 
and  the  burden  light,  and  we  shall  come  out  on  the  path 
of  life  and  shall  come  to  Him. 


MASTER    AND    WORKMAN 

1895 


1 


MASTER    AND    WORKMAN 


I. 

This  happened  in  the  seventies,  on  the  seventh  of 
December.  There  was  a  holiday  in  the  parish,  and  the 
village  innkeeper,  the  merchant  of  the  second  guild,  Vasili 
Andr^ich  Brekhunov,  could  not  get  off, —  he  had  to  be 
in  the  church,  for  he  was  a  church  elder,  and  at  home 
he  had  to  receive  and  entertain  his  relatives  and  friends. 
And  now  the  last  guests  had  departed,  and  Vasili  Andr^- 
ich  was  getting  ready  immediately  to  go  to  a  neighbour- 
ing landed  proprietor,  in  order  to  buy  from  him  a  grove 
for  which  he  had  been  haggling  for  quite  a  while. 

Vasili  Andr^ich  was  in  a  hurry  to  go  there,  so  that 
the  merchants  from  the  city  might  not  cut  him  out  of 
this  advantageous  bargain.  The  young  proprietor  asked 
ten  thousand  for  the  grove,  for  no  other  reason  than  that 
Vasili  Anch-^ich  offered  seven  for  it.  In  reality,  seven 
thousand  formed  only  one-third  of  the  real  value  of  the 
grove.  Vasili  Andreich  would  probably  have  got  it  down 
to  his  own  price,  since  the  woods  were  in  his  district  and 
between  him  and  the  \  illage  buyers  of  the  county  there 
had  long  been  an  agreement  that  one  merchant  would  not 
raise  another  merchant's  price ;  but  Vasili  Andr«5ich  had 
learned  that  some  luml)er  dealers  from  the  capital  of 
the  Government  intended  to  come  down  to  bid  for  the 
Goryachkino  grove,  and  so  he  decided  to  go  at  once  and 

423 


424  MASTER    AND    WORKMAN" 

settle  the  business  with  the  proprietor.  And  so,  the 
moment  the  hohday  was  over,  he  took  out  of  his  trunk 
his  own  seven  hundred  roubles,  added  to  it  2,300  roubles 
belonging  to  the  church,  so  as  to  get  together  the  sum  of 
three  thousand  roubles,  and,  after  having  cautiously 
counted  the  money  over  and  put  it  away  in  his  pocket- 
book,  got  ready  to  go. 

Workman  Mkita,  the  only  one  of  Vasili  Andr^ich's 
workmen  who  was  not  drunk  this  day,  ran  to  hitch  up. 
Nikita  was  not  drunk  on  that  day,  because  he  was  a 
druukard,  and  now,  since  Shrovetide,  during  which  he 
had  spent  in  drink  his  sleeveless  coat  and  leather  boots, 
he  had  made  a  vow  not  to  drink,  and  had  not  drunk 
for  two  months ;  he  had  not  drunk  even  at  that  time 
in  spite  of  the  temptation  of  the  hquor  which  had  been 
consumed  during  the  first  two  days  of  the  holiday. 

Nikita  was  a  fifty-year-old  peasant,  from  a  neighbouring 
village,  not  a  master,  as  they  said  of  him,  but  one  who 
had  passed  the  greater  part  of  bis  life,  not  at  home,  but 
working  out.  He  was  everywhere  highly  regarded  for 
his  industry,  agility,  and  strength  in  his  work,  but  mainly 
for  his  good  and  agreeable  character;  but  he  did  not 
settle  anywhere,  because  twice  a  year,  and  sometimes 
oftener,  he  went  on  a  spree,  when  he  not  only  spent 
everything  he  had  on  drink,  but  also  became  riotous  and 
quarrelsome.  Vasili  Andr^ich,  too,  had  several  times 
sent  him  away,  but  had  later  taken  him  back,  as  he 
appreciated  his  honesty,  his  love  of  animals,  and  es- 
pecially his  cheapness.  Vasili  Andrdich  did  not  pay 
Nikita  eighty  roubles,  which  such  a  workman  was  worth, 
but  only  forty  roubles,  which  he  paid  him  out  without 
any  order,  in  driblets,  and  then  for  the  most  part  not  in 
money,  but  in  high-priced  articles  from  the  shop. 

Nikita's  wife,  Marfa,  who  had  once  been  a  handsome, 
sturdy  woman,  was  now  keeping  house  with  her  half- 
grown  boy  and  two  girls,  and  did  not  invite  Nikita  to 


MASTER   AND    WORKMAN  425 

come  and  stay  with  her,  in  the  first  place,  because  she  had 
for  something  like  twenty  years  been  living  with  a  cooper, 
a  peasant  from  a  neighbouring  village,  who  was  Hving  in 
her  house ;  and  in  the  second,  because,  although  she 
could  manage  her  husband  when  he  was  sober,  she  was 
as  afraid  of  him  as  of  fire  when  he  was  drunk.  One 
time  Nikita  got  himself  drunk  at  home,  probably  in  order 
to  have  revenge  on  his  wife  for  his  sober  meekness,  and 
broke  open  her  trunk,  got  out  her  most  expensive  gar- 
ments, and,  taking  an  axe,  chopped  on  a  block  all  her 
jackets  and  dresses  into  bits.  AH  the  wages  which  Ni- 
kita earned  were  given  up  to  his  wife,  and  Nikita  did  not 
have  any  objection  to  this.  Even  so  now,  two  days  be- 
fore the  holiday,  Marfa  came  to  A^'asili  Andr^ich  and  got 
from  him  white  flour,  tea,  and  an  eighth  of  a  measure  of 
liquor,  —  all  for  the  value  of  about  three  roubles,  —  and 
took,  besides,  five  roubles  in  money,  for  which  she  thanked 
him  as  for  a  special  favour,  whereas  at  the  cheapest  price 
Vasili  Andrdich  owed  Nikita  twenty  roubles. 

"  Have  we  made  any  agreement  ?  "  Vasili  Andrc^ich  used 
to  say  to  Nikita.  "If  you  need  anything,  take  it, — 
you  will  work  it  off.  I  do  not  do  like  other  people  : 
'  Wait,'  and  accounts,  and  fines.  We  do  things  honestly. 
You  serve  me,  and  I  do  not  leave  you  in  a  lurch." 

Saying  this,  Vasili  Andr^ich  was  sincerely  convinced 
that  he  was  doing  Nikita  a  great  favour ;  he  spoke  con- 
vincingly, and  all  people  who  were  dependent  on  his 
money,  beginning  with  Nikita,  supported  him  in  this  con- 
viction that  he  was  not  cheating,  l)ut  conferring  benefac- 
tions upon  them. 

"  Yes,  I  understand,  Vasili  Andr^ich.  It  seems  to  me, 
I  am  serving  you  as  though  you  were  my  own  father.  I 
understand  very  well,"  Nikita  would  answer,  though  he 
understood  very  well  that  Vasili  Andrc^ich  was  cheating 
him,  and  yet  he  felt  tliat  tliere  was  no  use  in  trying  to 
clear  up  his  accounts  with  him,  but  that  it  was  necessary 


426  MASTER   AND    WORKMAN 

to  stay  there,  so  long  as  he  had  no  other  place,  and  take 
what  they  gave  him. 

Now,  when  he  received  his  master's  command  to  hitch 
up,  Nikita,  as  always,  merrily  and  cheerfully,  with  a 
brisk  and  light  step  of  his  waddling  feet  went  to  the  shed, 
took  the  tasselled  leather  bridle  down  from  a  peg  and, 
letting  the  bit  rings  clatter,  went  to  the  locked  stable, 
where  stood  by  himself  the  horse  which  Vasili  Audr^ich 
had  ordered  to  have  harnessed. 

"  Well,  do  you  feel  lonely,  you  httle  silly  ? "  said 
Nikita,  answering  the  weak  whinnying  of  greeting  with 
which  he  was  met  by  the  middle-sized,  fine-looking  stal- 
lion, with  somewhat  sloping  back  and  yellow  muzzle, 
which  was  standing  all  alone  in  the  stable.  "  Come  now, 
come  now  !  You  will  have  time  enough  for  it,  —  let  me 
give  you  first  some  water, "  he  said  to  the  horse,  as  though 
he  were  speaking  to  a  being  that  could  understand  his 
words,  and,  wiping  with  the  skirt  of  his  coat  the  fat, 
grooved,  worn  off,  dust-covered  back,  he  put  the  bridle  on 
the  beautiful  young  head  of  the  stallion,  straightened  out 
his  ears  and  forelock,  and,  throwing  down  the  halter, 
took  the  horse  to  water. 

Making  his  way  carefully  out  of  the  manure-littered 
stable,  Yellow-muzzle  frisked  and  kicked,  pretending  that 
he  meant  with  his  hind  leg  to  kick  Nikita,  who  was  racing 
down  with  him  to  the  well. 

"  Have  your  fun,  have  your  fun,  rogue  !  "  Nikita  kept 
saying.  He  knew  with  what  care  Yellow-muzzle  kicked 
up  his  hind  foot,  only  hard  enough  to  touch  his  soiled 
short  fur  coat,  but  not  to  strike  him,  and  he  was  fond  of 
this  trick. 

When  the  horse  had  had  his  fill  of  cold  water,  he  drew 
a  deep  sigh,  mumbling  with  his  wet,  strong  lips,  from 
which  transparent  drops  fell  down  from  his  whiskers,  and 
he  stood  still,  as  though  lost  in  thought ;  then  he  suddenly 
snorted  out  loud. 


MASTEK   AND    WORKMAN  427 

"  If  you  do  not  want  to,  you  don't  have  to,  and  I'll 
know  better;  don't  ask  me  again,"  said  Nikita,  quite 
seriously  aud  circumstantially  explaining  his  conduct  to 
Yellow-muzzle.  He  again  ran  up  to  the  shed,  pulling  by 
the  rein,  the  merry  young  horse  who  kept  kicking  and 
whinnying  loud. 

There  were  no  workman  present ;  there  was  there  but 
one  stranger,  the  cook's  husband,  who  had  come  for  the 
holidays. 

"  Go,  dear  man,  and  ask  him,"  Nikita  said  to  him, 
"  what  sleigh  he  wants  me  to  hitch  up,  the  broad  one,  or 
the  little  sleigh." 

The  cook's  husband  entered  the  tin-roof  covered  house, 
which  stood  on  a  high  foundation,  and  soon  returned  with 
the  information  that  he  was  to  hitch  up  the  little  sleigh. 
By  that  time  Nikita  had  already  put  on  the  collar,  and 
strapped  the  belly-band  with  the  brass  nails,  and,  carry- 
ing the  painted  arch  in  one  hand  and  leading  the  horse 
with  the  other,  was  walking  up  to  two  sleighs  which  were 
standing  under  the  shed. 

"  Let  it  be  the  little  one,  I  do  not  care,"  he  said.  He 
led  the  horse,  which  kept  pretending  that  he  wanted  to 
bite  him,  in  between  the  shafts,  and  with  the  aid  of  the 
cook's  husband  began  to  hitch  the  horse  to  the  sleigh. 

When  everythuig  was  almost  done,  and  he  had  only  to 
fix  the  reins,  he  sent  the  cook's  husband  to  the  shed  for 
straw  and  to  the  barn  for  the  matting. 

"  Now  it  is  all  done.  Come  now,  don't  be  so  restless  ! " 
said  Nikita,  as  he  pressed  into  the  sleigh  the  freshly 
threshed  oat-straw  which  the  cook's  husband  had  brought. 
"  Now  let  me  put  down  the  blanket,  and  the  matting  on 
top.  That's  it,  that's  it,  —  it  will  be  nice  to  sit  in  it,"  he 
said,  doing  what  he  was  saying,  that  is,  tucking  the  mat- 
ting under  the  straw  on  all  sides  of  the  seat.  "  Thank 
you,  dear  man,"  Nikita  said  to  the  cook's  husband,  "  two 
people  get  done  quickly,"  and,  straightening  out  the  leather 


428  MASTER   AND    WORKMAN 

reins  with  the  ring  where  they  meet,  Nikita  seated  him- 
self on  the  driver's  seat  and  touched  the  horse,  which  was 
begging  for  the  reins,  and  started  over  the  frozen  manure 
of  the  yard  toward  the  gate, 

"  Uncle  Nikita,  uncle,  oh,  uncle  ! "  a  seven-year-old  boy, 
in  a  short  black  fur  coat,  new  white  felt  boots,  and  warm 
cap,  who  came  running  fast  from  the  vestibule  into  the 
yard,  called  out  behind  him  in  a  shrill  voice,  "  Take  me 
along, "  he  begged,  buttoning  his  coat  as  he  ran. 

"  All  right,  all  right,  darling,"  said  Nikita,  and,  stop- 
ping, he  helped  the  pale,  thin  little  lad,  his  master's  child, 
who  beamed  with  joy,  into  the  sleigh,  and  drove  out  into 
the  street. 

It  was  past  two.  It  was  frosty,  —  about  ten  degrees 
Reaumur,  gloomy,  and  windy.  Half  the  sky  was  covered 
with  a  low,  dark  cloud.  But  everything  was  quiet  in  the 
yard.  In  the  street  the  wind  was  more  noticeable :  the 
snow  swept  down  from  a  neighbouring  shed,  and  it 
whirled  in  the  corner  near  the  bath-house.  Nikita  had 
barely  driven  out  of  the  yard  and  turned  his  horse  toward 
the  entrance  of  the  house,  when  Vasili  Andr^ich,  with  a 
cigarette  in  his  mouth,  in  a  cloth-covered  sheepskin -fur 
coat,  tightly  girded  low  in  his  waist  with  a  belt,  came  out 
of  the  vestibule  on  the  high  porch,  which  was  covered 
with  snow  that  squeaked  under  his  leather-covered  felt 
boots,  and  stopped.  Taking  a  last  puff  from  the  cigarette, 
he  threw  it  down  at  his  feet  and  stepped  upon  it,  and, 
letting  the  smoke  escape  through  his  moustache  and  look- 
ing sidewise  at  tlie  horse  that  was  coming  out  of  the  gate, 
began  on  both  sides  of  his  ruddy,  shaven  face  to  fix  the 
corners  of  his  sheepskin  collar,  with  the  fur  turned  in,  so 
that  it  might  not  sweat  from  his  breath. 

"  Look  at  the  rogue,  he  is  there  already  ! "  he  said, 
when  he  saw  his  son  in  the  sleigh,  Vasili  Andr^ich  was 
in  a  state  of  excitation  from  the  wine  which  he  had  drunk 
with  the  guests,  and  so  more  than  ever  satisfied  with 


MASTEK   AND    WORKMAN  429 

everything  which  belonged  to  him  and  with  everything 
he  did.  The  sight  of  his  son,  whom  he  in  his  thoughts 
always  called  his  heir,  now  afforded  him  especial  pleas- 
ure ;  he  looked  at  him,  blinking  and  displaying  his  long 
teeth. 

Vasili  Audr^ich's  pale,  lean,  pregnant  wife,  whose  head 
and  shoulders  were  wrapped  in  a  woollen  kerchief,  so  that 
only  her  eyes  could  be  seen,  saw  him  off:  she  stood 
behind  him,  in  the  vestibule. 

"  Eeally,  you  had  better  take  Nikita  along,"  she  said, 
timidly  stepping  through  the  door. 

Vasili  Andreich  made  no  reply  to  her  words,  which 
evidently  displeased  him,  frowmecl  angrily,  and  spit  out. 

"  You  are  travelling  with  money,"  his  wife  continued, 
in  the  same  pitiable  voice.  "  And  I  am  afraid  the  weather 
may  get  bad,  truly  I  am." 

"  Well,  do  I  not  know  the  road,  that  I  must  by  all 
means  have  a  guide  with  me  ?  "  muttered  Vasili  Andr(5ich 
with  that  unnatural  tension  of  the  lips  wdth  which  he 
usually  spoke  to  buyers  and  sellers,  pronouncing  every 
syllable  with  especial  precision. 

"  Keally,  I  wish  you  would  take  him.  I  implore  you, 
for  God's  sake ! "  repeated  his  wife,  wrapping  her  kerchief 
over  her  other  side. 

"  You  are  as  persistent  as  a  bathbroom  leaf.  What  is 
the  use  of  my  taking  him  ?  " 

"  Why  not,  Vasili  Andr(5ich,  I  should  be  glad,"  Nikita 
said,  cheerfully.  "  If  only  they  will  feed  the  horses  while 
I  am  away,"  he  added,  turning  to  his  master's  wife. 

"  I  will  see  to  it,  Nikita.  I  will  tell  Semdn  to  feed 
them,"  said  the  mistress. 

"  Well,  do  you  want  me  to  go  with  you,  Vasili 
Andreich  ? "  said  Nikita,  waiting  for  an  answer. 

"  I  see  I  shall  have  to  obey  the  old  woman.  I>ut  if 
you  are  to  go,  you  had  better  go  and  put  on  some  warmer 
togs,"  said  Vasili  Andreich,  smiling  again  and  blinking  at 


430  MASTER    AND    WORKMAN 

Nikita's  short  fur  coat,  wliich  was  torn  under  the  arms 
and  in  the  back,  tattered  at  the  lower  edge,  soiled,  and  out 
of  shape,  and  had  been  used  for  every  imaginable  purpose, 

"  Come,  dear  man,  hold  the  horse ! "  Nikita  shouted 
into  the  yard,  to  the  cook's  husband. 

"  I  will  myself,  I  will  myseh ! "  squeaked  the  boy, 
taking  his  stiffened  red  little  hands  out  of  his  pocket  and 
seizing  the  cold  leather  reins. 

"  Only,  don't  clean  up  your  togs  too  much  !  Be  lively  ! " 
cried  Vasili  Andr^ich,  displaying  his  teeth  at  Nikita. 

"  In  one  breath,  father,  Vasili  Andr^ich,"  said  Nikita, 
and,  swiftly  mincing  with  his  in-toeing,  old,  felt-patched 
felt  boots,  he  ran  into  the  yard  and  into  the  workmen's 
hut. 

"  Here,  Arinushka !  Hand  me  the  cloak  down  from 
the  oven,  —  I  am  going  with  the  master ! "  said  Nikita, 
as  he  ran  into  the  hut  and  took  a  belt  down  from  a  peg. 

The  woman,  who  had  had  a  nap  after  dinner  and  now 
was  getting  a  samovar  ready  for  her  husband,  met  Nikita 
cheerfully,  and,  infected  by  his  haste,  began  to  move  as 
rapidly  as  he,  and  fetched  down  from  the  oven,  where  it 
was  getting  dry,  a  miserable,  threadbare  cloth  caftan,  and 
began  hurriedly  to  shake  it  out  and  open  it  up. 

"  You  will  have  a  fine  time  with  your  master,"  Nikita 
said  to  the  cook.  Out  of  good-natured  politeness,  Nikita 
always  said  something  to  a  person,  when  he  was  left 
alone  with  one. 

Girding  himself  with  the  narrow,  worn-out  belt,  he 
drew  in  his  belly,  which  was  drawn  in  as  it  was,  and 
laced  himself  as  tightly  as  he  could  over  his  short  fur 
coat. 

"  That's  it,"  he  said  to  himself  after  that,  no  longer 
addressing  the  cook,  but  his  belt,  and  sticking  the  ends 
through  the  belt,  "  now  you  won't  jump  out,"  and,  raising 
and  lowering  his  shoulders,  so  as  to  have  his  arms  free, 
he  put  on  the  cloak,  again  arched  his  back,  so  as  to  have 


MASTER   AND    WORKMAN  431 

his  arms  unhampered,  adjusted  the  cloak  under  the  pit 
of  his  arms,  and  fetched  his  mittens  down  from  a  shelf. 
"  Now  it  is  all  right." 

"  Nikita,  you  had  better  change  your  boots,"  said  the 
cook,  "  for  those  you  have  on  are  no  good." 

Nikita  stopped,  as  though  to  recall  something. 

"  Yes,  I  ought  to.  Well,  these  will  do,  —  it  is  not 
far ! " 

And  he  ran  out  into  the  yard, 

"  Won't  you  be  cold,  Nikita  ? "  asked  the  mistress,  as 
he  came  up  to  the  sleigh. 

"  Not  at  all  cold,  —  I  shall  be  warm,"  replied  Nikita, 
beating  up  the  straw  in  front  of  the  sleigh,  so  as  to 
cover  his  feet  with  it,  and  sticking  the  whip,  which  was 
useless  for  the  good  horse,  into  the  straw. 

Vasili  Andr^ich  was  already  seated  in  the  sleigh, 
occupying  almost  the  whole  lient  back  of  it  with  the 
two  fur  coats  which  he  wore,  and,  taking  the  reins, 
immediately  let  the  horse  go.  Nikita  on  the  run  jumped 
in  on  the  left  side  and  stuck  out  one  leg. 


II. 

The  good  stallion  moved  the  sleigh  with  a  slight  squeak 
of  the  runners,  and  at  a  brisk  pace  started  down  the 
well-travelled,  frozen  village  street. 

"  Where  are  you  hanging  on  ?  Let  me  have  the  whip, 
Nikita ! "  exclaimed  Vasili  Andr^ich,  evidently  enjoying 
the  sight  of  his  heir,  who  was  hanging  on  behind,  stand- 
ing on  the  runners.  "  I  will  show  you  !  Eun  to  mamma, 
you  son  of  a  gun." 

The  boy  jumped  down  Yellow-muzzle  increased  his 
pace  and,  correcting  himself,  passed  over  to  a  trot. 

Kresty,  in  which  Vasili  Andr^ich's  house  stood,  con- 
sisted of  six  houses.  As  soon  as  they  rode  out  beyond 
the  last  hut,  the  blacksmith's  shop,  they  noticed  that  the 
wind  was  much  stronger  than  they  had  expected.  They 
could  hardly  see  the  road  now.  The  track  from  the 
runners  was  immediately  drifted  over,  and  the  road  could 
be  told  only  because  it  was  higher  than  any  other  place. 
The  snow  whirled  over  the  whole  field,  and  one  could  not 
see  the  line  where  earth  and  heaven  meet.  Telyatino  for- 
est, which  was  always  visible,  only  now  and  then  appeared 
black  through  the  snow  dust.  The  wind  blew  from  the 
left,  stubbornly  turning  the  mane  on  Yellow-muzzle's 
sloping  fat  neck  in  one  direction,  and  carrying  his  bushy 
tail,  which  was  tied  in  a  simple  knot,  to  one  side.  Niklta's 
long  collar,  as  he  was  sitting  on  the  side  of  the  wind, 
pressed  close  to  his  face  and  nose. 

"He  does  not  run  as  he  can,  —  there  is  too  much 
snow,"  said  Vasili  Andr^ich,  priding  himself  on  his  good 

432 


MASTER   AND    WORKMAN  433 

horse.     "  I  once  drove  him  to  Pashutino,  where  he  took 
me  in  half  an  hour." 

"  What  ? "  asked  Nikita,  who  had  not  heard  well  be- 
hind his  collar. 

"  To  Pashutino,  I  say ;  he  took  me  there  in  half  an 
hour,"  shouted  Vasili  Andr^ich. 

"  No  use  talking,  a  good  horse  ! "  said  Nikita. 

They  were  silent  awhile.  But  Vasih  Andrc^ich  felt 
like  talking. 

"  Well,  what  do  you  suppose  ?  Did  I  tell  your  wife 
not  to  give  the  cooper  anything  to  drink  ? "  Vasili  An- 
dr^ich  began  in  the  same  loud  voice  ;  he  was  so  convinced 
that  it  must  be  flattering  to  Nikita  to  talk  with  such  an 
important  and  clever  man  as  he  was,  and  so  satisfied 
with  his  jest,  that  it  did  not  even  occur  to  him  that  this 
conversation  might  be  disagreeable  for  Nikita. 

Nikita  again  did  not  catch  the  sound  of  his  master's 
words,  as  it  was  carried  away  by  the  wind. 

Vasili  Andr^ich  repeated  his  jest  about  the  cooper  in 
his  loud,  distinct  voice. 

"  God  be  with  him,  Vasili  Andreich.  I  do  not  meddle 
with  these  matters.  All  I  care  for  is  that  she  should  not 
treat  the  lad  badly,  and  as  for  the  rest,  God  be  with 
her." 

"  That  is  so,"  said  Vasili  Andreich.  "  Well,  are  you 
going  to  buy  a  horse  toward  spring  ? "  he  began  a  new 
subject  of  conversation. 

"  There  is  no  way  out,"  replied  Nikita,  opening  the 
collar  of  the  caftan  and  bending  over  in  the  direction  of 
his  master. 

This  time  the  conversation  interested  Nikita,  and  he 
wanted  to  hear  it  all. 

"  The  lad  has  grown  up,  —  he  has  to  plough  himself  ; 
they  have  been  hiring  all  the  time,"  he  said. 

"Well,  take  the  one  with  the  lean  crupper,  —  I  will 
not  ask   much,"  continued  Vasili  Andrt^ich,  feeling  him- 


434  MASTER    AND    WORKMAN 

self  in  good  spirits  and  so  attacking  his  favourite  occu- 
pation, which  absorbed  all  his  mental  powers,  —  horse 
trading. 

"  If  you  will  let  me  have  some  fifteen  roubles,  I  will 
buy  one  in  the  horse  market,"  said  Nikita,  who  knew  that 
a  fair  price  for  the  horse  with  the  lean  crupper,  which 
Vasili  Audr^ich  was  trying  to  sell  him,  was  about  seven 
roubles,  and  that  Vasili  Andr^ich,  in  giving  him  this 
horse,  would  figure  it  at  twenty-five,  and  then  he  would 
not  see  any  money  from  him  for  half  a  year. 

"  It's  a  good  horse.  I  mean  it  for  your  good,  as  though 
for  myself.  I  don't  care,  let  me  have  a  loss  :  I  am  not 
like  others.  Honestly,"  he  shouted  in  that  voice  with 
which  he  pulled  the  wool  over  the  eyes  of  the  buyers  and 
the  sellers,  "  it's  a  fine  horse." 

"  That's  so,"  said  Nikita,  with  a  sigh,  and  having  con- 
vinced himself  that  there  was  nothing  else  to  listen  to, 
took  his  hand  away  from  the  collar,  which  immediately 
covered  his  ear  and  face. 

For  about  half  an  hour  they  travelled  in  silence.  The 
wind  blew  through  Nikita's  side  and  arm,  where  the  fur 
was  torn. 

He  crouched  and  breathed  into  the  collar,  which  cov- 
ered his  mouth,  but  he  still  felt  cold. 

"  Well,  what  do  you  think  ?  Shall  we  go  by  Kara- 
myshevo,  or  straight  ahead  ? "  asked  Vasili  Andr^ich. 

By  the  way  of  Ivaramyshevo  the  road  was  more  cheer- 
ful, with  good  signals  on  both  sides,  but  it  was  farther. 
Straight  ahead  it  was  nearer,  but  the  road  was  little 
travelled  and  there  were  no  signals,  or  there  were  poor 
ones  and  they  were  covered  with  snow. 

Nikita  stopped  to  think  a  little. 

"  By  the  way  of  Karamyshevo  it  is  farther,  but  the 
road  is  better,"  he  said. 

"  But  if  we  go  straight,  we  have  just  to  cross  a  Httle 
ravine,  —  we  cannot  lose  the  way,  —  and  then  through 


MASTER   AND    WORKMAN  435 

the  woods,  —  it  is  nice,"  said  Vasili  Andr^ich,  who  wanted 
to  travel  straight  ahead. 

"  As  you  please,"  said  Nikita,  again  dropping  his  collar. 

Vasili  Andr^ich  did  so  and,  after  travelling  about  half 
a  verst,  turned  to  the  left,  near  a  tall  oak  branch  with 
here  and  there  a  dry  leaf,  which  dangled  in  the  wind. 

After  the  turn  the  wind  blew  almost  straight  into  their 
faces,  and  a  light  snow  began  to  fall  from  above.  Vasili 
Andr^ich  drove ;  he  filled  his  cheeks  and  breathed  down- 
ward, into  his  moustache.     Nikita  was  dozing  off. 

Thus  they  travelled  in  silence  for  about  ten  minutes. 
Suddenly  Vasili  Andreich  said  something. 

"  What  ? "  asked  Nikita,  opening  his  eyes. 

Vasili  Andreich  made  no  reply,  but  bent  forward  and 
backward,  looking  in  front  of  the  horse.  The  horse's  hair 
between  his  legs  and  on  his  neck  was  curled  from  the 
sweat ;  he  was  walking. 

"  What  is  it,  I  say  ?  "  repeated  Nikita. 

"What?  What?"  Vasih  Andr(5ich  mocked  him 
angrily.  "  I  cannot  see  any  signals,  —  we  must  have  lost 
our  way." 

"  Stand  still,  then,  and  I  will  go  and  look  for  the  road," 
said  Nikita.  Jumping  lightly  from  the  sleigh  and  taking 
the  whip  out  of  the  straw,  he  went  to  the  left,  on  the 
side  he  was  sitting  on. 

The  snow  was  not  deep  that  year,  so  that  one  could 
walk  anywhere,  but  here  and  there  it  was  knee-deep  and 
dropped  into  Nikita's  boots.  Nikita  walked  around,^  feel- 
ing with  his  feet  and  the  whip,  but  could  not  find  the  road 
anywhere. 

"  Well  ? "  said  Vasili  Andrdich,  as  Nikita  again  came 
up  to  the  sleigh. 

"  The  road  is  not  on  this  side.  I  must  go  and  try  on 
the  other." 

"  There  is  a  black  spot  in  front,  —  go  there  and  look," 
said  VasiU  Andreich. 


436  MASTER   AND    WORKMAN" 

Nikita  went  there,  and  approached  that  which  looked 
black,  —  it  was  dirt  which  from  the  bared  winter  fields 
had  drifted  over  the  snow  and  had  dyed  the  snow  black. 
After  having  tried  on  the  right  side,  Nikita  came  back  to 
the  sleigh,  shook  the  snow  off  himself  and  out  of  one  boot, 
and  seated  himself  in  the  sleigh. 

"  We  must  travel  to  the  right,"  he  said,  with  determina- 
tion. "  The  wind  blew  against  my  left  side,  and  now 
blows  straight  into  my  face.  Go  to  the  right,"  he  said, 
with  determination. 

Vasili  Andr^ich  obeyed  him,  and  turned  to  the .  right. 
But  still  there  was  no  road.  Thus  they  travelled  for  a 
little  while.  The  wind  did  not  subside,  and  there  fell 
a  light  snow. 

"  Vasili  Andreich,  it  seems  that  we  have  lost  the  road  " 
Nikita  suddenly  exclaimed,  as  though  with  pleasure. 
"  What  is  this  ? "  he  said,  pointing  to  black  potato  tops, 
which  were  sticking  out  through  the  snow. 

Vasili  Andreich  stopped  the  sweating  horse,  which  was 
breathing  heavily,  drawing  in  its  sloping  sides. 

"  What  is  it  ? "  he  asked. 

"We  are  in  the  Zakharovka  field.  That's  where  we 
have  driven  to." 

"  Sure  ? "  called  out  Vasili  Andr(^ich. 

"  I  am  not  lying,  Vasili  Andreich,  but  telling  the 
truth,"  said  Nikita.  "  I  know  it  by  the  way  the  sleigh  is 
going :  we  are  travelling  over  a  potato  field ;  and  here  is 
a  pile,  where  they  heaped  the  tops.  It  is  the  field  of  the 
Zakharovka  plant." 

"  1  declare  we  have  gone  astray  ! "  said  Vasili  Andreich. 
'•  What  shall  we  do  ? " 

"  We  must  keep  straight  ahead,  that  is  all, —  we  shall 
come  out  somewhere,"  said  Nikita.  "  If  not  to  Zakha- 
rovka, we  may  come  to  a  proprietor's  out-farm." 

Vasili  Andr(^ich  obeyed  him  and  let  the  horse  go  as 
Nikita  had  ordered  him.     Thus  they  travelled  for  quite 


MASTER    AND    WORKMAN  437 

awhile.  At  times  they  passed  over  bare  sowed  fields, 
and  the  sleigh  thundered  over  clods  of  frozen  earth.  At 
times  they  travelled  over  stubble-tields,  now  over  winter 
fields,  and  now  over  summer  fields,  where  beneath  the 
snow  could  be  seen  the  wormwood  and  straw  stalks 
tossing  in  the  wind  ;  at  times  they  drove  into  deep  and 
everywhere  equally  white  and  even  snow,  above  which 
nothing  could  be  seen. 

The  snow  fell  from  above  and  sometimes  rose  from 
below.  The  horse  was  apparently  fagged  out ;  his  hair 
was  all  curled  and  hoarfrosted  from  his  sweat,  and  be 
went  at  a  slow  pace.  Suddenly  he  broke  through  and 
settled  in  a  puddle  or  ditch.  Vasih  Andr^ich  wanted  to 
stop,  but  Nikita  cried  out  to  him : 

"  Don't  stop  !  We  have  got  into  it,  and  so  have  to  get 
out  again.  Come  now,  dear  one !  Come,  friend ! "  he 
cried  out  in  a  loud  voice  to  the  horse,  jumping  out  of  the 
sleigh  and  himself  sticking  fast  in  the  ditch. 

The  horse  jerked  forward  and  at  once  came  out  on  a 
frozen  heap  of  earth.  It  was  evident  this  was  a  dug 
trench. 

"  Where  are  we  now  ? "  asked  Yasili  Andreich. 

"  We  shall  find  out,"  replied  Nikita.  "  Move  on,  we 
shall  certainly  come  to  some  place." 

"  This  must  be  Goryachkino  forest,"  said  Vasili  Andre- 
ich, pointing  to  something  black,  which  appeared  beyond 
the  snow,  in  front  of  them. 

"  We  shall  go  on,  and  then  we  shall  find  out  what  kind 
of  a  forest  it  is,"  said  Nikita. 

Nikita  saw  that  long,  dry  willow  leaves  were  borne 
toward  him  from  the  direction  of  the  darkening  spot,  and 
so  he  knew  that  it  was  not  a.  forest,  but  some  settlement, 
but  he  did  not  want  to  say  so.  And,  indeed,  they  had 
not  travelled  ten  sazhens  from  the  trench  when  trees 
stood  out  black  in  front  of  them,  and  a  new,  moaning 
sound  was  heard.     Nikita  had  guessed   correctly.     This 


438  MASTER    AND    WORKMAN 

was  not  a  forest,  but  a  row  of  tall  willow-trees,  with  here 
and  there  leaves  trembling  upon  them.  The  willow-trees 
were  evidently  planted  along  the  trench  of  a  threshing- 
floor.  When  the  horse  reached  the  willows,  which  were 
monotonously  whining  in  the  wind,  he  suddenly  rose  with 
his  fore  legs  higher  than  the  sleigh,  pulled  his  hind  legs, 
too,  out  on  an  elevation,  turned  to  the  left,  and  no  longer 
sank  up  to  his  knees  into  the  snow.  This  was  a  road. 
"  Here  we  are,"  Nikita  said,  "  but  we  don't  know  where." 
The  horse  no  longer  strayed  from  the  road,  though  it 
was  snow-drifted,  and  before  they  had  travelled  forty 
sazhens  on  it,  they  saw  in  black  outlines  the  straight 
strip  of  a  wicker  kiln  under  a  snow-drifted  roof,  from 
which  the  snow  kept  drifting  all  the  time.  After  passing 
the  kiln,  the  road  turned  to  the  wind,  and  they  drove  into 
a  drift.  But  in  front  of  them  could  be  seen  a  lane  between 
two  houses,  so  that  apparently  the  drift  was  on  the  road, 
and  they  had  to  pass  over  it.  And  as  soon  as  they 
crossed  the  drift,  they  drove  into  a  street.  At  the  first 
yard  stiffly  frozen  linen,  which  was  hanging  on  a  rope, 
was  desperately  fluttering  in  the  wind :  there  were  shirts, 
one  red,  one  white,  drawers,  foot-rags,  and  a  skirt.  The 
white  shirt  was  whirling  about  most  furiously,  waving  its 
sleeves. 

"  I  declare,  she  is  a  lazy  woman,  or  she  is  dying,  for  she 
has  not  taken  in  the  linen  for  the  hohday,"  said  Nikita,  as 
he  looked  at  the  dangling  shirts. 


III. 

At  the  entrance  of  the  street  the  wind  blew  strongly, 
and  the  road  was  drifted,  but  in  the  middle  of  the  village 
it  was  quiet,  warm,  and  cheerful.  Near  one  yard  a  dog 
was  barking  at  another  ;  a  woman,  covering  her  head  with 
a  sleeveless  coat,  came  running  from  somewhere  and 
entered  through  the  door  of  the  hut,  stopping  on  the 
threshold,  in  order  to  look  at  the  travellers.  From 
the  middle  of  the  village  could  be  heard  the  songs  of 
girls. 

In  the  village  there  seemed  to  be  less  wind,  and  snow, 
and  frost. 

"  Why,  this  is  Grishkino,"  said  Vasili  Andr^ich. 

"  So  it  is,"  replied  Nikita. 

It  was,  indeed,  Grishkino.  It  turned  out  that  they  had 
kept  too  much  to  the  left  and  had  travelled  something  like 
eight  versts  off  the  road,  but  still  in  the  direction  of  their 
place  of  destination.  To  Goryachkino  they  had  to  travel 
another  five  versts. 

In  the  middle  of  the  village  they  almost  stumbled  upon 
a  tall  man  who  was  walking  in  the  street. 

"  Who  is  there  ?  "  shouted  this  man,  stopping  the  horse  ; 
on  learning  that  it  was  Vasili  Andrdich,  he  took  hold  of 
the  shaft  and,  groping  along  it  with  his  hands,  walked  up 
to  the  sleigh  and  seated  himself  on  the  driver's  seat. 

He  was  an  acquaintance  of  VasiH  Andr6ich,  Is^y  by 
name,  and  was  in  all  the  surrounding  country  known  as 
the  biggest  h(ji'se-thief. 

"  Oh,  Vasili  Andri^ich  !  Whither  does  God  carry  you  ? " 
said  Isdy,  wafting  against  Nikita  a  breath  of  vodka. 

439 


440  MASTER   AND    WORKMAN 

"  We  were  going  to  Goryachkino," 

"  And  this  is  where  you  came  to  !  You  ought  to  have 
kept  toward  Malakhovo." 

"  Of  course,  we  ought  to,  but  we  did  not,"  said  Vasili 
Andr^ich,  stopping  his  horse. 

"  The  horse  is  a  good  one,"  said  Isay,  examining  the 
horse  and  with  a  habitual  motion  tightening  the  slipping 
knot  of  the  bushy  tail. 

"  Well,  are  you  going  to  stay  here  overnight  ? " 

"  No,  friend,  we  are  obliged  to  go  on." 

"  On  business,  no  doubt.  And  who  is  he  ?  Oh,  Nikita 
Stepanych ! " 

"  I  should  say  I  am ! "  replied  Nikita.  "  Now,  dear 
man,  how  can  we  keep  from  losing  the  road  again  ? " 

"  No  need  of  losing !  Turn  back,  straight  along  the 
road,  and  when  you  come  out,  keep  straight  ahead. 
Don't  take  the  left  road.  You  will  come  out  on  the 
highway,  and  then  to  the  right." 

"  Where  is  the  turn  from  the  highway  ?  A  summer 
sign  or  a  winter  sign  ? "  asked  Nikita. 

"  A  winter  sign.  As  soon  as  you  come  out  on  the  high- 
way, there  are  some  bushes,  and  opposite  the  bushes  a 
large,  curly  signal  oak,  —  there  it  is." 

Vasili  Andr^ich  turned  his  horse  back,  and  went 
through  the  outskirts  of  the  village. 

"  You  had  better  stay  overnight ! "  Isay  shouted  after 
them. 

But  Vasili  Andr^ich  did  not  answer  him,  and  touched 
his  horse ;  it  did  not  seem  hard  to  travel  the  five  versts 
of  the  level  road,  especially  since  the  wind  had  died 
down  and  the  snow  stopped  falling. 

After  going  back  over  the  street,  which  was  well-trav- 
elled, and  here  and  there  showed  black  spots  of  fresh 
manure,  and  having  passed  the  yard  with  the  linen,  where 
the  white  shirt  had  got  off  the  rope  and  was  dangling  down 
by  one  frozen  sleeve,  they  again  reached  the  frightfully 


MASTER    AND    WORKMAN 


441 


moaning  willows  and  once  more  found  themselves  in  the 
open  field.  The  snow-storm  had  not  only  not  subsided,  but 
even  seemed  to  have  become  stronger.  The  road  was  all 
covered  with  drifts,  and  the  only  way  one  could  tell  that 
one  was  on  the  road  was  by  the  signals.  But  it  was  diffi- 
cult to  make  the  signals  out  in  front,  because  the  wind 
blew  in  the  face. 

Vasili  Andreich  half-closed  his  eyes,  bent  down  his 
head,  and  watched  for  signals,  but  mainly  depended  on 
the  horse,  to  which  he  gave  the  reins.  The  horse  actually 
did  not  lose  the  road,  and  went,  turning  to  the  right  and 
to  the  left,  to  follow  the  bends  of  the  road,  which  he  felt 
under  foot,  so  that,  although  the  snow  kept  growing 
stronger  overhead,  and  the  wind  began  to  blow  more 
strongly,  the  signals  could  be  seen,  now  on  the  right,  and 
now  on  the  left. 

Thus  they  travelled  about  ten  minutes,  when  suddenly 
in  front  of  the  horse  there  appeared  something  black, 
which  moved  in  the  slanting  screen  of  the  wind-driven 
snow.  Those  were  fellow  travellers.  Yellow-muzzle 
caught  up  with  tliem,  and  hit  his  feet  against  the  ham- 
per of  the  sleigh  in  front  of  him. 

"  Dri-i-ive  around  ! "  somebody  shouted  from  the  sleigh. 

Vasili  Andrdich  began  to  drive  around.  In  the  sleigh 
sat  three  peasants  and  a  woman.  They  were  apparently 
guests,  going  home  from  the  holiday.  One  peasant  kept 
whacking  with  a  stick  at  the  snow-covered  back  of  the 
nag.  Two,  who  were  sitting  in  front,  waved  their  hands 
and  shouted  something.  The  woman  was  all  wrapped  up 
and  covered  with  snow ;  she  sat  without  moving,  bump- 
ing herself,  in  the  back  of  the  sleigh. 

"  Who  are  you  ? "  cried  out  Vasili  Andrt^ich. 

"  From  A-a-a —  !  "  was  all  that  could  be  heard. 

"  From  where,  I  say  ?  " 

"  From  A-a-a — ! "  one  of  the  peasants  shouted  with 
all  his  might,  but  it  was  still  impossible  to  make  him  out 


442  MASTER  AND   WORKMAN 

"  Go  on !  Don't  give  up ! "  shouted  another,  who  never 
stopped  whacking  the  nag  with  the  stick. 

"  Evidently  they  have  been  celebrating." 

"  Go  on,  go  on  !  Let  her  go,  Semka  !  Move  on  !  Keep 
it  up ! " 

The  sleighs  struck  against  one  another  with  their 
wings,  almost  caught  in  one  another,  and  separated,  and 
the  peasant  sleigh  began  to  fall  behind. 

The  shaggy,  snow-covered,  pot-belhed  nag,  breathing 
heavily  under  her  low  arch,  was  evidently  using  her  last 
strength  to  run  away  from  the  stick  that  was  coming 
down  on  her  back,  and  minced  with  her  short  legs  in  the 
deep  snow,  which  she  threw  up  as  she  ran.  The  muzzle, 
apparently  of  a  young  horse,  with  tightly  drawn  nether 
lip,  as  in  a  fish,  with  spreading  nostrils  and  ears  lying 
down  from  fear,  for  a  few  seconds  was  in  a  line  with 
Nikita's  shoulder  and  then  began  to  fall  behind. 

"  This  is  what  liquor  does,"  said  Nikita.  "  They 
have  completely  worn  out  the  horse.  They  are 
Asiatics ! " 

For  a  few  minutes  could  be  heard  the  nag's  heavy 
breathing  through  the  nostrils  and  the  drunken  shouts  of 
the  peasants,  and  then  the  heavy  breathing  stopped  and 
the  sounds  of  the  peasants  were  not  heard.  And  again 
nothing  could  be  heard  all  around  them,  but  the  wind 
whistling  about  their  ears,  and  now  and  then  the  squeak 
of  the  runners  over  the  wind-swept  places  of  the 
road. 

This  meeting  cheered  and  braced  up  Vasili  Andr^ich, 
and  he  drove  the  horse  more  boldly,  without  making  out 
the  signals,  depending  entirely  on  the  horse. 

Nikita  had  nothing  to  do,  and,  as  always,  when  he  was 
in  such  a  situation,  dozed  off,  to  make  up  for  much  sleep 
he  had  lost.  Suddenly  the  horse  stopped,  and  Nikita 
almost  fell  down,  lurching  forward  on  his  nose. 

"  We  are  again  going  wrong,"  said  Vasili  Andr^ich. 


MASTER  AND   WORKMAN  443 

"What  is  it?" 

"  I  cannot  see  the  signals.  We  must  have  lost  the  road 
again." 

"  If  we  have  lost  the  road,  we  must  find  it,"  Nikita 
said,  curtly ;  he  got  up  and,  stepping  lightly  with  his 
in-toeing  feet,  started  once  more  to  walk  over  the 
snow. 

He  walked  for  a  long  time,  disappearing  from  view, 
again  appearing,  and  again  disappearing,  and  finally  came 
back. 

"  There  is  no  road  here,  —  maybe  it  is  somewhere 
ahead,"  he  said,  as  he  seated  himself  in  the  sleigh. 

It  was  beginning  to  get  quite  dark.  The  snow-storm 
did  not  grow  any  stronger,  nor  did  it  subside. 

"  If  we  only  could  hear  those  peasants,"  said  Vasih 
Andr^ich. 

"  They  have  not  caught  up  with  us,  so  we  must  have 
gone  far  astray.  And  maybe  they  have  lost  the  road 
themselves,"  said  Nikita. 

"  Whither  shall  we  go  ? "  asked  Vasili  Andr^ich. 

"  We  must  let  the  horse  go,"  said  Nikita.  "  He  wiU 
take  us  right.     Let  me  have  the  reins." 

Vasili  Andr^ich  gave  up  the  reins,  more  willingly  so 
because  his  fingers  in  the  warm  gloves  were  beginning  to 
freeze. 

Nikita  took  the  reins  and  only  held  them,  trying  not  to 
move  them  and  rejoicing  at  the  good  sense  of  his  favour- 
ite animal.  Indeed,  the  clever  horse,  turning  now  one, 
now  another  ear,  now  to  one  side,  and  now  to  another, 
began  to  turn  around. 

"  All  he  needs  is  speaking,"  Nikita  kept  saying.  "  See 
what  he  is  doing  !  Go  on,  go  on,  you  know  better  !  That's 
it!" 

The  wind  began  to  blow  from  behind,  and  it  grew 
warmer. 

"  He   is   clever,"  Nikita  kept  rejoicing   at  the  horse. 


444  MASTER   AND    WORKMAI^" 

"  Kirgiz  is  strong,  but  stupid.  But  he,  —  just  see  what  he 
is  doing  with  his  ears.  He  does  not  need  any  telegraph,  — 
he  can  scent  a  verst  off." 

Less  than  half  an  hour  passed,  when  ahead  there  was, 
indeed,  something  black,  —  either  a  village  or  a  forest,  — 
and  on  the  right  side  there  again  appeared  the  signals. 
They  had  evidently  come  out  on  the  road. 

"  Why,  this  is  again  Grishkino,"  Nikita  suddenly  ex- 
claimed. 

Indeed,  on  their  left  now  was  the  same  kiln,  from 
which  the  snow  drifted,  and  farther  on  was  the  same  rope 
with  the  frozen  hnen,  the  shirts  and  drawers,  which  kept 
flapping  as  desperately  in  the  wind  as  before. 

They  again  drove  into  the  street,  and  again  it  was 
quiet,  warm,  and  cheerful,  and  again  could  be  seen  the 
manure-covered  road ;  again  voices  and  songs  were  heard, 
and  again  the  dog  barked.  It  was  already  so  dark  that 
in  several  windows  fires  could  be  seen. 

In  the  middle  of  the  street  Vasili  Andr^ich  turned  his 
horse  to  a  large  house  consisting  of  two  brick  parts,  and 
stopped  at  the  porch. 

Nikita  went  up  to  the  snow-drifted,  lighted  window, 
in  the  light  of  which  sparkled  the  flitting  snowflakes, 
and  knocked  at  it  with  his  whip  butt. 

"  Who  is  there  ? "  a  voice  replied  to  Nikita's  knock. 

"  From  Kresty,  the  Brekhunovs,  dear  man,"  replied 
Nikita.     "  Just  come  out  for  a  minute  !  " 

The  person  went  away  from  the  window,  and  about 
two  minutes  later  one  could  bear  the  door  in  the  vesti- 
bule come  open,  then  the  latch  clicked  in  the  outer  door, 
and,  holding  the  door  against  the  wind,  there  appeared  an 
old  peasant  with  a  white  beard,  in  a  short  fur  coat  thrown 
over  his  white  holiday  shirt,  and  after  him  a  lad  in  red 
shirt  and  leather  boots. 

"  Is  it  you,  Andr^ich  ? "  asked  the  old  man. 

"  We  have  lost  our  way,  friend,"  said  Vasili  Andr^ich. 


MASTER   AND    WORKMAN  445 

•'  We  wanted  to  go  to  Goryachkiiio,  but  found  our  way 
here.  We  went  a  second  time,  but  again  lost  our 
way." 

"  I  declare,  you  have  gone  astray,"  said  the  old  man. 
"  Petrushka,  go  and  open  the  gate  ! "  he  turned  to  the 
lad  in  the  red  shirt. 

"  I  will  do  it,"  replied  the  lad,  in  a  cheerful  voice,  and 
ran  into  the  vestibule. 

"  We  do  not  mean  to  stay  overnight,  friend,"  said 
Vasih  Andr^ich. 

"  You  can't  travel,  —  it  is  night-time.     Stay  here  !  " 

"  I  should  like  to,  but  I  have  to  go.  Business,  friend, 
—  I  can't." 

"  Well,  warm  yourself  at  least,  —  you  have  come  in 
time  for  the  samovar,"  said  the  old  man. 

"  It  will  not  do  any  harm  to  get  warm,"  said  A^asili 
Andrt^ich.  "  It  will  not  be  any  darker,  and  the  moon 
will  come  out  and  light  up  things.  Had  we  not  better  go 
in  and  warm  ourselves,  Nikita  ?  " 

"  Well,  it  will  not  do  any  harm  to  get  warm,"  said 
Nikita,  who  was  stiff  with  cold  and  anxious  to  warm  his 
cold  limbs  in  a  warm  room. 

Vasili  Andr(5ich  went  into  the  room  with  the  old  man, 
and  Nikita  drove  through  the  gate  which  the  lad  had 
opened,  and  moved  the  horse  under  the  penthouse  of  the 
shed,  which  place  the  lad  had  pointed  out  to  him.  The 
shed  was  filled  witli  manure,  and  the  high  arch  caught  in 
a  beam.  The  hens,  with  the  cock,  who  had  settled  to 
roost  there,  started  cackling  in  dissatisfaction,  and  pattered 
with  their  feet  over  the  beam.  The  disturbed  sheep, 
stepping  with  their  hoofs  on  the  frozen  manure,  fled  to 
one  side.  A  dog,  whining  desperately,  in  fright  and  anger, 
in  puppy  fashion,  began  to  bark  at  the  stranger. 

Nikita  talked  to  all  of  them  :  he  excused  himself  to  the 
hens  and  assured  them  that  he  would  not  disturb  them 
again  ;  he  rebuked  the  sheep  for  being  frightened  without 


446  MASTER    AND    WORKMAN 

knowing  why,  and  kept  admonishing  the  dog  all  the 
time  that  he  was  tying  his  horse. 

"  Now  it  will  be  all  right,"  he  said,  shaking  the  snow 
off  himself.  "How  he  barks!"  he  added,  to  the  dog. 
"  That  will  do  !  Come,  now,  stop,  foolish  dog !  You  are 
only  agitating  yourself,"  he  said.  "  We  are  no  thieves, 
we  are  friends." 

"  These  are,  as  it  says,  the  three  domestic  counsellors," 
said  the  lad,  with  his  powerful  hand  thrusting  the  sleigh, 
which  was  out  in  the  open,  into  the  penthouse. 

"  What  counsellors  ?  "  asked  Nikita. 

"  So  it  is  written  in  Pulsou  :  a  thief  steals  to  the  house, 
—  the  dog  barks,  —  that  means,  don't  dally,  look  out. 
The  cock  crows,  —  that  means,  get  up.  The  cat  washes 
herself,  —  that  means,  a  dear  guest :  get  ready  to  receive 
him,"  said  the  lad,  smiling. 

Petriishka  could  read  and  write,  and  knew  almost  by 
heart  the  only  book  he  had,  Paulson's  text-book,  and  he 
was  fond,  especially  when  he  had  had  something  to  drink, 
as  to-day,  of  quoting  from  it  utterances  which,  he  thought, 
fitted  the  occasion. 

"  That's  so,"  said  Nikita. 

"  I  suppose  you  are  cold,  uncle,"  added  Petrushka. 

"  I  am,"  said  Nikita. 

And  they  went  across  the  yard  and  the  vestibule  into 
the  house. 


IV. 

The  farm  where  Vasili  Andr^ich  stopped  was  one  of 
the  wealthiest  in  the  village.  The  family  had  five  allot- 
ments, and,  besides,  rented  other  land.  There  were  on 
this  farm  six  horses,  three  cows,  two  heifers,  about  twenty- 
sheep.  There  were  in  all  twenty  persons  in  this  family  : 
four  married  sons,  six  grandchildren,  of  which  only 
Petriishka  was  married,  two  great-grandchildren,  three 
orphans,  and  four  daughters-in-law  with  their  children. 
This  was  one  of  the  extremely  few  farms  which  remained 
still  undivided ;  but  even  in  them  there  was  going  on  the 
silent,  internal  work  of  dissension,  which,  as  always,  be- 
gan among  the  women,  and  which  would  inevitably  soon 
lead  to  division.  Two  sons  were  hving  ac  water-carriers 
in  Moscow,  and  one  was  a  soldier.  At  home  were  now 
the  old  man,  his  wife,  his  second  son,  the  master,  and  his 
eldest  son,  who  had  come  from  Moscow  for  the  holiday, 
and  all  the  women  and  children  ;  besides  the  family  there 
was  also  one  of  the  neighbours,  —  a  guest,  —  and  a  friend. 

Over  the  table,  in  the  room,  hung  a  lamp,  with  an 
upper  shade,  which  brightly  lighted  up  the  tea-dishes, 
a  bottle  of  vodka,  a  luncheon,  and  the  brick  walls,  which 
were  in  the  far  corner  adorned  with  images  on  either  side 
of  which  were  pictures.  On  the  first  seat,  behind  the 
table,  sat  Vasili  Andr^ich,  in  his  short  black  fur  coat 
only,  licking  his  frozen  moustache  and  observing  the 
people  and  the  room  about  him  with  his  bulging,  hawk 
eyes.  Beside  Vasili  Andreich,  there  sat  at  the  table  the 
bald-headed,  white-bearded  old  man,  in  a  white  home- 
spun shirt;  beside  him,  in  a  fine  chintz  shirt,  with  mighty 

447 


448  MASTER   AND    WORKMAN 

back  and  shoulders,  was  the  son  who  had  come  from 
Moscow  for  the  holiday,  and  another  son,  the  broad- 
shouldered  elder  brother,  who  was  the  naaster  of  the 
house,  and  a  lean,  red-haired  peasant,  a  neighbour. 

The  peasants  had  had  something  to  drink  and  eat,  and 
were  now  getting  ready  to  drink  tea,  and  the  samovar 
was  already  crooning,  as  it  stood  on  the  floor  near  the 
oven.  On  the  hanging  beds  and  on  the  oven,  children 
could  be  seen.  On  the  bed  bench  a  woman  sat  over 
a  cradle.  The  old  man's  wife,  with  tiny  wrinkles  all 
over  her  face,  which  ran  in  every  direction,  and  which 
wrinkled  even  her  lips,  waited  on  Vasili  Andr^ich. 

Just  as  Nikita  entered  the  room,  she  was  carrying  up 
to  the  guest  some  vodka,  which  she  had  poured  into  a 
tumbler  of  thick  glass. 

"  Do  not  misjudge  us,  Vasili  Andr^ich ;  we  must  greet 
you,"  she  said.     "  Take  it,  my  dear." 

The  sight  and  odour  of  the  vodka,  especially  now  that 
he  was  cold  and  tired,  very  much  confused  Nikita.  He 
frowned,  and,  shaking  the  snow  off  his  cap  and  caftan, 
stood  up  opposite  the  images  and,  as  though  not  seeing 
any  one,  made  three  times  the  sign  of  the  cross  and  bowed 
to  the  images,  then,  turning  back  to  the  old  man,  the 
master,  bowed,  first  to  him,  then  to  all  those  who  were  at 
the  table,  then  to  the  women,  who  were  standing  near 
the  oven,  and,  saying,  "  With  the  holiday,"  began  to  take 
off  his  wraps,  without  looking  at  the  table. 

"  But  you  are  covered  with  hoarfrost,  uncle,"  said  the 
elder  brother,  as  he  looked  at  Nikita's  snow-covered  face, 
eyes,  and  beard. 

Nikita  took  off  his  caftan,  shook  it  out,  hung  it  up  near 
the  oven,  and  walked  over  to  the  table.  He,  too,  was 
offered  some  vodka.  There  was  a  minute  of  agonizing 
struggle ;  he  came  very  near  taking  the  glass  and  pouring 
the  fragrant,  light-coloured  moisture  down  his  throat ;  but 
he  glanced  at  Vasili  Andri^ich,  recalled  his  vow,  recalled 


MASTER  AND   WORKMAN  449 

the  boots  which  he  had  sold  for  drink,  recalled  the  cooper, 
recalled  the  boy,  for  whom  he  had  promised  to  buy  a 
horse  by  spring,  and  so  sighed  and  declined  the 
vodka. 

"  I  do  not  drink,  thank  you  very  much,"  he  said,  frown- 
ing, and  sat  down  on  a  bench  near  the  second  window. 

"  Why  not  ? "  asked  the  elder  brother. 

"  I  don't,  and  that's  all,"  said  Nikita,  without  raising 
his  eyes,  lookiug  awry  at  his  scanty  moustache  and 
beard,  and  thawing  out  the  icicles  from  them. 

"  It  is  not  good  for  him,"  said  Vasili  Andrt^ich,  biting 
off  a  cracknel  after  the  glass  which  he  had  drunk. 

"  Well,  then  you  will  have  some  tea,"  said  the  kindly 
old  woman.  "  I  am  afraid  you  are  cold.  Why  are  you 
women  so  slow  with  the  samovar  ? " 

"  It  is  ready,"  replied  a  young  woman,  and,  dusting  off 
with  her  apron  the  boiling  covered  samovar,  she  with 
difficulty  brought  it  up  to  the  table,  raised  it,  and  set  it 
down  with  a  thud. 

In  the  meantime  Vasili  Andr^ich  told  them  how  they 
had  lost  their  way,  how  they  had  twice  come  back  to  the 
same  village,  how  they  had  wandered  around,  and  how 
they  had  m»t  the  peasants.  The  peasants  wondered,  ex- 
plained where  and  why  they  had  lost  their  way,  and  who 
the  drunken  peasants  were  whom  they  had  met,  and 
taught  tliem  how  to  travel. 

"  A  little  child  would  find  the  way  from  here  to  Mol- 
chanovka,  —  all  you  have  to  do  is  to  find  the  turn  from 
the  liighway, —  you  will  see  a  bush  there.  But  you  did 
not  go  far  enough,"  said  the  neighbour. 

"  You  had  better  stay  overnight.  The  women  will 
make  beds  for  you,"  the  old  woman  admonished  them. 

"  You  had  better  travel  in  the  morning,  —  it  is  nice 
then,"  affirmed  the  old  man. 

"  Impossible,  friend,  —  business  ! "  said  Vasili  Audr^- 
ich.     "  If  you  miss  your  hour,  you  won't  make  up  for  it 


450  MASTER   AND   WORKMAN 

in  a  year,"  he  added,  as  he  thought  of  the  grove  and  of 
the  merchants  who  might  get  ahead  of  him  in  this  bar- 
gain. "  We  shall  get  there,  shall  we  not  ? "  he  said, 
turning  to  Nikita. 

Nikita  for  a  long  time  made  no  reply,  as  though  all  the 
time  busy  thawing  out  his  moustache  and  beard. 

"  We  may  lose  the  road  again,"  he  said,  gloomily. 

Nikita  was  gloomy,  because  he  was  very  anxious  to  get 
some  vodka,  and  the  one  thing  which  could  drown  this 
desire  was  tea,  and  he  had  not  yet  been  offered  any  tea. 

"  If  we  only  get  as  far  as  the  turn,  we  won't  lose  the 
way,  —  the  road  then  lies  straight  through  the  forest," 
said  Vasili  Andr^ich. 

"  It  is  your  business,  Vasili  Andr^ich.  If  you  want 
to  go,  I  don't  care,"  said  Nikita,  taking  the  glass  of  tea 
which  was  handed  to  him. 

"  We  shall  driuk  our  tea,  and  then,  march." 

Nikita  said  nothing,  but  only  shook  his  head  and, 
carefully  pouring  his  tea  into  the  saucer,  began  over  the 
steam  to  warm  his  fingers,  which  were  always  swollen 
from  work.  Then,  biting  off  a  tiny  piece  of  sugar,  he 
bowed  to  the  master  and  the  mistress  of  the  house,  and  said  : 

"  May  you  be  well,"  and  he  sucked  in  the  warming 
liquid. 

"  If  some  one  would  take  us  as  far  as  the  turn ! "  said 
Vasili  Andr^ich. 

"  Well,  tliat  can  be  done,"  said  the  eldest  son.  "  Pe- 
trushka  will  hitch  up  and  take  you  to  the  turn." 

"  Hitch  up,  then,  friend,  and  I  will  be  thankful  to  you 
for  it." 

"  Why  are  you  in  such  a  hurry,  dear  one ! "  said  the 
kindly  old  woman.     "  We  are  glad  to  have  you." 

"  Petrushka,  go  and  hitch  up  the  mare,"  said  the  elder 
brother. 

"  I  will,"  said  Petrushka,  smiling ;  and,  immediately 
puUing  his  cap  off  a  peg,  he  ran  out  to  hitch  up. 


MASTER   AND    WORKMAN  451 

While  the  horse  was  being  harnessed,  the  conversation 
passed  over  to  what  it  had  stopped  at,  when  Vasili 
Andr^ich  reached  the  window.  The  old  man  was  com- 
plaining to  his  neighbour,  the  elder,  about  his  third  son, 
who  had  sent  him  nothing  for  the  holiday,  but  had  sent 
his  wife  a  French  kerchief. 

"  The  young  people  are  getting  unmanageable,"  said  the 
old  man. 

"  Unmanageable  ? "  said  the  friend,  "  there  is  no  getting 
along  with  them !  They  have  become  awfully  clever. 
There  is  Demochkin,  —  he  broke  his  father's  arm.  It  is 
all  from  too  much  sense,  I  suppose." 

Nikita  listened  and  watched  their  faces  and  evidently 
wanted  to  take  part  in  their  conversation,  but  he  was 
wholly  occupied  with  the  tea  and  only  approvingly  shook 
his  head.  He  drank  one  glass  after  another,  and  he  grew 
warmer  and  warmer,  and  happier  and  happier.  The 
conversation  lasted  for  a  long  time,  all  the  while  about 
one  and  the  same  tiling,  about  the  harm  of  division,  and 
the  conversation  was  apparently  not  in  the  abstract,  but 
had  reference  to  the  division  in  this  house,  —  a  division 
which  the  second  son,  who  was  sitting  there  and  keeping 
silent,  was  demanding.  This  was  obviously  a  sore  spot, 
and  the  question  interested  all  the  people  of  the  house, 
but  out  of  propriety  they  did  not  discuss  their  private 
affair.  But  finally  the  old  man  did  not  hold  out,  and 
with  tears  in  his  eyes  declared  that  he  would  permit  no 
division  so  long  as  he  was  alive,  that,  thanks  to  Clod, 
he  had  the  house,  and  that  if  he  divided  up,  they  would 
all  go  a-begging. 

"  That's  the  way  it  was  with  the  Matvy^evs,"  said  the 
neighbour.  "  They  had  a  house  that  was  a  house  ;  they 
divided  up,  and  now  nobody  has  anything." 

"  That's  the  way  you  want  it  to  be."  the  old  man  said, 
turning  to  his  son. 

His  son  made  no  reply,  and  there  ensued  an  awkward 


452  MASTER   AND    WORKMAN 

silence.  This  silence  was  interrupted  by  Petrushka,  who 
had  hitched  up  and  had  several  minutes  ago  returned  to 
the  room  and  had  kept  smiling  all  the  time. 

"  There  is  a  fable  in  Piilson,"  he  said :  "  a  father  gave 
his  sons  a  broom  to  break ;  they  could  not  break  it 
together,  but  broke  it  easily  by  single  rods.  It  is  just 
like  this,"  he  said,  smiling  with  his  whole  mouth. 
"  Eeady  ! "  he  said. 

"  If  it  is  ready,  we  shall  go,"  said  Vasili  Andr^ich. 
"  And  you,  grandfather,  don't  give  in  as  to  the  division. 
You  have  earned  it,  and  you  are  the  master.  Complain 
to  the  justice  of  the  peace.  He  will  tell  you  what  the 
law  is." 

"  He  is  carrying  on  so,  and  carrying  on  so,"  the  old 
man  said,  still  sticking  to  the  same  subject,  "  that  there 
is  no  getting  along  with  him.  Just  as  though  the  devil 
were  in  him." 

In  the  meantime  Nikita,  having  finished  his  fifth  glass 
of  tea,  still  did  not  turn  it  over,  but  laid  it  down  sidewise, 
hoping  that  they  would  fill  it  again.  But  there  was  no 
more  water  in  the  samovar,  and  the  hostess  did  not  fill 
him  another  glass,  and  besides,  Vasili  Andrei ch  was 
putting  on  his  wraps.  There  was  nothing  to  be  done. 
Nikita  himself  got  up,  put  back  into  the  sugar-bowl  the 
piece  of  sugar  which  he  had  nibbled  at  from  all  sides, 
with  the  skirt  of  his  coat  wiped  his  face,  which  was  wet 
with  perspiration,  and  went  to  put  on  his  cloak. 

After  he  had  put  it  on,  he  drew  a  deep  sigh  and,  thank- 
ing the  host  and  the  hostess  and  bidding  them  farewell, 
went  out  of  the  warm,  light  room  into  the  dark,  cold 
vestibule,  in  which  the  wind  moaned  and  the  snow  was 
carried  through  the  chinks  of  the  trembling  door,  and 
from  there  into  the  dark  yard. 

Petrushka,  in  a  fur  coat,  was  standing  with  his  horse 
in  the  middle  of  the  yard,  repeating,  with  a  smile,  verses 
from  Paulson.     He  said : 


MASTER   AND    WORKMAN  453 

"  Storm  iind  mist  beshroud  the  heaven, 
Drifts  of  snow  fly  up  and  whirl; 
Like  a  wolf  the  storm  is  howling, 
And  now  moaning  like  a  girl." 

Nikita  approvingly  shook  bis  head  and  straightened 
out  the  reins. 

The  old  man,  in  seeing  Vasili  Andr^ich  out,  carried  a 
lantern  into  the  vestibule,  to  show  him  the  way,  but  the 
wind  put  it  out  at  once.  It  could  be  noticed  in  the  yard 
that  the  snow-storm  was  now  worse  than  before. 

"  But  this  is  bad  weather,"  thought  Vasili  Audr^ich  ; 
"  we  may  not  get  there,  —  but  I  can't,  business  !  And  1 
am  ready  to  go,  and  the  host's  horse  is  hitched  up.  We 
shall  get  there,  God  willing  ! " 

The  host,  too,  thought  that  he  ought  not  to  travel,  but 
he  had  advised  him  to  stay,  and  no  attention  had  been 
paid  to  him.  There  was  no  sense  in  asking  again. 
"  Maybe  I  am  so  timid  on  account  of  my  old  age,  and  they 
will  get  there,"  lie  thought.  "  At  least  we  shall  go  to 
bed  in  time.     There  will  be  no  trouble." 

Petriithka  did  not  even  think  of  the  danger :  he  knew 
the  road  and  all  the  places  about  so  well,  and,  besides,  the 
verses  about  "  drifts  of  snow  fly  up  and  whirl "  braced 
him  so  much  because  they  expressed  precisely  what  was 
taking  place  in  the  yard.  Nikita,  however,  did  not  want  to 
travel  at  all ;  but  he  had  long  ago  become  accustomed 
to  not  having  his  own  will  and  to  serving  others,  and  so 
no  one  kept  the  travellers  back. 


V. 

VasIli  Andkeich  walked  over  to  the  sleigh,  with  dif- 
ficulty making  out  in  the  darkness  where  he  was,  climbed 
into  it,  and  took  the  reins. 

"  Lead  us  ! "  he  shouted. 

Petru&hka  was  kneeling  in  his  sledge,  and  he  started 
his  horse.  Yellow-muzzle,  who  had  been  neighing  for 
quite  awhile,  since  he  knew  that  a  mare  was  ahead  of 
him,  rushed  forward,  and  they  drove  out  into  the  street. 
They  drove  again  through  the  outskirt  of  the  village,  and 
along  the  same  road,  past  the  yard  with  the  frozen  linen 
hanging  out,  but  the  linen  was  no  longer  visible ;  past  the 
same  shed,  against  which  the  snow  had  now  drifted  almost 
up  to  the  roof,  and  from  which  endless  snow  was  pouring ; 
past  the  same  gloomily  moaning,  whistling,  and  bending 
willow-trees,  and  again  entered  into  the  sea  of  snow, 
which  was  agitated  above  and  below.  The  wind  was  so 
strong  that  when  it  blew  from  the  side  and  the  travellers 
settled  themselves  against  it,  it  made  the  sleigh  careen 
and  turned  the  horse  to  one  side.  Petrushka  drove  his 
good  mare  in  front  at  an  easy  trot,  and  kept  shouting 
merrily.     Yellow-muzzle  ran  after  the  mare. 

Having  travelled  thus  for  about  ten  minutes,  Petrushka 
turned  around  and  shouted  something.  Neither  Vasili 
Andr^ich  nor  Nikita  heard  through  the  wind  what  he 
said,  but  they  guessed  that  they  had  arrived  at  the  turn. 
Indeed,  Petrushka  turned  to  the  right,  and  the  wind,  which 
had  blown  from  the  side,  again  began  to  blow  in  their 
face,  and  on  the  right,  through  the  snow,  something 
black  could  be  seen.     This  was  the  bush  at  the  turn. 

454 


MASTER   AND   WORKMAN  455 

"  Well,  God  aid  you ! " 

"  Thank  you,  Petrushka." 

" '  Storm  and  mist  beshroud  the  heaven,' "  shouted  Pe- 
trushka, as  he  disappeared. 

"  What  a  poet ! "  said  Vasili  Andr^ich,  pulhng  the 
reins. 

*'  Yes,  he  is  a  fine  lad,  a  real  peasant,"  said  Nikita. 

They  drove  on. 

Nikita  wrapped  himself  and  ducked  his  head  down 
between  his  shoulders,  so  that  his  small  beard  hugged  his 
neck ;  he  sat  quietly,  trying  not  to  lose  any  of  the  heat 
which  he  had  obtained  in  the  house  with  his  tea.  He 
saw  in  front  of  him  the  straight  lines  of  the  shafts,  which 
kept  constantly  deceiving  him,  as  they  seemed  to  him  to 
be  the  well-travelled  road,  and  he  saw  the  wavering 
crupper  of  the  horse  with  his  tail  tied  in  a  knot  and  hang- 
ing to  one  side,  and  farther  ahead,  the  high  arch  and  the 
shaking  head  and  neck  of  the  horse  with  the  waving  mane. 
Now  and  then  he  noticed  the  signals,  so  that  he  knew 
that  so  far  they  had  been  travelling  on  the  road,  and  he 
had  nothing  to  do. 

Vasih  Andr^ich  drove,  letting  the  horse  choose  his  own 
road.  But  Yellow-muzzle,  in  spite  of  his  having  sighed 
in  the  village,  ran  unwilHngly,  and  seemed  to  turn  away 
from  the  road,  so  that  Vasili  Andr^ich  corrected  him 
several  times. 

"  Here,  on  the  right,  is  one  signal,  and  here  another,  and 
a  third,"  Vasili  Andr^ich  counted,  "  and  in  front  of  us  is 
the  forest,"  he  thought,  as  he  looked  at  the  black  spot  in 
front  of  him  ;  but  what  had  appeared  to  him  to  be  a  forest 
was  only  a  bush.  They  passed  the  bush,  they  went 
another  twenty  sazhens,  but  there  was  no  fourth  signal, 
and  there  was  no  forest.  "  No  doubt  we  shall  soon  have 
the  forest,"  thought  Vasili  Andr^ich,  and,  excited  by  the 
wine  and  the  tea,  he  did  not  stop,  but  touched  the  reins, 
and  the  obedient,  good  animal  obeyed,  and  now  at  a  pace 


456  MASTER   AND   WORKMAN 

and  now  at  a  slow  trot  ran  whither  he  was  sent,  though 
he  knew  that  he  was  not  going  where  it  was  necessary  to 
go.     Ten  minutes  passed,  and  there  was  still  no  forest. 

"  We  have  again  lost  our  way,"  said  Vasili  Andr^ich, 
stopping  his  horse. 

Nikita  silently  climbed  out  of  the  sleigh  and,  holding 
up  his  cloak,  which  now  stuck  to  him  in  the  wind,  and 
now  blew  away  from  him  and  came  near  falling  off', 
started  to  walk  over  the  snow ;  he  went  to  one  side,  and 
then  to  the  other.  Three  or  four  times  he  was  completely 
lost  from  sight.  Finally  he  returned  and  took  the  reins 
out  of  Vasili  Andrdich's  hands. 

"  We  must  go  to  the  right,"  he  said,  sternly  and  with 
determination,  as  he  turned  the  horse. 

"  Very  well,  let  it  he  to  the  right,"  said  Vasili  Andr^ich, 
giving  him  the  reins  and  sticking  his  frozen  hands  into 
his  sleeves. 

Nikita  made  no  reply. 

"  Come,  now,  friend,  do  your  best ! "  he  shouted  to  the 
horse,  but  the  horse,  in  spite  of  the  shaking  of  the  reins, 
went  only  at  a  walk. 

The  snow  was  here  and  there  knee-deep,  and  the  sleigh 
went  by  jerks,  with  every  motion  of  the  horse. 

Nikita  got  the  whip,  which  was  hanging  over  the  front, 
and  struck  the  horse.  The  good  horse,  which  was  un- 
accustomed to  the  whip,  yanked  the  sleigh,  went  at  a 
trot,  but  immediately  passed  over  to  an  amble  and  walk. 
Thus  they  travelled  for  about  five  minutes.  It  was  dark 
and  the  snow  fell  from  above  and  rose  from  below,  so  that 
it  was  at  times  impossible  to  see  the  arch.  The  sleigh 
seemed  now  and  then  to  stand  still,  and  the  field  to  run 
backwards.  Suddenly  the  horse  came  to  an  abrupt  stand- 
still, apparently  noticing  something  wrong  in  front  of 
him.  Nikita  again  jumped  out,  throwing  down  the  reins, 
and  went  ahead  of  the  horse,  to  see  what  it  was  that  had 
brought  him  to  a  standstill,  but  he  had  barely  made  a  step 


MASTER   AND    WORKMAN  457 

in  front  of  the  horse,  when  his  feet  slipped  and  he  rolled 
down  an  incline. 

"  Whoa,  whoa,  whoa,"  he  said  to  himself  as  he  fell,  and 
tried  to  stop  himself,  but  he  could  not,  and  he  stopped 
only  when  his  feet  cut  their  way  into  a  thick  layer  of 
snow  which  had  been  blown  up  from  the  bottom  of  the 
ravine.  The  overhanging  snow-drift,  disturbed  by  Nikita's 
fall,  caved  in  over  him  and  fell  behind  his  collar. 

"  What  is  the  matter  with  you  ?  "  Nikita  said,  reproach- 
fully addressing  the  drift  and  the  ravine,  and  shaking  the 
snow  out  from  behind  his  collar. 

"  Nikita,  oh,  Nikita ! "  Vasili  Audr^ich  called  from 
above. 

But  Nikita  made  no  reply. 

He  had  no  time :  he  was  shaking  off  the  snow ;  then 
he  looked  for  the  whip,  which  he  had  dropped  as  he 
rolled  down  the  incline.  When  he  found  his  whip, 
he  tried  to  climb  straight  back,  where  he  had  rolled 
down,  but  there  was  no  possibility  of  getting  up ;  he 
kept  rolling  back,  so  that  he  had  to  go  down-hill,  to  find 
a  way  up.  About  three  sazhens  from  the  place  where  he 
had  rolled  down,  he  with  difficulty  crawled  up-hill,  and 
followed  the  edge  of  the  ravine  back  to  the  place  where 
the  horse  should  have  been.  He  did  not  see  either  the 
horse  or  the  sleigh ;  but  as  he  was  walking  against  the 
wind,  he  heard,  before  seeing  anything,  Vasili  Andrdich's 
shouts  and  Yellow-muzzle's  neighing,  for  they  had  both 
made  him  out. 

"  I  am  coming,  I  am  coming ;  what  makes  you  yell 
so  ? "  he  said. 

Only  when  he  had  come  up  to  the  sleigh  did  he  see 
the  horse  and  Vasili  Andr^ich,  who  was  standing  near  it 
and  looking  enormous. 

"  Where  in  the  devil  have  you  been  ?  We  have  to  go 
back.  Let  us  get  back  to  Grishkino,"  the  master  began 
angrily  to  reproach  Nikita. 


458  MASTER   AND    WORKMAN 

"  I  should  be  glad  to  go  back,  Vasili  Andreich,  but  where 
shall  we  go  ?  Here  is  such  a  terrible  ravine  that,  if  we 
get  into  it,  we  shall  never  get  out.  I  had  such  a  fall  that 
I  barely  got  out  ahve." 

"  Well,  are  we  going  to  stay  here  ?  We  have  to  go 
somewhere,"  said  Vasili  Andreich. 

Nikita  did  not  say  anything.  He  seated  himself  in 
the  sleigh,  with  his  back  to  the  wind,  took  off  his  boots 
and  shook  out  the  snow  which  had  fallen  into  them,  and, 
getting  a  handful  of  straw,  carefully  stopped  a  hole  inside 
his  left  boot. 

Vasili  Andr(5ich  was  silent,  as  though  leaving  every- 
thing now  to  Nikita.  After  putting  on  his  boots,  Nikita 
stuck  his  feet  into  the  sleigh,  again  put  on  his  mittens, 
took  the  reins,  and  turned  the  horse  alongside  the  ravine. 
But  they  had  not  travelled  one  hundred  steps,  when  the 
horse  again  stood  still.     In  front  of  him  was  another  ravine. 

Nikita  again  climbed  out  and  again  trudged  over  the 
snow.  He  walked  for  quite  awhile.  Finally  he  ap- 
peared from  the  opposite  side  to  the  one  from  which 
he  had  started, 

"  Andreich,  are  you  alive  ? "  he  shouted. 

"  Here  ! "  answered  Vasih  Andreich.  "  Well,  what  is 
it?" 

"  I  can't  make  out.  It  is  dark,  —  nothing  but  ravines. 
We  must  again  travel  against  the  wind." 

They  started  again ;  again  Nikita  went  trudging  over 
the  snow.  He  seated  himself  again,  and  again  trudged, 
and  finally  stopped,  out  of  breath,  near  the  sleigh. 

"  Well,  what  is  it  ? "  asked  Vasili  Andreich. 

"  I  am  all  worn  out,  and  the  horse  is  stopping,  —  that's 
what  it  is." 

"  What  is  to  be  done  ?  " 

"  Well,  wait." 

Nikita  went  away  again,  and  soon  came  back. 

"  Follow  me,"  he  said,  walking  in  front  of  the  horse. 


MASTER   AND   WORKMAN  459 

Yasili  Andr^ich  no  longer  gave  any  orders,  but  submis- 
sively did  Nikita's  bidding. 

"  Here,  after  me,"  shouted  Nikita,  walking  swiftly  to 
the  right  and  seizing  Yellow-muzzle  by  the  reins  and 
directing  him  somewhere  down  into  a  snow-drift. 

The  horse  at  first  refused  to  go,  but  then  jerked  for- 
ward, hoping  to  jump  across  the  drift,  but  failed  and 
settled  in  it  up  to  the  collar. 

"  Get  out ! "  Nikita  shouted  to  Vasili  Andr^ich,  who 
continued  to  sit  in  the  sleigh,  and,  taking  hold  of  one 
shaft,  began  to  push  the  sleigh  down  toward  the  horse. 
"  It  is  hard,  friend,"  he  addressed  Yellow-muzzle,  "  but 
what  is  to  be  done  ?  Just  a  little  pull  !  Come  now, 
come  now,  just  a  little  bit ! "  he  shouted. 

The  horse  jerked  once,  then  another  time,  but  still  did 
not  get  out,  and  again  stopped,  as  though  considering 
something. 

"  Friend,  this  won't  do,"  Nikita  admonished  Yellow- 
muzzle.     "  Just  a  little  more  ! " 

Again  Nikita  tugged  at  the  shaft  on  his  side.  Vasili 
Andr^ich  did  the  same  on  his.  The  horse  moved  his 
head,  then  gave  a  sudden  jerk. 

"  Come  now,  you  will  not  drown,  don't  be  afraid  ! "  cried 
Nikita. 

A  jump,  a  second,  a  third,  and  finally  the  horse  got  out 
of  the  drift,  and  stopped,  breathing  heavily  and  shaking  off 
the  snow.  Nikita  wanted  to  lead  on,  but  Vasili  Andreich 
was  so  much  out  of  breatli  in  liis  two  fur  coats  that  he 
could  not  walk,  and  tlirew  himself  into  the  sleigh. 

"  Let  me  rest  awhile,"  lie  said,  loosening  the  kerchief 
with  which  he  had  in  the  village  tied  up  the  collar  of  his 
fur  coat. 

"  It's  all  right  here ;  lie  there,"  said  Nikita,  "  and  I 
will  lead  ahead,"  and  with  Vasili  Andreich  in  the  sleigh 
he  led  the  liorse  by  tlie  l)ridle  about  ten  steps  down,  and 
then  up  again,  and  he  stopped. 


i60  MASTER   AND    WORKMAN 

The  spot  where  Nikita  stopped  was  not  in  the  ravine, 
where  the  snow  which  was  swept  from  the  hillocks  had 
lodged  so  as  to  cover  them  completely ;  but  it  was  none 
the  less  partly  protected  against  the  wind  by  the  edge  of 
the  ravine.  There  were  moments  when  the  wind  seemed 
to  die  down  a  little ;  but  this  did  not  last  long,  and,  as 
though  to  make  up  for  this  rest,  the  storm  swept  down 
later  with  tenfold  force,  and  bore  down  and  whirled  worse 
than  ever.  There  was  such  a  gust  of  wind  at  the  mo- 
ment when  Vasili  Andr^ich,  getting  his  breath  back, 
climbed  out  of  the  sleigh  and  walked  over  to  Nikita,  in 
order  to  speak  about  what  they  should  do.  Both  invol- 
untarily bent  their  heads  and  waited  before  speaking,  until 
the  fury  of  the  gust  should  have  passed.  Yellow-muzzle, 
too,  angrily  let  his  ears  drop  and  shook  his  head.  As 
soon  as  the  gust  subsided  a  little,  Nikita  took  off  his 
mittens,  which  he  stuck  into  his  belt,  breathed  into  his 
hands  and  began  to  unstrap  the  bridle  from  the  arch. 

"What  are  you  doing  there?"  asked  Vat-i  Audr^ich. 

"  I  am  unhitching,  what  else  ?  I  have  no  more  strength," 
Nikita  answered,  as  though  to  excuse  himself. 

"  Sha'n't  we  get  out  anywhere  ? " 

"  No,  we  sha'n't,  and  we  shall  only  wear  out  the  horse. 
The  dear  one  is  not  himself  now,"  said  Nikita,  pointing 
to  the  horse,  which  was  standing  submissively,  ready  for 
anything,  and  breathing  heavily  with  his  sloping,  wet 
sides.  "  We  have  to  stay  here  overnight,"  he  repeated, 
as  though  getting  ready  to  stay  overnight  in  an  inn,  and 
began  to  loosen  the  collar-strap. 

The  clamp  sprang  open. 

"  Sha'n't  we  freeze  to  death  ? "  said  Vasili  Andr^ich. 

"Well,  if  I  do,  I  sha'n't  refuse,"  said  Nikita. 


VT. 

VAsfLl  Andr^ich  was  quite  warm  in  his  two  fur  coats, 
especially  after  he  had  tried  to  get  through  the  drift ;  but 
the  frost  ran  up  aud  down  his  back  when  he  understood 
that  he  would  really  have  to  stay  there  overnight.  To 
calm  himself,  he  sat  down  in  the  sleigh,  and  began  to  take 
out  his  cigarettes  and  matches. 

In  the  meantime  Nikita  unharnessed  the  horse.  He 
unstrapped  the  belly-band  and  the  saddle-straps,  took  out 
the  reins,  loosened  the  collar-straps,  took  out  the  arch, 
and  kept  all  the  time  talking  to  the  horse,  to  encourage 
him. 

"  Come  out  now,  come,"  he  said,  taking  him  out  from 
between  the  shafts.  "  We  will  tie  you  up  here.  I'll  put 
some  straw  under  you,  and  I'll  take  off"  the  bridle,"  he  said, 
while  doing  what  he  said.  "  You'll  have  a  bite,  and  you'll 
feel  better." 

But  Yellow-muzzle  was  apparently  not  quieted  by 
Nikita's  talk,  and  was  agitated :  he  kept  stepping  now  on 
one  foot,  and  now  on  another,  pressed  close  to  the  sleigh, 
standing  with  his  back  against  the  wind,  and  rubbed  his 
head  against  Nikita's  sleeve. 

As  though  not  to  refuse  Nikita's  treatment  of  straw, 
which  Nikita  had  shoved  under  his  nose,  Yellow-nmzzle 
once  jerked  out  a  handful  of  straw  from  the  sleigh,  but 
immediately  decided  that  this  was  no  time  for  straw,  and 
so  dropped  it,  and  the  wind  scattered  it  in  a  twinkle 
and  covered  it  with  snow. 

"  Now  we  will  make  a  sign,"  said  Nikita.  Turning  the 
sleigh   toward  the  wind,  and  tying   up   the   shafts  with 

4G1 


462  MASTER   AND   WORKMAN 

the  saddle-strap,  he  raised  them  up  and  drew  them  close 
to  the  foot-board.  "  If  we  are  buried  in  the  snow,  good 
people  will  see  the  shafts,  and  will  dig  us  out,"  said 
Nikita,  clapping  his  mittens  together  and  putting  them  on. 
"  That's  the  way  the  old  people  taught  me." 

Vasili  Andr^ich  in  the  meantime  opened  his  fur  coat 
and  covered  himself  with  its  skirts,  and  began  to  rub  one 
sulphur  match  after  another  against  the  steel  box ;  but  his 
hands  trembled,  and  the  lighted  matches  one  after  another, 
even  before  burning  up  brightly,  or  at  the  very  moment 
that  he  carried  them  to  the  cigarette,  were  blown  out  by 
the  wind.  Finally  one  match  caught  fire  and  for  a 
moment  lighted  up  the  fur  of  his  coat,  his  hand  with  the 
gold  ring  on  the  inwardly  bent  forefinger,  and  the  snow- 
covered  straw  which  peeped  out  underneath  the  matting, 
and  the  cigarette  caught  fire.  He  puffed  at  it  two  or 
three  times,  swallowed  the  smoke,  breathed  it  out  through 
his  moustache,  and  wanted  to  take  another  puff,  but  the 
tobacco  with  the  fire  was  caught  in  a  gust  and  carried 
av/ay  in  the  same  direction  as  the  straw. 

But  even  these  few  swallows  of  the  tobacco  smoke 
cheered  up  Vasili  Andr^ich. 

"  If  we  have  to  stay  here  overnight,  —  let  it  be  so ! " 
he  said,  with  determination.  "  Wait,  I'll  make  a  flag,"  he 
said,  taking  up  the  kerchief,  which  he  had  loosened  from 
his  collar  and  had  thrown  down  in  the  sleigh ;  he  took 
off  his  gloves,  stood  up  on  the  foot-board  of  the  sleigh, 
and,  stretcliing  forward,  in  order  to  reach  up  to  the  saddle- 
strap,  tightly  tied  the  kerchief  to  it  near  the  shaft. 

The  kerchief  immediately  began  to  flutter  desperately, 
now  sticking  to  the  shaft,  now  blowing  away,  stretching 
out,  and  flapping. 

"  See  how  well  it  is  done  ! "  said  Vasili  Andr^ich,  admir- 
ing his  work,  as  he  let  himself  down  into  the  sleigh.  "  It 
would  be  warmer  together,  but  there  is  no  room  for  both 
of  us,"  he  said. 


MASTER   AND    WORKMAN  463 

"  I  will  find  a  place,"  replied  Nikita,  "  only  I  have  to 
cover  the  horse  first,  for  the  dear  one  is  all  in  a  sweat. 
Let  me  have  it ! "  he  added,  and,  walking  over  to  the 
sleigh,  he  pulled  the  matting  away  from  underneath 
Vasili  Andr^ich. 

When  he  had  pulled  it  out,  he  doubled  it,  and,  throwing 
off  the  crupper  and  taking  otf  the  saddle-bolster,  covered 
Yellow-muzzle  with  it. 

"  You  will  be  warmer  now,  silly  one,"  he  said,  putting 
the  saddle-bolster  and  the  crupper  back  over  the  matting. 
"  You  won't  need  the  blanket,  will  you  ?  And  let  me 
have  a  little  straw,"  said  Nikita,  after  finisliing  this  work 
and  again  walking  up  to  the  sleigh. 

And  taking  both  away  from  underneath  Vasili  Andr^- 
ich,  he  went  to  the  back  of  the  sleigh,  burrowed  a  hole 
for  himself  in  the  snow,  put  the  straw  into  it,  and  pulling 
his  cap  over  his  face,  and  wrapping  himself  in  the  caftan, 
and  covering  himself  with  the  blanket,  sat  down  on  the 
straw  bed,  leaning  against  the  bast  back  of  the  sleigh, 
which  protected  him  against  the  wind  and  the  snow. 

Vasili  Andr^ich  disapprovingly  shook  his  head  at  what 
Nikita  was  doing,  as  he  in  general  did  not  approve  of  the 
ignocance  and  stupidity  of  any  peasant,  and  began  to 
arrange  himself  for  the  night. 

He  straightened  out  what  straw  there  was  left  in  the 
sleigh,  put  a  lot  of  it  under  him,  and,  sticking  his  hands 
into  his  sleeves,  rested  his  head  at  the  front  of  the  sleigh, 
where  he  was  protected  against  the  wind. 

He  did  not  feel  like  sleeping.  He  lay  there  thinking : 
he  kept  thinking  of  one  thing,  which  formed  the  only 
aim,  meaning,  joy,  and  pride  of  his  life,  —  of  how  much 
money  he  had  made  and  how  much  more  he  could  make ; 
how  much  other  people,  whom  he  knew,  had  earned  and 
now  possessed,  and  how  these  others  had  made  their 
money,  and  how  he  could,  hke  them,  make  as  mucli. 
The  purchase  of  the  Gory^chkino  forest  was  to  him  an 


464  MASTER    AND   WORKMAN 

affair  of  great  moment.  He  expected  to  get  rich  at  once 
from  this  forest,  to  make,  probably,  ten  thousand.  And 
he  began  mentally  to  estimate  the  value  of  the  forest, 
which  he  had  seen  in  the  fall,  and  in  which  he  had 
counted  all  the  trees  on  an  area  of  two  desyatinas. 

"The  oak  will  be  good  for  runners;  and  then  the 
beams;  and  there  will  still  be  left  some  thirty  sazhens 
to  the  desyatina,"  he  said  to  himself.  "  There  will  be  left 
at  the  least  two  hundred  and  a  quarter  to  each  desyatina. 
Fifty-six  desyatinas,  —  fifty-six  hundreds,  and  fifty-six 
hundreds,  and  fifty-six  tens,  and  again  fifty-six  tens,  and 
fifty-six  fives."  He  saw  that  it  amounted  to  at  least 
twelve  thousand,  but  he  was  unable  without  the  abacus 
to  make  it  out  exactly.  "  Still,  I  won't  give  ten  thousand  ; 
I  will  give  eight,  with  the  deduction  of  the  clearings.  I 
will  bribe  the  surveyor,  —  I  will  give  him  one  hundred, 
or  even  one  hundred  and  fifty ;  he  will  make  out  some 
five  desyatinas  of  clearing.  He  will  let  me  have  it  for 
eight.  I'll  throw  three  thousand  at  once  into  his  face. 
That  will  soften  him  surely,"  he  thought,  feeling  the 
pocketbook  in  his  pocket  with  the  upper  part  of  his  arm. 
"  God  knows,  how  we  have  lost  our  way !  The  forest 
ought  to  be  here  and  the  guard-house.  We  should  be 
hearing  the  dogs.  They  don't  bark,  the  accursed  ones, 
when  you  want  them  to." 

He  removed  the  collar  from  his  ear,  and  began  to 
listen  ;  there  could  be  heard  the  same  whisthng  of  the 
wind  and  the  flapping  of  the  kerchief,  and  the  pattering 
of  the  falling  snow  against  the  bast  of  the  sleigh.  He 
covered  himself  again.  "  If  I  knew  for  sure,  we  could 
stay  here  overnight.  Well,  we  shall  get  there  to-morrow. 
It  will  be  only  one  day  lost.  They  will  not  travel  in  such 
weather,  either."  And  he  recalled  that  on  the  ninth  he 
was  to  receive  money  from  the  butcher  for  the  steers, 
"  He  intended  to  come  himself  ;  he  will  not  find  me 
at  home,  —  my  wife  will  not  know  how  to  receive  the 


MASTER   AND    WORKMAN  465 

money.  She  is  very  ignorant.  She  does  not  know  the 
right  way  to  act,"  he  continued  to  think,  as  he  recalled 
that  on  the  day  before  she  had  not  known  how  to  act  in 
the  presence  of  the  rural  judge,  who  had  called  on  him 
for  the  holiday.  "  Of  course,  she  is  a  woman  !  She  has 
not  seen  anything  !  What  kind  of  a  house  did  we  have, 
when  my  parents  were  alive  ?  Just  a  wealthy  peasant's 
house  ;  a  groats-sheller  and  an  irin,  —  and  that  was  all  the 
property.  And  wliat  have  I  done  in  fifteen  years  ?  A 
shop,  two  taverns,  a  mill,  a  grain-store,  two  rented  estates, 
a  house,  and  a  granary  under  tin  roofs,"  he  thought,  with 
pride.  "  It  is  different  from  what  it  was  in  the  time  of 
my  father.  Whose  name  is  everywhere  known  in  the 
district  ?     Brekhunov's ! 

"And  why  is  this  so?  Because  I  attend  to  business,  I 
work  harder  than  others,  who  are  lazy  or  busy  themselves 
with  foolish  things.  I  do  not  sleep  at  nights.  Storm  or 
not,  I  go  out.  Well,  that's  the  way  to  do  business.  They 
think  that  it  is  just  play  to  make  money.  No,  you  have 
to  work  and  trouble  your  head.  And  you  have  to  stay 
overnight  in  the  open,  and  not  sleep  nights.  How  your 
pillow  is  tossed  under  your  head  from  much  thinking,"  he 
reflected,  proudly.  "  And  people  imagine  that  it  is  luck 
that  makes  men.  There,  the  ]\lirdnovs  have  millions  now. 
Why  ?  Work,  and  God  will  give  you.  If  God  only  grants 
us  health  ! " 

And  the  thought  that  lie,  too,  might  be  such  a  mil- 
lionaire as  Mironov,  who  began  with  nothing,  so  agitated 
Vasili  Andr^ich  that  he  felt  the  need  of  talking  with 
somebody.  But  there  was  no  one  to  talk  to.  If  he  could 
reach  Goryachkino,  he  would  talk  with  the  landed  pro- 
prietor,—  he  would  show  him  a  thing  or  two. 

"  How  it  blows !  There  will  be  such  a  drift  that  we 
shall  not  be  able  to  get  out  in  the  morning,"  he  thought, 
listening  to  the  gust  of  the  wind,  which  blew  against  the 
front  of  the  sleigh,  and  bent  it,  and  whisked  the  snow 


466  MASTER   AND    WORKMAN 

against  the  bast.  He  rose  a  little  and  looked  around :  in 
the  white,  agitated  darkness  could  be  seen  only  Yellow- 
muzzle's  black-looking  head  and  his  back,  which  was 
covered  with  the  flapping  matting,  and  his  thick  knotted 
tail,  while  aU  around,  in  front,  behind,  there  was  every- 
where a  monotonous,  agitated  darkness,  which  at  times 
seemed  barely  lifted,  and  at  times  again  more  dense. 

"  I  had  no  business  Hsteniug  to  Nikita,"  he  thought. 
"  We  ought  to  be  travelling,  —  we  should  somehow  get 
somewhere.  We  could  get  back  to  Grishkino,  and  could 
stay  overnight  at  Taras's.  We  shall  have  to  stay  here  all 
night.  What  good  could  com.e  from  this  ?  Well,  God 
rewards  for  labours,  and  gives  nothing  to  vagabonds,  lazy- 
bones, or  fools.  I  must  have  a  smoke  ! "  He  sat  up,  took 
out  his  cigarette-holder,  lay  with  his  belly  downward, 
covering  the  fire  from  the  wind  with  the  skirt  of  his  coat, 
but  the  wind  none  the  less  found  its  way  in  and  put  out 
one  match  after  another.  Finally,  he  managed  to  light 
one,  and  he  began  to  smoke.  He  was  very  much  pleased 
to  have  at  last  succeeded.  Though  it  was  the  wind  that 
smoked  the  most  of  the  cigarette,  he  none  the  less  took 
three  or  four  puffs,  and  he  again  felt  more  cheerful.  He 
again  lay  back  against  the  sleigh,  wrapped  himself  up,  and 
began  once  more  to  bring  back  memories  and  reveries, 
and  suddenly  lost  his  consciousness  and  fell  asleep. 

But  suddenly  it  was  as  though  something  gave  him  a 
push  and  woke  him  up.  Whether  it  was  Yellow-muzzle 
who  had  jerked  out  some  straw  under  him,  or  something 
witliiu  him  agitated  him,  he  awoke,  and  his  heart  began 
to  knock  so  rapidly  and  so  strongly  that  it  seemed  to  him 
that  the  sleigh  was  shaking  under  him.  He  opened  his 
eyes.  Around  him  all  was  as  before,  but  it  seemed  to 
him  to  be  lighter. 

"  It  is  growing  lighter,"  he  thought,  "  no  doubt  it  is  not 
far  from  daylight."  But  he  immediately  recalled  that  it 
was  lighter  because  the  moon  was  up.     He  raised  himself 


MASTER   AND    WORKMAN  467 

a  little  and  looked  first  at  the  horse.  Yellow-muzzle 
was  still  standing  with  his  back  against  the  wind,  and 
was  all  a-tremble.  The  snow-covered  matting  was  turned 
to  one  side,  the  crupper  had  shpped  down,  and  the  snow- 
covered  head  with  the  fluttering  forelock  and  mane  could 
now  be  made  out.  Vasili  Andreich  leaned  against  the 
back  of  the  sleigh  and  glanced  at  the  horse.  Nikita  was 
still  sitting  in  the  same  posture  in  which  he  had  been 
sitting  before.  The  blanket,  with  which  he  had  covered 
himself,  and  his  feet  were  thickly  covered  with  snow. 

"  I  am  afraid  the  peasant  will  freeze  to  death ;  he  has 
miserable  clothes  on.  They  will  make  me  responsible  for 
him.  What  shiftless  people  they  are !  Truly  ignorant," 
thought  Vasili  Andreich.  He  felt  like  taking  the  matting 
off  the  horse  and  covering  Nikita  with  it,  but  it  was  cold 
to  get  up  or  move  around,  and  he  was  afraid  the  horse 
might  freeze  to  death.  "  What  did  I  take  him  for  ?  It 
is  all  her  silliness ! "  thought  Vasili  Andreich,  as  he  re- 
called his  wife,  whom  he  did  ncjt  love,  and  he  again  rolled 
over  to  his  former  place  in  the  front  part  of  the  sleigh. 
"  Uncle  once  sat  the  whole  night  in  the  snow,  just  like 
me,"  he  thought,  "  and  he  was  all  right.  Well,  when  they 
dug  out  Sevastyan,"  another  example  occurred  to  him, 
"  he  was  dead,  as  stiff"  as  a  frozen  carcass." 

"  If  I  had  remained  overnight  in  Grishkino,  nothing 
would  have  happened."  And,  wrapping  himself  carefully 
so  that  the  warmth  of  the  fur  might  not  be  wasted,  but 
might  warm  him  in  the  neck,  at  the  knees,  and  in  the 
soles  of  his  feet,  he  closed  his  eyes,  trying  once  more  to 
fall  asleep.  But,  no  matter  how  much  he  tried  now,  he 
was  unable  to  forgot  himself,  but,  on  the  contrary,  felt 
himself  entirely  cheerful  and  animated.  He  began  once 
more  to  count  up  his  profit,  the  debts  people  owed  him, 
and  again  boasted  to  himself  and  rejoiced  at  himself  and 
at  his  position ;  but  everything  was  now  constantly  inter- 
rupted by  furtive  fear  and  the  annoying  thought  that  he 


i68  MASTER   AND    WORKMAN 

had  not  done  right  in  not  staying  in  Grishkino.  "I 
should  be  lying  on  a  bench  and  be  warm  now."  He 
turned  around  several  times  and  adjusted  himself,  trying 
to  find  a  more  comfortable  position,  which  would  be  pro- 
tected from  the  wind,  but  he  felt  all  the  time  uncom- 
fortable; he  raised  himself  again,  changed  his  position, 
wrapped  his  legs,  closed  his  eyes,  and  grew  silent.  But 
either  his  cramped  feet  in  their  strong  felt  boots  begf.n 
to  pain  him,  or  the  wind  blew  through,  and  he,  lying 
awhile,  again,  with  anger  at  himself,  recalled  how  he 
might  have  been  sleeping  now  peacefully  in  the  warm 
hut  at  Grishkino,  and  he  got  up  again,  tossed  about, 
wrapped  himself,  and  again  lay  down. 

At  one  time  Vasili  Andr^ich  was  sure  he  heard  the 
distant  crowing  of  a  cock.  He  was  happy,  opened  his  fur 
coat,  and  began  to  listen  intently,  but,  no  matter  how 
much  he  strained  his  hearing,  he  could  not  hear  anything 
but  the  sound  of  the  wind,  w^hich  whistled  in  the  shafts 
and  flapped  the  kerchief,  and  the  sound  of  the  snow 
swishing  against  the  bast  of  the  sleigh. 

Nikita  remained  sitting  in  the  same  posture  that  he 
had  taken  in  the  evening,  and  did  not  even  make  any 
reply  to  the  words  of  VasiH  Andr^ich,  who  called  to  him 
two  or  three  times.  "  He  does  not  worry  much,  —  no 
doubt  he  is  asleep,"  Vasili  Andr^ich  thought  in  anger  as 
he  looked  over  the  back  of  his  sleigh  at  Nikita,  who  was 
covered  with  a  thick  layer  of  snow. 

Vasili  Andr^ich  got  up  and  lay  down  again  about 
twenty  times.  It  seemed  to  him  that  there  would  be  no 
end  to  this  night.  "  Now  it  must  be  near  to  morning," 
he  once  thought,  as  he  got  up  and  looked  around.  "I 
will  look  at  my  watch.  It  will  make  me  cold  to  unwrap 
myself.  Well,  when  I  know  that  it  is  near  morning, 
I  shall  feel  more  at  ease.     We  shall  hitch  up  again." 

In  the  depth  of  his  heart  Vasili  Andr^ich  knew  that  it 
could  not  yet  be  morning,  but  he  began  to  become  more 


MASTER   AND    WORKMAN  469 

and  more  timid,  and  wanted  at  one  and  the  same  time  to 
verify  and  to  deceive  himself.  He  carefully  slipped  the 
hooks  off  the  eyes  of  his  fur  coat,  and,  putting  his  hand 
in  the  bosom  of  his  coat,  rummaged  for  a  long  time  before 
he  found  his  waistcoat.  He  with  difficulty  drew  his  sil- 
ver watch  with  the  enamelled  flower  design  from  his 
pocket,  and  tried  to  make  out  the  time.  He  could  not 
see  anything  witliout  light.  He  again  lay  face  downward 
on  his  elbows  and  knees,  and  just  as  when  he  had  lighted 
his  cigarette  took  out  the  matches  and  began  to  strike 
them.  Now  he  went  to  work  in  a  more  methodical  man- 
ner, and,  feeling  with  his  fingers  for  a  match  with  the 
greatest  amount  of  phosphorus,  lighted  it  at  once.  He 
pushed  the  face  of  the  watch  toward  the  light,  and  when 
he  looked  at  it  he  did  not  believe  his  eyes.  It  was  only 
ten  minutes  past  twelve.  There  was  yet  a  whole  night 
ahead  of  him. 

"  Oh,  what  a  long  night ! "  thought  Vasili  Andr(?ich, 
feeling  the  cold  run  up  his  spine ;  and,  wrapping  himself 
and  covering  himself  again,  he  pressed  into  the  corner  of 
the  sleigh,  preparing  himself  to  wait  in  patience.  Sud- 
denly he  clearly  heard  a  new,  live  sound  through  the 
monotonous  noise  of  the  wind.  The  sound  increased 
evenly,  and,  upon  reaching  complete  clearness,  began  just 
as  evenly  to  die  down.  There  was  no  doubt  but  that  this 
was  a  wolf.  And  this  wolf  was  so  near  that  with  the 
wind  it  was  possible  to  hear  how  he,  moving  his  jaws, 
changed  the  sound  of  his  voice.  Vasili  Andr^ich  threw 
back  his  collar  and  listened  attentively.  Yellow-muzzle, 
too,  listened  intently,  pricking  his  ears,  and,  when  the 
wolf  ended  his  tune,  changed  the  position  of  his  feet  and 
gave  a  cautioning  snort.  After  this  Vasili  Audreich  was 
absolutely  unable  to  fall  asleep,  or  even  to  calm  himself. 
No  matter  how  much  he  tried  to  think  of  his  calculations, 
his  business,  and  his  fame,  and  of  his  worth  and  wealth, 
terror  took  even  more  possession  of  him,  and  above  all  his 


470  MASTER   AND    WORKMAN 

thoughts  hovered,  and  to  all  his  thoughts  was  added  the 
thought  as  to  why  he  had  not  stayed  for  the  night  at 
Grishkino. 

"  The  devil  take  the  forest !  I  have,  thank  God, 
enough  business  without  it.  Oh,  if  I  could  but  pass  the 
night !  "  he  said  to  himself.  "  They  say  that  drunken  peo- 
ple freeze  to  death,"  he  thought,  "  and  I  have  had  some- 
thing to  drink."  And,  watching  his  sense  of  feeling,  he 
noticed  that  he  was  beginning  to  tremble,  not  knowing 
himself  why  he  was  trembling,  whether  from  cold  or  from 
fear.  He  tried  to  cover  bimself  and  to  he  as  before,  but 
he  was  unable  to  do  so.  He  could  not  remain  in  one 
spot,  —  he  felt  like  getting  up,  undertaking  something,  in 
order  to  drown  the  rising  terror,  against  which  he  felt 
himself  to  be  powerless.  He  again  drew  out  his  cigarettes 
and  matches,  but  there  were  but  three  matches  left,  and 
they  were  all  bad.  All  three  sizzled,  without  catching 
fire. 

"  The  devil  take  you,  accursed  one,  —  go  to  ! "  he 
cursed,  himself  not  knowing  whom,  and  flung  away  the 
crushed  cigarette.  He  wanted  to  fling  away  the  match- 
box, too,  but  he  arrested  tlie  motion  of  his  hand,  and 
stuck  it  into  his  pocket.  He  was  assailed  by  such  unrest 
that  he  could  no  longer  stay  in  one  spot.  He  climbed 
out  of  the  sleigh  and,  standing  with  his  back  against  the 
wind,  began  to  gird  himself  tightly  low  down  in  the  waist. 

"  What  sense  is  there  in  lying  and  waiting  for  death  ? 
I'll  get  on  the  horse  and  —  march  !  "  it  suddenly  occurred 
to  him.  "  When  I  am  on  the  horse's  back,  he  will  not 
stop.  As  for  him,"  he  thought,  in  reference  to  Nikita, 
"  it  does  not  make  much  difference  if  he  dies.  What  kind 
of  a  life  is  his,  anyway  ?  He  does  not  even  care  much 
for  life,  while  I,  thank  God,  have  something  to  live  on." 

And  untying  the  horse,  he  threw  the  reins  over  his 
neck  and  tried  to  jump  on  him,  but  the  fur  coats  and  the 
boots  were  so  heavy  that  he  fell  down.     Then  he  stood 


MASTER   AND    WORKMAN  471 

up  on  the  sleigh,  and  tried  to  mount  from  the  sleigh. 
But  the  sleigh  tottered  under  his  weight,  and  he  fell 
down  again.  Finally  he  moved  the  horse  for  the  third 
time  up  to  the  sleigh,  and,  standing  carefully  on  its  edge, 
finally  succeeded  in  getting  on  his  belly  across  the  horse. 
Lying  thus  awhile,  he  moved  forward  once,  and  twice, 
and  finally  threw  his  leg  across  the  horse's  back,  and 
seated  himself,  pressing  with  the  soles  of  his  boots  against 
the  lower  crupper  strap.  The  motion  of  the  tottering 
sleigh  woke  up  Nikita,  and  he  got  up,  and  Vasili  Andr^ich 
thought  that  he  was  saying  something. 

"  To  listen  to  you,  fools !  Why  should  I  perish,  for 
nothing  ?  "  shouted  Vasili  Andrt!;ich,  and,  adjusting  the 
flapping  skirts  of  his  fur  coat  under  his  knees,  he  turned 
the  horse  and  drove  him  away  from  the  sleigh,  in  the 
direction  where,  he  supposed,  was  the  forest  and  the  guard- 
house. 


VII. 

From  the  time  that  Nikita  had  seated  himself,  after 
being  covered  with  the  blanket,  against  the  back  of  the 
sleigh,  he  had  remained  motionless  in  the  same  posture. 
Like  all  men  who  live  with  Nature  and  know  want,  he 
was  patient  and  could  patiently  wait  for  hours,  even  days, 
without  experiencing  either  restlessness  or  irritation.  He 
heard  his  master  call  him,  but  made  no  reply,  because 
he  did  not  want  to  move  or  talk.  Though  he  was  still 
warm  from  the  tea  he  had  drunk  and  from  having  moved 
about  a  great  deal,  when  climbing  over  the  snow-drifts,  he 
knew  that  this  heat  would  not  last  long  and  that  he  would 
not  be  able  to  warm  himself  by  moving,  because  he  felt 
himself  as  tired  as  a  horse,  when  it  stops  and  is  unable, 
in  spite  of  all  the  whipping,  to  move  on,  and  the  master 
sees  that  it  has  to  be  fed,  to  be  able  to  work  again.  One 
foot  in  the  torn  boot  was  cold,  and  he  no  longer  felt  the 
big  toe  on  it.  Besides,  he  was  getting  colder  and  colder 
over  his  whole  body.  The  thought  that  he  might,  and 
in  all  probability  would,  die  that  night,  occurred  to  him, 
but  this  thought  did  not  seem  particularly  disagreeable  or 
terrible  to  him.  This  thought  was  not  particularly  disa- 
greeable, because  his  whole  life  had  not  been  a  continuous 
holiday,  but,  on  the  contrary,  an  unceasing  service,  from 
which  he  was  beginning  to  be  tired.  Nor  was  this 
thought  particularly  terrible  to  him,  because,  besides 
those  masters,  like  Vasili  Andr^ich,  whom  he  had  been 
ierving  here,  he  felt  himself  always,  in  this  life,  depend- 
ent on   the  chief  Master,  who  had  sent    him  into    this 

life,  and  he  knew  that  even  dying  he  would  remain  in 

472 


MASTER   AND    WORKMAN  473 

the  power  of  the  same  Master,  and  that  this  Master 
would  not  do  him  any  harm.  "  It  is  a  pity  to  give  up 
what  I  am  used  to  and  accustomed  to.  Well,  what  is  to 
be  done  ?     I  shall  have  to  get  used  to  the  new  things." 

"  Sins  ? "  he  thought,  and  he  recalled  his  drunkenness, 
the  money  wasted  in  drink,  the  insult  to  his  wife,  his 
cursing,  non-attendance  at  church,  non-observance  of 
fasts,  and  all  that  for  which  the  pope  had  rebuked  him 
at  the  confession.  "  Of  course,  they  are  sins ;  but  have 
I  brought  them  down  on  myself  ?  God  has  evidently 
made  me  such.  Well,  and  the  sins  !  Where  can  one 
go  to?" 

Thus  he  thought  at  first  as  to  what  might  happen  \\4th 
him  that  night,  and  later  he  no  longer  returned  to  these 
thoughts,  but  abandoned  himself  to  those  recollections 
which  naturally  occurred  to  him.  Now  he  recalled  Mar- 
fa's  arrival,  and  the  drunkenness  of  the  workmen,  and  his 
refusal  to  drink  Hquor ;  now  again  the  present  journey, 
and  Taras's  hut,  and  the  talk  about  dividing  up ;  now 
again  he  thought  of  his  boy,  of  Yellow-muzzle,  who 
would  now  get  warmed  up  under  the  blanket,  and  of  his 
master,  who  made  the  sleigh  creak,  as  he  kept  tossing 
about  in  it.  "  I  suppose,  dear  man,  you  are  not  a  bit  glad 
you  have  gone  out,"  he  thought.  "A  man  who  leads 
such  a  life  does  not  want  to  die.  It  is  not  hke  one  of 
us  fellows."  And  all  these  recollections  began  to  become 
mixed  in  liis  head,  and  he  fell  asleep. 

But  when  Vasili  Audr^ich,  seating  himself  on  his 
horse,  shook  the  sleigh,  and  the  back  of  it,  against  which 
Nikita  was  leaning,  rose,  and  a  runner  struck  Nikita  in  liis 
back,  he  awoke  avA  was  involuntarily  compelled  to  change 
his  position.  With  difficulty  straightening  out  his  legs 
and  shaking  off  the  snow  from  them,  he  got  up,  and  im- 
mediately a  painful  cold  penetrated  his  body.  When  he 
saw  what  the  matter  was,  he  wanted  Vasili  Andr^ich 
to  leave  him  the  matting,  which  the  horse  did  not  need 


474  MASTER   AND    WORKMAN" 

any  longer,  so  that  he  might  cover  himself  with  it,  and  he 
so  called  out  to  Vasili  Andr^ich. 

But  Vasili  Andr^ich  did  not  stop,  and  disappeared  in 
the  powdery  snow. 

When  Nikita  was  left  alone,  he  mused  for  awhile 
what  to  do.  He  did  not  feel  himself  strong  enough  to 
go  and  look  for  a  house.  He  could  no  longer  sit  down 
in  the  old  place,  —  it  was  all  covered  with  snow.  He  felt 
that  in  the  sleigh,  too,  he  would  not  get  warm,  because  he 
had  nothing  to  cover  himself  with,  and  his  caftan  and  fur 
coat  no  longer  kept  him  warm.  He  was  as  cold  as  though 
he  had  nothing  but  his  shirt  on.  He  felt  ill  at  ease. 
"  Father,  heavenly  Father ! "  he  muttered,  and  the  con- 
sciousness that  he  was  not  alone,  but  that  some  one  heard 
him  and  would  not  leave  him,  quieted  him.  He  drew  a 
deep  breath  and,  without  taking  the  blanket  off  his  head, 
climbed  into  the  sleigh  and  lay  down  where  his  master 
had  been  lying  before. 

But  he  could  not  warm  himself  in  the  sleigh,  either. 
At  first  he  trembled  with  his  whole  body,  then  the  chill 
passed,  and  he  began  slowly  to  lose  consciousness.  He 
did  not  know  whether  he  was  dying  or  falling  asleep,  but 
he  felt  himself  equally  prepared  for  either. 


VIIL 

In  the  meantime  Vasili  Andr^ich  drove  the  horse  with 
his  feet  and  with  the  reins  in  the  direction  where,  for 
some  reason,  he  assumed  that  the  forest  and  the  guard- 
house were.  The  suow  blinded  him,  and  the  wind,  it 
seemed,  wanted  to  stop  him,  but  he,  bending  forward  and 
constantly  wrapping  himself  in  his  fur  coat  and  sticking 
it  between  himself  and  the  cold  saddle-bolster,  which 
made  it  hard  for  him  to  sit  up,  continued  to  drive  the 
horse.  Though  with  difficulty,  the  horse  went  submis- 
sively at  a  pace  whither  he  was  directed  to  go. 

For  about  five  minutes  he  rode,  as  he  thought,  straight 
ahead,  without  seeing  anything  but  the  head  of  the  horse 
and  the  white  wilderness,  and  without  hearing  anything 
but  the  whistle  of  the  wind  about  the  ears  of  the  horse 
and  the  collar  of  his  fur  coat. 

Suddenly  something  black  stood  out  in  front  of  him. 
His  heart  fluttered  with  joy,  and  he  rode  toward  the  black 
spot,  thinking  that  he  could  make  out  the  walls  of  village 
houses.  But  the  blackness  was  not  motionless ;  it  kept 
moving,  and  was  not  a  village,  but  tall  mugwort,  which 
had  grown  out  on  a  balk  and  was  sticking  out  through  the 
snow  and  desperately  tossing  about  under  the  pressure 
of  the  wind,  which  carried  it  to  one  side  and  whistled 
through  it.  For  some  reason  the  sight  of  this  mugwort, 
agitated  by  the  merciless  wind,  made  Vasili  Andrdich 
tremble,  and  he  began  hurriedly  to  drive  the  horse, 
without  noticing  that,  in  riding  up  to  the  mugw^ort,  he 
had  changed  the  direction  wholly  and  now  was  driving 

475 


476  MASTER   AND   WORKMAN 

the  horse  in  an  entirely  different  direction,  still  thinking 
that  he  was  riding  to  the  place  where  the  guard-house 
ought  to  be.  But  the  horse  kept  turning  to  the  right, 
and  so  he  kept  turning  it  to  the  left. 

Again  something  black  appeared  in  front.  He  re- 
joiced, being  sure  that  this  time  it  certainly  was  a  village. 
But  it  was  again  a  balk,  which  was  overgrown  with  mug- 
wort.  The  dry  mugwort  was  fluttering  in  the  wind  as 
before,  for  some  reason  filling  Vasili  Andr^ich  with  terror. 
But  this  was  not  only  the  same  kind  of  mugwort :  near  by 
there  was  a  horse  track,  which  was  just  being  drifted 
over.  Vasili  Andr^ich  stopped,  bent  over,  looked  close : 
it  was  a  horse  track  that  was  just  being  covered  up, 
and  it  could  be  nobody  else's  but  his  own.  He  was 
evidently  going  around  in  a  circle,  and  within  a  small 
area.  "  I  shall  perish  in  this  way  ! "  he  thought,  but,  not 
to  submit  to  his  terror,  he  began  to  drive  his  horse  with 
more  force,  staring  at  the  white  snow  mist,  in  which  he 
thought  he  could  discern  points  of  light,  which  disap- 
peared as  soon  as  he  looked  close  at  them.  At  one  time 
he  thought  he  heard  the  barking  of  dogs  or  the  howling 
of  wolves,  but  these  sounds  were  so  feeble  and  so  indef- 
inite that  he  did  not  know  whether  he  heard  anything  or 
whether  it  only  seemed  so  to  him,  and  he  stopped  and 
began  to  listen  intently. 

Suddenly  a  terrible,  deafening  noise  was  heard  near  his 
ears,  and  everything  trembled  and  shook  under  him. 
Vasili  Andr^ich  seized  the  horse's  neck,  but  the  horse's 
neck  was  also  shaking,  and  the  terrible  sound  became 
more  terrible  still.  For  a  few  seconds  Vasili  Andr^ich 
could  not  regain  his  senses  or  make  out  what  had  hap- 
pened. What  had  happened  was,  that  Yellow-muzzle, 
either  encouraging  himself,  or  calling  for  somebody's  aid, 
had  neighed  in  his  loud,  melodious  voice.  "  Pshaw, 
accursed  one,  how  you  have  frightened  me ! "  Vasih 
Andr^ich  said  to  himself.     But  even  when  he  compre- 


I 


MASTER   AND    WORKMAN  477 

heuded  the  true  cause  of  his  fright,  ho  was  not  able  to 
dispel  it. 

"  I  must  come  to  my  senses  and  regain  my  composure," 
he  said  to  himself,  and  yet  he  could  not  control  himself, 
and  kept  driving  his  horse,  without  noticing  that  he  was 
no  longer  travelling  with  the  wind,  but  against  it.  His 
body,  especially  where  it  was  uncovered  and  touched  the 
saddle-bolster,  was  freezing  and  aching,  his  hands  and 
feet  trembled,  and  Ids  breath  came  in  gusts.  He  saw 
that  he  was  perishing  amidst  this  terrible  snow  wilder- 
ness, and  he  did  not  see  any  means  of  salvation. 

Suddenly  the  horse  lurched  forward  and,  sticking  fast 
in  a  snow-drift,  began  to  struggle  and  fall  sidewise. 
Vasili  Andr^ich  jumped  down  from  his  horse,  and  in  his 
leap  pulled  the  crupper  on  which  his  foot  was  resting  to 
one  side,  and  jerked  down  the  saddle-bolster,  to  which  he 
was  holding  as  he  jumped  down.  The  moment  Yasili 
Audr^ich  jumped  down,  the  horse  straightened  himself 
up,  rushed  forward,  took  a  second  leap,  and,  neighing  and 
dragging  along  the  loosened  matting  and  harness,  disap- 
peared from  view,  leaving  Vasili  Andreich  by  himself  in 
the  snow-drift.  Vasili  Andr(5ich  started  after  him,  but  tlie 
snow  was  so  deep,  and  the  fur  coats  were  so  heavy  on 
him,  that,  sinking  with  every  leg  above  his  knee  into  the 
snow,  he,  after  taking  not  more  than  twenty  steps,  got 
out  of  breath  and  stopped.  "  The  grove,  the  steers,  the 
estate,  the  shop,  the  taverns,  the  tin-roofed  house  and 
granary,  the  heir,"  he  thought,  "  how  will  all  this  be  left  ? 
What  is  this  ?  Impossible  ! "  it  flashed  thi'ough  his  head. 
And  for  some  reason  he  recalled  the  mugwort  fluttering 
in  the  wind,  past  which  he  had  ridden  twice,  and  he  was 
assailed  by  such  terror  that  he  did  not  believe  the  reality 
of  what  happened  with  him.  He  thought :  "  Is  not  all 
this  in  a  dream  V  and  he  wanted  to  wake  up,  but  there 
was  no  need  of  waking.  It  was  real  snow,  which  lashed 
his  face  and  covered  him  up  and  chilled  his  right  hand, 


478  MASTER   AND    WORKMAN 

from  which  he  had  lost  the  glove,  and  this  was  a 
real  wilderness,  in  which  he  was  now  left  alone,  like 
that  mugwort,  awaiting  inevitable,  imminent,  senseless 
death. 

"  Queen  of  heaven,  saintly  Father  Nicholas,  teacher  of 
abstinence,"  he  recalled  the  mass  of  the  previous  day  and 
the  image  with  the  black  face  in  the  gold-leaf,  and  the 
tapers  which  he  had  sold  for  this  image  and  which  were 
immediately  brought  back  to  him,  and  which  he  put 
away  in  the  box  almost  untouched.  And  he  began  to 
beg  this  same  Nicholas,  the  miracle-worker,  to  save  him, 
promising  him  masses  and  tapers.  But  he  at  once  under- 
stood clearly  and  indubitably  that  this  image,  gold-leaf, 
tapers,  priest,  masses,  —  all  these  were  very  important  and 
necessary  there,  in  the  church,  but  that  here  they  could  do 
nothing  for  him,  that  between  these  tapers  and  masses  and 
his  present  distressed  condition  there  was,  and  could  be, 
no  connection.  "  I  must  not  lose  my  courage,"  he 
thought.  "  I  must  follow  the  horse's  tracks,  or  they  will 
soon  be  covered  with  snow,"  it  suddenly  occurred  to  him. 
"  This  will  take  me  out,  and  I  may  catch  him  yet.  Only 
I  must  not  be  in  haste,  or  I  shall  stick  fast  and  be  lost 
worse  than  ever."  But,  in  spite  of  his  intention  to  go 
slowly,  he  rushed  forward  and  started  on  a  run,  falling 
all  the  time,  getting  up  again,  and  falling  again.  The 
horse  track  became  barely  visible  in  those  places  where 
the  snow  was  not  deep.  "  I  am  lost,"  thought  Vasili 
Andr^ich,  "  I  shall  lose  the  track,  and  I  shall  not  catch 
the  horse."  But  just  at  that  moment  he  looked  forward 
and  saw  something  black.  This  was  Yellow-muzzle,  and 
not  only  Yellow-muzzle  himself,  but  also  the  sleigh 
and  the  shafts  with  the  kerchief.  Yellow-muzzle,  with 
the  harness  and  matting  knocked  sidewise,  now  stood,  not 
in  the  old  place,  but  near  the  shafts,  and  was  tossing  his 
head,  which  was  pulled  down  by  the  rein  he  was  stepping 
upon.     It  turned  out  that  Vasili  Andr^ich  had  stuck  fast 


MASTER   AND   WORKMAN"  479 

in  the  same  ravine  in  which  he  had  stuck  fast  with 
iSTikita,  that  the  horse  was  taking  him  back  to  the  sleigh, 
and  that  lie  had  jumped  off  from  him  not  more  than  fifty 
paces  from  where  the  sleigh  was. 


IX. 

Making  his  way  with  difficulty  to  the  sleigh,  Vasili 
Andr(^ich  grasped  it,  and  for  a  long  time  stood  motionless, 
trying  to  calm  himself  and  get  his  breath,  Niklta  was 
not  in  his  old  place,  but  in  the  sleigh  lay  something  which 
was  covered  with  snow,  and  Vasili  "Andr^ich  guessed  that 
this  was  Nikita.  Vasili  Andreich's  terror  was  now  com- 
pletely gone,  and  if  he  was  afraid  of  anything,  it  was  of 
that  terrible  condition  of  terror,  which  he  had  experienced 
on  the  horse,  and  especially  when  he  was  left  alone  in  the 
drift.  It  was  necessary  by  no  means  to  permit  this  terror, 
and  in  order  not  to  permit  it,  it  was  necessary  for  him  to 
do  something,  to  busy  himself  with  something.  And  so 
the  first  thing  he  did  was  to  stand  with  his  back  against 
the  wind  and  to  open  up  his  fur  coat.  Then,  as  soon  as 
he  got  his  wind  back  a  little,  he  shook  the  snow  out  of 
his  boots  and  the  left  glove,  —  the  right  glove  was  hope- 
lessly lost  and  no  doubt  somewhere  deep  in  the  snow ; 
then  he  again  girded  himself  tightly  low  in  the  w.aist,  as 
he  was  in  the  habit  of  girding  himself  when  he  went  out 
of  the  shop  to  buy  the  grain  which  the  peasants  brought 
in  their  carts,  and  began  to  prepare  himself  for  work. 
The  first  thing  he  thought  lie  had  to  do  was  to  get  the 
horse's  foot  out  of  the  rein.  So  he  did,  and,  having  freed 
the  rein,  he  again  tied  Yellow-muzzle  to  the  iron  clamp 
in  the  front  of  the  sleigh,  where  he  had  stood  before,  and 
began  to  get  behind  the  horse,  in  order  to  straighten  on 
him  the  crupper,  the  saddle-bolster,  and  the  matting ;  but 
at  that  moment  he  noticed  that  something  moved  in  the 
sleigh,  and  from  under  the  snow,  with  which  the  mass 

480 


MASTER    AND   WORKMAN  481 

was  covered,  rose  Nikita's  head.  It  was  evidently  with 
great  effort  that  Nikita,  who  was  freezing  stiff",  raised  him- 
self and  sat  up,  in  a  strange  manner,  as  though  driving 
off  the  flies,  swinging  his  hands  in  front  of  his  face.  He 
moved  his  hand  and  said  something,  —  Vasili  Andr^ich 
thought  he  was  calling  him.  Vasili  Andreich  left  the 
matting,  without  straightening  it  out,  and  walked  over 
to  tlie  sleigh. 

"  What  do  you  want  ? "  he  asked.  "  What  did  you 
say  ? " 

"  I  am  dy-dy-dying,  that's  what,"  Nikita  said,  with  dif-  • 
ficulty,  in  a  halting  voice.     "  Give  my  earnings  to  my  lad 
or  to  my  woman,  —  it  is  all  the  same." 

"  Are  you  frozen  ? "  asked  Vasili  Andreich. 

"  I ,  feel  my  death,  —  forgive,  for  Christ's  sake,"  — 
Nikita  said,  in  a  tearful  voice,  continuing  to  move  his 
hands  in  front  of  his  face,  precisely  as  though  he  were 
warding  off  flies. 

Vasili  Andreich  for  about  half  a  minute  stood  silent 
and  motionless,  then  suddenly,  with  the  same  determina- 
tion with  which  he  struck  his  hands  at  a  profitable  bar- 
gain, took  a  step  backward,  rolled  up  the  sleeves  of  his  fur 
coat,  and  began  with  both  his  hands  to  scrape  the  snow 
down  from  Nikita  and  out  of  the  sleigh.  When  he  had 
finished  the  work,  he  hurriedly  loosened  his  belt,  spread 
the  fur  coat,  and  giving  Nikita  a  push,  lay  down  on  him, 
covering  him  not  only  with  his  fur  coat,  but  also  with  his 
whole  warm,  heated-up  body.  Having  with  his  hands 
fixed  the  skirts  of  the  fur  coat  between  the  bast  of  the 
sleigh  and  Nikita,  and  having  caught  the  lower  edge 
between  his  knees,  Vasili  Andreich  lay  thus,  face  down- 
ward, pressing  his  head  against  the  bast  of  the  front  of 
the  sleigh,  and  now  no  longer  heard  the  movement  of  the 
horse,  nor  the  whistling  of  the  storm,  but  only  listened 
to  Nikita's  breathing.  Nikita  at  first  lay  for  a  long  time 
motionless,  then  heaved  a  loud  sigh,  and  began  to  move. 


482  MASTER   AND    WORKMAN 

"  That's  it,  —  you  said  you  were  dying.  Lie  still, 
warm  yourself,  —  we  shall  —  "  began  Vasili  Andreich. 

But,  to  his  great  surprise,  he  was  not  able  to  speak 
more,  because  tears  had  appeared  in  his  eyes,  and  his 
lower  jaw  was  moving  rapidly.  He  stopped  talking,  and 
only  swallowed  what  came  to  his  throat.  "  I  am  fright- 
ened, it  seems ;  I  am  very  weak,"  he  thought  to  himself. 
But  this  weakness  was  not  only  not  disagreeable  to  him, 
it  even  afforded  him  a  certain  special  joy,  such  as  he 
had  never  experienced  before. 

"  We  shall  —  "  he  said  to  himseK,  experiencing  a  certain 
solemn  meekness  of  spirit.  He  lay  for  quite  awhile  in 
silence,  wiping  his  eyes  against  the  fur  of  his  fur  coat, 
and  catching  between  his  knees  the  right  skirt  of  the  fur 
coat,  which  was  being  carried  away  by  the  wind. 

But  he  felt  so  much  like  telling  somebody  about  his 
joyous  condition. 

"  Nikita  ! "  he  said. 

"  All  right,  I  am  warm,"  the  answer  came  from  below. 

"  Yes,  my  friend,  I  was  lost.  You  would  have  frozen 
to  death,  and  so  should  I." 

But  just  then  his  jaws  began  to  tremble,  and  his  eyes 
were  again  filled  with  tears,  and  he  was  unable  to  con- 
tinue speaking. 

"  That's  nothing,"  he  thought.  "  I  know  about  myself 
what  I  know." 

And  he  grew  silent.     Thus  he  lay  for  a  long  time. 

He  felt  warm  underneath,  from  Nikita,  and  warm 
above,  from  the  fur  coat ;  only  his  hands,  with  which  he 
held  down  the  skirts  of  the  fur  coat  on  each  side  of  Nikita, 
and  his  legs,  from  which  the  wind  kept  blowing  his  fur 
coat  away  all  the  time,  began  to  freeze.  Particularly  his 
right  hand,  without  the  glove,  began  to  freeze.  But  he 
was  not  thinking  of  his  feet  or  of  his  hands,  but  only  of 
how  he  might  warm  up  the  peasant  who  was  lying  under 
him. 


MASTER   AND    WORKMAN  483 

He  looked  several  times  at  the  horse,  and  saw  that  his 
back  was  uncovered  and  the  matting  and  the  harness 
were  lying  in  the  snow,  and  that  it  was  necessary  to  get 
up  and  cover  the  horse,  but  he  could  not  make  up  his 
mind  to  leave  Nikita  for  a  minute  and  impair  that  joyous 
condition  in  wliich  he  was.  He  did  not  now  experience 
any  fear. 

"  Never  mind,  he  can't  get  away,"  he  said  to  himself 
about  his  warming  up  the  peasant,  with  the  same  boast- 
ing with  which  he  spoke  of  his  purchases  and  sales. 

Thus  Vasili  Audr^ich  lay  an  hour,  and  two  and  three 
hours,  but  he  did  not  know  how  the  time  passed.  At 
first  there  hovered  in  his  imagination  impressions  of  the 
snow-storm,  a  shaft,  and  horses  under  an  arch,  which  were 
shaking  before  his  eyes,  and  he  thought  of  Nikita,  who 
was  lying  under  him  ;  then  there  were  mingled  in  recollec- 
tions of  the  holiday,  his  wife,  the  rural  judge,  the  taper- 
box,  and  again  Nikita,  who  was  lying  under  this  box ; 
then  he  saw  peasants,  who  were  buying  and  selling,  and 
white  walls,  and  houses  roofed  with  tin,  under  which 
Nikita  was  lying ;  then  all  this  got  mixed,  —  one  thing 
entered  into  another,  and,  like  the  colours  of  the  rainbow, 
which  unite  into  one  white  colour,  all  the  various  impres- 
sions blended  into  one  nothing,  and  he  fell  asleep.  He 
slept  for  a  long  time,  without  dreams,  but  before  day- 
break the  visions  returned.  He  imagined  he  stood  near 
the  taper-box,  and  Tikhon's  wife  was  asking  him  for  a  five- 
kopek  taper  for  the  holiday,  and  he  wanted  to  take  the 
taper  and  give  it  to  her,  but  his  hands  did  not  go  up,  but 
stuck  fast  in  his  pockets.  He  wanted  to  go  around  the 
box,  but  his  legs  did  not  move,  and  the  new,  clean  galoshes 
stuck  fast  to  the  stone  floor,  and  he  could  not  lift  them 
up  or  take  his  feet  out  of  them.  And  suddenly  the  taper- 
box  was  not  a  box,  but  a  bed,  and  Vasili  Andr^ich  saw 
himself  lying  with  his  belly  on  the  box,  that  is,  in  his 
bed,  in  his  house.     And  he  is  lying  on  his  bed  and  can- 


484  MASTER   AXD    WORKMAN 

not  get  up,  but  he  must  get  up,  because  Ivan  Matvy^ich, 
the  rural  judge,  will  soon  come  in,  and  he  must  go  with 
Ivan  Matvy(^ich  to  buy  the  forest,  or  fix  the  crupper  on 
Yellow-muzzle.     And    he  asks    his    wife,   "Well,  Niko- 
laevna,  has  he  been  here?"     "No,"   she  says,  "he  has 
not."     And  he  hears  some  one  driving  up  to  the  porch. 
It  must  be  he.     No,  past.     "  Nikolaevna,  oh,  Nikolaevna, 
is  he  not  yet  here  ? "     "  No."     And  he  lies  on  liis  bed, 
and  cannot  get  up,  and  waits,  and  this  waiting  gives  him 
pain  and  joy.     And  suddenly  the  joy  is  accomphshed: 
the  one  he  has  been  waiting  for  has  come,  but  it  is  not 
Ivan  Matvy^ich,  the  rural  judge,  but  some  one  else  ;  but 
still  it  is  the  one  he  is  waiting  for.     He  has  come,  and 
he  calls   him,  and   the    one  who  calls   him    is  the  one 
who  has  called  him  and  who  has  told  him  to  lie  down 
on    Nikita.       And    Vasih    Andr^ich    is   glad   that    this 
somebody  has  come  for  him.     "  I  am  coming  ! "  he  cries 
joyfully,  and  this  cry  awakens  him.     And  he  wakes  up, 
but  he  wakes  up  a  different  man  from  what  he  was  when 
he  fell  asleep.     He  wants  to  get  up,  and  he  cannot ;  he 
wants  to  move  his  hand,  —  he  cannot ;  his  foot,  —  and 
again  he  cannot.     He  wants  to  turn  his  head,  and    he 
cannot  do  that  either.     And  he  wonders,  but  is  not  in  the 
least  worried  about  it.     He  understands  that  it  is  death, 
and  is  not  in  the  least  worried  about  it.     And  he  recalls 
that  Nikita  is  lying  under  him,  that  Nikita  is  warmed 
up  and  alive,  and  it  seems  to  him  that  he  is  Nikita,  and 
Nikita    he,    and    that   his    hfe   is    not    in    him,  but   in 
Nikita.     He  strains  his  hearing,  and    he  hears  Nikita's 
breathing  and  even  a  feeble  snoring.     "Nikita  is  alive, 
consequently  I  am  ahve,"  he  says  to  himself,  triumphantly. 
And  he  thinks  of  the  money,  the  shop,  the  house,  the 
purchases,  the  sales,  Mirdnov's  millions :  he  finds  it  hard 
to  understand  why  this  man,  whom   they  used   to   call 
Vasili  Brekhundv,  busied  himself  with  all  these  things 
that  he  did  busy  himself  with.     "  Well,  he  did  not  know 


MASTER   AND    WORKMAN  485 

what  the  matter  was,"  he  thinks  of  Vasili  Brekhunov. 
"  I  did  not  know,  but  now  I  know.  Now  there  is  no 
mistake.  Now  I  kuow."  And  again  he  hears  the  call 
of  him  who  has  called  him  before.  "  I  am  coming,  I  am 
coming ! "  his  whole  being  says  joyfully,  meekly.  And 
he  feels  that  he  is  free  and  that  nothing  now  holds  him 
back. 

And  Vasili  Andr^ich  saw  and  heard  and  felt  nothing 
more  in  this  world. 

All  about  him  there  was  the  same  snow  mist  as  before. 
The  same  gusts  of  snow  whirled  about  and  covered  the 
fur  coat  of  dead  Vasili  Andr^ich,  and  all  of  trembling 
Yellow-muzzle,  and  the  barely  visible  sleigh,  and  warmed 
up  Nikita,  who  was  lying  deep  down  in  it,  under  his 
dead  master. 


NiKiTA  awoke  before  morning.  What  wakened  him 
was  the  cold  which  was  beginning  to  go  down  his  spine. 
He  dreamt  that  he  was  coming  from  the  mill  with  a 
wagon -load  of  his  master's  flour,  and  that,  in  passing 
a  brook,  he  had  missed  the  bridge  and  stuck  fast  in  the 
mud.  And  he  sees  that  he  crawled  under  the  wagon 
and  is  lifting  it  with  his  arched  back.  But,  strange  to 
say,  the  wagon  does  not  move  and  is  glued  to  his  back, 
and  he  cannot  raise  the  wagon,  nor  get  away  from  under 
it.  It  is  crushing  his  whole  spine.  And  it  is  so  cold ! 
He  certainly  must  get  out  from  under  it.  "  This  will  do," 
he  says  to  him  who  is  pressing  the  wagon  down  on  him. 
"  Take  off  the  bags  ! "  But  the  wagon  presses  him  colder 
and  colder,  and  suddenly  something  knocks  with  peculiar 
force,  and  he  awakens  completely  and  recalls  everything. 
The  cold  wagon  is  the  frozen  dead  master,  who  is  lying 
on  him.  And  the  knock  was  produced  by  Yellow-muzzle, 
who  twice  struck  his  hoof  against  the  sleigh. 

"  Andr^ich,  oh,  Andr^ich  ! "  Nikita  calls  his  master, 
cautiously,  with  a  presentiment  of  the  truth,  and  arching 
his  back. 

But  Andr^ich  makes  no  reply,  and  his  belly  and  his 
legs  are  stiff  and  cold  and  heavy,  like  weights. 

"  Dead,  no  doubt.  The  kingdom  of  heaven  be  his ! " 
thinks  Nikita. 

He  turns  his  head,  digs  with  his  hand  through  the 
snow,  and  opens  his  eyes.  It  is  light ;  the  wind  whistles 
as  before  through  the  shafts,  and  the  snow  falls  as  before, 
with  this  difference  only,  that  it  no  longer  lashes  the  bast 

486 


MASTER   AND    WORKMAN  487 

of  the  sleigh,  but  noiselessly  buries  the  sleigh  and  the 
horse,  deeper  and  deeper,  and  neither  the  horse's  motion 
nor  his  breathing  can  be  heard.  "  He,  too,  must  be  frozen 
dead,"  Mkita  thought  of  Yellow-muzzle.  And,  indeed, 
those  knocks  with  the  hoofs  against  the  sleigh,  which 
awakened  Nikita,  were  the  death-efforts  of  stiffly  frozen 
Yellow-muzzle  to  keep  on  his  feet. 

"  Lord,  Father,  apparently  Thou  art  calling  me  too," 
Nikita  said  to  himself.  "  Thy  holy  will  be  done.  I  feel 
bad.  Well,  there  is  but  one  death,  and  that  cannot  be 
escaped.  If  it  would  only  come  soon  —  "  And  he  again 
hid  his  hand,  closing  his  eyes,  and  forgot  himself,  fully 
convinced  that  now  he  was  certainly  dying,  the  whole 
of  him. 

Not  until  noon  of  the  following  day  did  peasants  dig 
Vasili  Andr^ich  and  Nikita  out  with  shovels,  within  thirty 
sazhens  from  the  road,  and  half  a  verst  from  the  village. 

The  snow  was  blown  higher  than  the  sleigh,  but  the 
shafts  and  tlie  handkerchief  could  still  be  seen  on  it. 
Yellow-muzzle,  up  to  his  belly  in  the  snow,  with  the 
crupper  and  matting  pulled  down  from  his  back,  stood  all 
white,  pressing  his  dead  head  against  his  stiff  throat ;  his 
nostrils  were  frozen  into  icicles ;  the  eyes  were  covered 
with  hoarfrost,  as  though  filled  with  tears.  He  had 
grown  so  thin  in  this  one  night  that  nothing  but  his  hide 
and  bones  were  left  on  him.  Vasili  Audr^ich  was  cold, 
like  a  frozen  carcass,  and  his  legs  were  sprawhng,  and  he 
remained  bent,  when  he  was  rolled  off  Nikita.  His  bulging 
hawk  eyes  were  frozen,  and  his  open  mouth,  beneath  his 
clipped  moustache,  was  filled  with  snow.  But  Nikita 
was  alive,  though  badly  frozen.  When  Nikita  was  awak- 
ened, he  was  sure  that  he  was  dead,  and  that  what 
was  taking  place  with  him  was  happening  in  the  other 
world,  and  not  in  this.  But  when  he  heard  the  shouting 
peasants,  who  were  digging  him  out  and  rolling  stiffened 
Vasili  Andr^ich  off  from  him,  he  was  at  first  surprised  to 


488  MASTER   AND    WORKMAN 

find  out  that  people  shouted  in  the  same  way  in  the  other 
world  and  had  the  same  kind  of  a  body  ;  but  when  he 
comprehended  that  he  was  still  in  this  world,  he  was 
rather  sorry  than  glad,  especially  when  he  felt  that  his 
toes  on  both  his  feet  were  frozen  off. 

Nikita  lay  in  the  hospital  for  two  months.  They  cut  off 
three  of  his  toes,  and  the  others  healed  up,  so  that  he 
could  work  again,  and  he  continued  to  work  another 
twenty  years,  at  first  as  a  labourer,  and  later,  in  his  old 
age,  as  a  watchman.  He  died  only  this  last  year,  at 
home,  as  he  had  desired,  under  the  holy  images,  and  with 
a  burning  taper  in  his  hands.  Before  his  death  he  asked 
his  old  wife's  forgiveness  and  forgave  her  for  the  cooper ; 
he  bade  good-bye  also  to  his  boy  and  his  grandchildren, 
and  died,  sincerely  happy  because  by  his  death  he  was 
freeing  his  son  and  daughter-in-law  from  the  burden  of 
additional  bread,  and  because  he  was  now  in  reality  pass- 
ing from  this,  life,  of  which  he  had  become  tired,  into  that 
other  life,  which  with  every  year  and  hour  became  more 
comprehensible  and  more  attractive  to  him. 

We  shall  soon  find  out  whether  he  is  better  off,  or 
worse,  there  where  he  awoke  after  his  real  death,  whether 
he  was  disappointed,  or  whether  he  found  what  he  had 
expected. 


EPILOGUE  TO  "DROZHZHIN'S 
LIFE  AND   DEATH" 

1895 


EPILOGUE  TO  ^^DROZHZHIN'S 
LIFE   AND   DEATH" 


Even  Moses  in  his  commandments,  which  were  given 
to  men  five  thousand  years  ago,  proclaimed  the  command- 
ment, "  Thou  shalt  not  kill."  The  same  was  preached  by 
all  the  prophets  ;  the  same  was  preached  by  the  sages  and 
teachers  of  the  whole  world ;  the  same  was  preached  by 
Christ,  who  forbade  men  to  commit  not  only  murder,  but 
everything  which  may  lead  to  it,  all  irritation  and  anger 
against  a  brother ;  and  the  same  is  written  in  the  heart  of 
every  man  so  clearly  that  there  is  no  act  which  is  more 
loathsome  to  the  whole  being  of  an  uncorrupted  man  than 
the  murder  of  one's  like,  —  man. 

And  yet,  despite  the  fact  that  this  law  of  God  was 
clearly  revealed  to  us  by  Moses,  by  the  prophets,  and  by 
Christ,  and  that  it  is  so  indelibly  written  in  our  hearts 
that  there  cannot  be  the  slightest  doubt  of  its  obligatori- 
ness for  us,  this  law  is  not  recognized  in  our  world,  but 
the  very  opposite  law  is  recognized,  that  of  the  obligatori- 
ness for  every  man  of  our  time  to  enter  military  service, 
that  is,  to  join  the  ranks  of  nuirderers,  to  swear  to  be 
ready  to  commit  murder,  to  learn  the  art  of  killing,  and 
actually  to  kill  his  like,  when  that  is  demanded  of  hini.^ 

In    pagan  times,  the   Christians   were   commanded  in 

1  In  countries  where  there  is  no  compulsory  military  service,  the 
law  of  God  and  of  conscience  about  not  killing  is  also  violated  by  all 
their  citizens,  though  not  so  obviously,  because  the  hiring,  enlisting, 

41)1 


492         EPILOGUE    TO    "DROZHZHIN's    LIFE 


j» 


words  to  renounce  Christ  and  God,  and  in  sign  of  the 
renunciation  to  bring  sacrifices  to  the  pagan  gods. 

But  now,  in  our  time,  the  Christians  are  commanded 
not  only  to  renounce  Christ  and  God  by  bringing  sacrifices 
to  pagan  gods  (a  person  may  sacrifice  to  pagan  gods,  while 
remaining  a  Christian  at  heart),  but  also  by  committing  an 
act  which  is  unquestionably  most  contrary  to  Christ  and 
to  God  and  which  is  forbidden  by  Christ  and  by  God, — 
to  swear  to  be  ready  to  commit  murder,  to  prepare  him- 
self for  murder,  and  frequently  to  commit  murder  itself. 

And  as  formerly  there  were  found  men  who  refused  to 
worship  pagan  gods,  and  for  their  loyalty  to  Christ  and 
God  sacrificed  their  lives,  so  there  have  been  men  who 
have  not  renounced  Christ  and  God,  who  have  not  con- 
sented to  take  an  oath  that  they  would  be  ready  to  com- 
mit murder,  who  did  not  join  the  ranks  of  murderers,  and 
who  for  this  loyalty  have  perished  in  the  most  terrible 
sufferings,  as  was  the  case  with  Drozhzhin,  whose  life  is 
described  in  this  book. 

And  as  in  former  times  those  who  were  considered 
half-witted  and  strange,  the  martyrs  of  Christianity,  who 
perished  because  they  did  not  wish  to  renounce  Christ, 
by  their  loyalty  to  Christ  alone  destroyed  the  pagan 
world  and  opened  a  path  for  Christianity,  so  now  people, 
like  Drozhzhin,  who  are  considered  to  be  madmen  and 
fanatics,  who  prefer  sufferings  and  death  to  transgressing 
God's  law,  by  their  very  loyalty  to  the  law  destroy  the 
existing  cruel  order  more  surely  than  do  the  revolutions, 
and  reveal  to  men  the  new  joyful  condition  of  universal 
brotherhood,  of  the  kingdom  of  God,  which  was  proclaimed 
by  the  prophets,  and  the  foundations  of  which  were  laid 
eighteen  hundred  years  ago  by  Christ. 

and  maintaining  of  armies,  with  the  money  consciously  paid  by  all 
the  citizens  for  the  business  of  murder,  which  they  all  consider  to  be 
indispensable,  is  just  as  much  a  consent  to  killing  and  a  cooperation 
with  it  as  the  personal  participation  in  military  service. — Author's 
Note. 


EPILOGUE    TO    "  DROZIIZHIN  S    LIFE  "  493 

But  such  men  as  Drdzhzhin,  who  now  refuse  to 
renounce  God  and  Christ,  by  their  activity  not  only 
contribute  to  the  estabhshment  of  that  kingdom  of  God 
which  the  prophets  precUcted,  but  by  their  example 
indicate  the  one  unquestionable  road  by  which  this  king- 
dom of  God  may  be  attained  and  all  that  may  be  destroyed 
which  interferes  with  its  establishment. 

The  difference  between  the  ancient  martyrs  of  Chris- 
tianity and  those  of  the  present  time  consists  only  in  this, 
that  then  it  was  the  pagans  who  demanded  pagan  acts 
from  the  Christians,  while  now  it  is  not  pagans,  but  Chris- 
tians, or  at  least  those  who  call  themselves  so,  that  are 
demanding  from  the  Christians  pagan,  the  most  terrible 
pagan  acts,  such  as  the  pagans  did  not  ask  for,  —  murder ; 
that  then  paganism  found  its  strength  in  ignorance,  be- 
cause it  did  not  know,  did  not  understand  Christianity, 
while  now  the  cruelty  of  the  so-called  Christianity  is  based 
on  deception,  on  conscious  deception.  To  free  Chris- 
tianity from  violence  it  was  then  necessary  to  convince 
the  pagans  of  the  truth  of  Christianity,  but  that  was  for 
the  most  part  impossible  to  do.  Julian  the  Apostate  and 
many  of  the  best  men  of  the  time  were  sincerely  con- 
vinced that  paganism  was  enlightenment  and  a  good,  and 
Christianity  —  darkness,  ignorance,  and  evil.  But  to  free 
Christianity  now  from  violence  and  cruelty,  it  is  neces- 
sary to  arraign  the  deception  of  the  false  Christianity. 
This  deception  unanswerably  arraigns  itself  through  the 
one  simple,  imperturbable  profession  of  the  trutli,  which 
inevitably  provokes  the  so-called  Christian  powers  to  the 
exercise  of  violence,  to  trrtures,  and  to  the  killing  of 
Christians  for  observing  precisely  wliat  they  themselves 
profess. 

Formerly  a  Christian,  in  refusing  to  worship  the  pagan 
gods,  said  to  the  pagans,  "  I  reject  your  faith  ;  I  am  a 
Christian,  and  I  cannot  and  will  not  serve  your  gods,  but 
will  serve  the  one  true  God  and  His  son  Jesus  Christ," 


494      EPILOGUE  TO  "  dkoziizhin's  life 


5> 


and  the  pagan  powers  punished,  because  he  professed  a 
rehgion  which  they  considered  to  be  false  and  harmful, 
and  his  punishment  had  no  contradiction  in  itself  and  did 
not  undermine  the  paganism,  in  the  name  of  which  he 
was  punished.  But  now  a  Christian  who  refuses  to  com- 
mit murder  no  longer  makes  his  confession  to  pagans,  but 
to  men  who  call  themselves  Christians.  And  if  he  says, 
"  I  am  a  Christian,  and  I  cannot  and  will  not  fulfil  any 
demands  for  committing  murder,  which  are  contrary  to 
the  Christian  law,"  he  can  no  longer  be  told,  as  he  was 
formerly  told  by  the  pagans,  "  You  are  professing  a  false 
and  harmful  teaching,"  but  he  is  told, "  We  are  also  Chris- 
tians, but  you  do  not  correctly  understand  Christianity, 
when  you  assert  that  a  Christian  may  not  kill.  A  Chris- 
tian can  and  must  kill,  when  he  is  commanded  to  do  so 
by  him  who  at  a  given  moment  is  considered  to  be  his 
chief.  And  because  you  do  not  agree  with  this,  that  a 
Christian  must  not  love  his  enemies,  and  must  kill  all 
those  whom  he  is  commanded  to  kill,  we,  the  Christians, 
who  profess  the  law  of  humility,  love,  and  forgiveness, 
punish  you." 

It  turns  out  that  the  powers  which  recognize  them- 
selves as  being  Christian,  at  every  such  a  confhct  with 
men  who  refuse  to  commit  murder,  are  compelled  in  the 
most  obvious  and  solemn  manner  to  renounce  that  Chris- 
tianity and  moral  law  on  which  alone  their  power  is 
based. 

Besides,  unfortunately  for  the  false  powers,  and  fortu- 
nately for  all  humanity,  the  conditions  of  military  service 
have  of  late  become  quite  different  from  what  they  were 
before,  and  so  the  demands  of  the  authorities  have  become 
even  more  obviously  non-Christian,  and  the  refusals  to 
fulfil  their  demands  have  arraigned  Christianity  even 
more. 

Formerly  hardly  one-hundredth  part  of  all  men  was 
called  to  do  military  service,  and  the  government  was  in 


EPILOGUE    TO    '•'  DROZUZHIN's    LIFE  "  495 

a  position  to  assume  that  men  of  a  lower  stage  of  morality 
took  to  military  service,  men  for  whom  military  service 
did  not  present  anything  contrary  to  their  Christian  con- 
science, as  was  partly  the  case  when  men  were  put  in  the 
army  for  a  punishment.  When  at  that  time  a  man,  who 
by  his  moral  qualities  could  not  be  a  murderer,  was 
called  to  do  military  service,  such  a  case  was  unfortunate 
and  exceptional. 

But  now,  when  everybody  has  to  do  mihtary  service, 
the  best  men,  those  who  are  most  Christian  in  their 
thoughts  and  who  are  far  removed  from  the  possibility  of 
taking  part  in  murder,  must  all  recognize  themselves 
as  being  murderers  and  apostates  from  God. 

Formerly  the  hired  army  of  the  ruler  was  formed  by 
especially  chosen,  very  coarse,  non-Christian,  and  ignorant 
men,  or  volunteers  and  mercenaries ;  formerly  no  one  or 
but  few  men  read  the  Gospel,  and  men  did  not  know  its 
spirit,  but  only  believed  in  what  the  priest  told  them ; 
and  formerly  only  the  rarest  people,  who  were  peculiarly 
fanatical  in  spirit,  the  sectarians,  considered  military  ser- 
vice to  be  a  sin  and  refused  to  take  part  in  it.  But  now 
there  is  not  a  man  in  any  Christian  state  who  is  not 
obliged  consciously,  by  means  of  his  money,  and  in  most 
countries  of  Europe  directly,  to  take  part  in  the  prepara- 
tions for  murder,  or  in  the  murders  themselves ;  now 
nearly  all  men  know  the  Gospel  and  the  spirit  of  Christ's 
teaching ;  all  know  that  the  priests  are  bribed  deceivers, 
and  none  but  the  most  ignorant  men  beheve  in  them ;  and 
now  it  is  not  merely  the  sectarians,  but  also  men  who 
do  not  profess  any  special  dogmas,  cultured  men,  free- 
thinkers, who  refuse  to  do  military  service,  and  they  do 
not  refuse  merely  for  their  own  sake,  but  openly  and  out- 
spokenly say  to  all  men  that  murder  is  not  compatible 
with  any  profession  of  Christianity. 

And  so  one  such  refusal  to  do  military  service  as 
Drozhzhin's,  which  is  sustained  in  spite  of  tortures  and 


496       EPILOGUE  TO  "dkozhzhin's  life" 

death,  one  such  refusal  shakes  the  whole  enormous 
structure  of  violence,  which  is  built  on  the  lie,  and 
threatens   its   destruction. 

The  governments  have  a  terrible  power  in  their  hands, 
and  it  is  not  merely  a  material  power,  —  a  vast  amount  of 
money,  institutions,  wealth,  submissive  officials,  the  clergy, 
and  the  army,  —  but  also  vast  spiritual  powers  of  in- 
fluencing men  that  are  in  the  hands  of  the  government. 
It  can,  if  not  bribe,  at  least  crush  and  destroy  all  those 
who  are  opposed  to  it.  A  bribed  clergy  preaches  milita- 
rism in  the  churches ;  bribed  authors  write  books  which 
justify  militarism  :  in  the  schools,  both  the  higher  and 
the  lower,  they  have  introduced  the  obligatory  instruction 
of  deceptive  catechisms,  in  which  children  are  impressed 
with  the  idea  that  it  is  not  only  allowable,  but  even  obli- 
gatory, to  kill  in  war  and  after  a  trial ;  all  those  who 
enter  the  army  are  compelled  to  take  an  oath ;  every- 
thing which  could  reveal  the  deception  is  strictly  pro- 
hibited and  punished,  —  the  most  terrible  punishments 
are  imposed  upon  men  who  do  not  fulfil  the  demands  of 
serving  in  the  army,  that  is,  of  killing. 

And,  strange  to  say,  all  that  enormous,  mighty  mass  of 
men,  which  is  vested  with  all  the  force  of  human  power, 
trembles,  hides  itself,  feeling  its  guilt,  and  shakes  in  its 
existence,  and  is  ready  any  moment  to  go  to  pieces  and 
turn  to  dust  at  the  appearance  of  one  man,  like  Drozhzhin, 
who  does  not  yield  to  human  demands,  but  obeys  the 
demands  of  God  and  professes  them  openly. 

In  our  time  such  men  as  Drozhzhin  do  not  stand 
alone ;  there  are  thousands,  tens  of  thousands  of  them, 
and  their  number  and,  above  all  else,  their  importance 
are  growing  with  every  year  and  every  hour.  In  Kussia 
we  know  tens  of  thousands  of  men  who  have  refused  to 
swear  allegiance  to  the  new  Tsar,  and  who  recognize  mili- 
tary service  to  be  murder,  which  is  incompatible  not  only 
with  Christianity,  but  even  with  the  lowest  demands  of 


EPILOGUE    TO    "  DROZIIZHIN's    LIFE  "  497 

honour,  justice,  and  morality.  We  know  such  men  in  all 
European  countries :  we  know  of  the  Nazarenes,  who 
appeared  less  than  fifty  years  ago  in  Austria  and  Servia 
and  who  from  a  few  hundreds  have  grown  to  be  more 
than  thirty  thousand  strong,  and  who,  in  spite  of  all  kinds 
of  persecution,  have  refused  to  take  part  in  military  serv- 
ice. We  have  learned  lately  of  a  highly  cultured  surgeon 
of  the  army,  who  refused  to  do  military  service,  because 
he  considered  it  contrary  to  his  conscience  to  serve  such  an 
institution  as  is  the  army,  which  is  intended  only  for 
doing  violence  to   men  and  killing  them. 

But  even  this  is  not  important,  that  there  are  many  of 
them  and  that  they  are  growing  more  and  more,  but  that 
the  one  true  path  has  been  found  along  which  humanity 
will  undoubtedly  arrive  at  its  liberation  from  evil,  which 
has  fettered  it,  and  because  on  that  path  nothing  and 
nobody  can  now  stop  it,  because  for  liberation  on  this 
path  no  efforts  are  wanted  for  the  destruction  of  evil :  — 
it  disperses  of  its  own  accord  and  melts  Hke  wax  in  the 
fire,  —  all  that  is  needed  is  a  non-participation  in  it.  In 
order  to  stop  taking  part  in  this  evil,  from  which  we 
suffer,  no  special  mental,  nor  bodily  efforts  are  needed,  — 
all  that  is  needed  is  to  abandon  oneself  to  one's  nature,  to 
be  good  and  true  before  God  and  oneself. 

"  You  want  me  to  become  a  murderer,  but  I  cannot  do 
so,  and  neither  God  nor  my  conscience  permit  me  to  do  so. 
And  so  do  with  me  what  you  please ;  but  I  will  neither 
kill  nor  prepare  myself  for  murder,  nor  be  an  accomplice 
in  it."  And  this  simple  answer,  which  every  man  must 
inevitably  make,  because  it  arises  from  the  consciousness  of 
the  men  of  our  time,  destroys  all  that  evil  of  violence  which 
has  weighed  heavily  on  the  world  for  so  long  a  time. 

They  say  that  in  Holy  Scripture  it  says : 

"  Let  every  soul  be  subject  unto  the  higher  powers.  For 
there  is  no  power  but  of  God :  the  powers  that  be  are  or- 
dained of  God.     Whosoever  therefore  resisteth  the  power 


498         EPILOGUE    TO    "DROZHZHIN's    LIFE 


j> 


resisteth  the  ordinarice  of  God :  and  they  that  resist  shall 
receive  to  themselves  damnation.  For  rulers  are  not  a 
terror  to  good  works,  but  to  the  evil.  Wilt  thou  then  not 
be  afraid  of  the  power  ?  do  that  which  is  good,  and  thou 
shalt  have  praise  of  the  same.  For  he  is  the  minister  of 
God  to  thee  for  good.  But  if  thou  do  that  which  is  evil, 
be  afraid ;  for  he  beareth  not  the  sword  in  vain :  for  he  is 
the  minister  of  God,  a  revenger  to  execute  wrath  upon  him 
that  doeth  evil.  Wherefore  ye  must  needs  be  subject,  not 
only  for  wrath,  but  also  for  conscience'  sake.  For,  for  this 
cause  pay  ye  tribute  also :  for  they  are  God's  ministers, 
attending  continually  upon  this  very  thing.  Eender  there- 
fore to  all  their  dues:  tribute  to  whom  tribute  is  due; 
custom  to  whom  custom ;  fear  to  whom  fear ;  honour  to 
whom  honour  "  (Eom,  xiii.  1-7).  Consequently  it  is  neces- 
sary to  submit  to  the  powers. 

But  to  say  nothing  of  this,  that  the  same  politic  Paul, 
who  told  the  Eomans  that  it  is  necessary  to  obey  the 
authorities,  told  the  Ephesians  something  quite  different. 

"  Finally,  my  brethren,  be  strong  in  the  Lord,  and  in 
the  power  of  His  might.  Put  on  the  whole  armour  of 
God,  that  ye  may  be  able  to  stand  against  the  wiles  of  the 
devil.  For  we  wrestle  not  against  flesh  and  blood,  but 
against  principalities,  against  powers,  against  the  rulers 
of  the  darkness  of  this  world,  against  spiritual  wickedness 
in  high  places"  (Eph.  vi.  10-12).  Paul's  words  to  the 
Eomans  about  obeying  the  powers  that  be  can  in  no  way 
be  harmonized  with  Christ's  own  teaching,  the  whole 
meaning  of  which  consists  in  the  liberation  of  men  from 
the  power  of  the  world  and  their  submission  to  the  power 
of  God. 

"  If  the  world  hate  you,  ye  know  that  it  hated  me  before 
it  hated  you  (John  xv.  18).  They  have  persecuted  me,  they 
will  also  persecute  you  (John  xv.  20).  If  ye  were  of  the 
world,  the  world  would  love  his  own ;  but  because  ye  are 
not  of  the  world,  but  I  have  chosen  you  out  of  the  world. 


EPILOGUE    TO    "  DKOZIIZHIN's    LIFE  "  499 

therefore  the  world  hateth  you  (John  xv.  19).  And  ye 
shall  be  brought  before  governors  and  kings  for  my  sake, 
for  a  testimony  against  them  and  the  Gentiles  (Matt.  x. 
18,  Mark  xiii.  9).  And  ye  shall  be  hated  of  all  men  for 
my  name's  sake  (Matt.  x.  22).  They  shall  lay  their  hands 
on  you,  and  persecute  you,  delivering  you  up  to  the  syna- 
gogues, and  into  prisons,  being  brought  before  kings  and 
rulers  for  my  name's  sake  (Luke  xxi.  12).  Whosoever 
killeth  you  will  think  that  he  doetli  God  service.  And 
these  things  will  they  do  unto  you,  because  they  have  not 
known  the  Father  nor  me.  But  these  things  have  I  told 
you,  that  when  the  time  shall  come,  ye  may  remember 
that  I  told  you  of  them  (John  xvi.  2-4).  Fear  them  not 
therefore :  for  there  is  nothing  covered,  that  shall  not  be 
revealed;  and  hid,  that  shall  not  be  known  (Matt.  x.  26). 
And  fear  not  them  which  kill  the  body,  but  are  not  able 
to  kill  the  soul :  but  rather  fear  him  which  is  able  to 
destroy  both  soul  and  body  (Matt.  x.  28).  The  prince  of 
this  world  is  judged  (John  xvi.  11).  Be  of  good  cheer;  I 
have  overcome  the  world  (John  xvi.  33)." 

Christ's  whole  teaching  is  an  indication  of  the  path  of 
liberation  from  the  power  of  the  world,  and  Christ,  when 
He  was  himself  persecuted,  reminded  His  disciples  that,  if 
they  would  be  true  to  His  teaching,  the  world  would  per- 
secute them,  and  advised  them  to  have  courage  and  not  be 
afraid  of  their  persecutors.  He  not  only  taught  them  this 
in  words,  but  with  His  whole  life  and  relation  to  the 
powers  gave  them  an  example  of  how  those  must  act  who 
wished  to  follow  Him.  Christ  not  only  did  not  obey  the 
powers,  but  kept  all  the  time  arraigning  them :  He  ar- 
raigned the  Pharisees  for  violating  God's  law  with  their 
human  traditions ;  He  arraigned  them  for  falsely  observ- 
ing the  Sabbath,  for  falsely  sacrificing  in  the  temple ;  He 
arraigned  them  f(jr  tlieir  hypocrisy  and  cruelty  ;  He  ar- 
raigned the  cities  of  Cliorazin,  Bethsaida,  and  Capernaum  ; 
He  an'aigned  Jerusalem  and  predicted  its  ruin. 


500         EPILOGUE    TO    "  DROZIIZniN's    LIFE 


j> 


In  reply  to  the  question  as  to  whether  He  shall  give 
the  established  tax  upon  entering  Capernaum,  He  says  dis- 
tinctly that  the  sons,  that  is,  His  disciples,  are  free  from 
every  tax  and  are  not  obliged  to  pay  it,  and  only  not  to 
tempt  the  collectors  of  the  taxes,  not  to  provoke  them 
to  commit  the  sin  of  violence,  He  orders  His  disciples  to 
give  that  stater,  which  is  accidentally  found  in  the  fish, 
and  which  does  not  belong  to  any  one  and  is  not  taken 
from  any  one. 

But  in  reply  to  the  cunning  question  as  to  whether  the 
tribute  is  to  be  paid  to  Osesar,  He  says,  "  To  Csesar  the 
things  which  are  Ctesar's  and  to  God  the  things  which  are 
God's,"  that  is,  give  to  Caisar  what  belongs  to  him  and  is 
made  by  him,  —  the  coin,  —  and  to  God  give  what  is  made 
by  God  and  is  implanted  in  you,  —  your  soul,  your  con- 
science ;  give  this  to  no  one  but  God,  and  so  do  not  do  for 
Caesar  what  is  forbidden  by  God.  And  this  answer  sur- 
prises all  by  its  boldness  —  and  at  the  same  time  by  its 
unanswerableness.^ 

When  Christ  is  brought  before  Pilate,  as  a  ruutineer 
who  has  been  perverting  the  nation  and  forbidding  to  give 
tribute  to  Caesar  (Luke  xxiii.  2),  He,  after  saying  what 
He  found  necessary  to  say,  surprises  and  provokes  all 
the  chiefs  with  this,  that  He  pays  no  attention  to  all  their 
questions,  and  makes  no  reply  to  any  of  their  questions. 

For  this  arraignment  of  the  power  and  disobedience  to 
it,  Christ  is  sentenced  and  crucified. 

^Not  only  the  complete  misunderstanding  of  Christ's  teaching,  but 
also  a  complete  uuwilliuguess  to  understand  it  could  have  admitted 
that  striking  misinterpretation,  according  to  which  the  words,  "  To 
Caesar  the  things  which  are  Caesar's,"  signify  the  necessity  of  obeying 
Caesar.  In  the  first  place,  there  is  no  mention  there  of  obedience  ;  in 
the  second  place,  if  Christ  recognized  the  obligatoriness  of  paying 
tribute,  and  so  of  obedience.  He  would  have  said  directly,  "  Yes,  it 
should  be  paid  ;"  but  He  says,  "Give  to  Caesar  what  is  his,  that  is, 
the  money,  and  give  your  life  to  God,"  and  with  these  latter  words  He 
not  only  does  not  encourage  any  obedience  to  power,  but,  on  the  con- 
trary, points  out  that  in  everything  which  belongs  to  God  it  is  not 
right  to  obey  Caesar.  —  Author's  Note. 


EPILOGUE    TO    "DROZHZHIN's    LIFE  "  501 

The  whole  story  of  Christ's  sufferings  and  death  is 
notliing  but  the  story  of  those  calamities  to  which  inev- 
itably every  man  will  be  subjected,  if  he  follows  Christ's 
example  of  obedience  to  God  and  not  to  the  powers  of  the 
world.  Suddenly  we  are  assured  that  the  whole  of 
Christ's  teaching  must  not  only  be  corrected,  but  even  be 
abolished  in  consequence  of  the  thoughtless  and  cunning 
words  which  Paul  wrote  to  the  Romans. 

But  Paul's  words  contradict  Christ's  teaching  and  hfe, 
with  all  the  desire  to  obey  the  powers,  as  Paul  commands 
us  to  do,  not  only  from  fear,  but  also  from  conviction,  and 
in  our  time  such  an  obedience  has  become  absolutely 
impossible. 

To  say  nothing  of  the  inner  contradiction  between 
Christianity  and  the  obedience  to  the  powers,  such  obedi- 
ence to  the  powers,  not  from  fear,  but  from  conviction, 
has  become  impossible  in  our  day,  because,  in  consequence 
of  the  universal  diffusion  of  enlightenment,  the  power, 
as  something  worthy  of  respect,  something  exalted,  and, 
above  all,  something  definite  and  whole,  has  been  com- 
pletely destroyed  in  our  time,  and  there  is  no  possibility 
of  reestablishing  it. 

It  was  all  very  well  not  only  from  fear,  but  also  from 
conviction,  to  obey  the  power,  when  the  men  under  the 
power  saw  what  the  Romans  saw  in  it,  —  the  emperor- 
god,  or  what  the  Chinese  see  in  their  emperor,  —  the  sun 
of  heaven ;  or  when  men  in  the  Middle  Ages,  and  even 
down  to  the  Revolution,  saw  in  the  kings  and  emperors 
divinely  anointed  men,  just  as  until  lately  in  Russia  the 
masses  saw  hi  the  Tsar  an  earthly  Cod,  when  tsars,  kings, 
and  emperors  were  not  represented  otherwise  than  in  ma- 
jestic situations,  doing  wise  and  great  things.  But  it  is 
quite  different  to-day,  when,  in  spite  of  all  the  efforts  of 
the  powers  and  their  friends  and  even  the  subjects  them- 
selves to  reestal)lish  the  awe  for  the  power,  enlighten- 
ment, history,  experience,  the  intercourse  of  men  among 


602         EPILOGUE    TO    "dROZHZHIN's    LIFE " 

themselves  have  destroyed  this  awe,  so  that  it  is  as 
impossible  to  reestablish  it  as  it  is  in  the  spring  to  rees- 
tablish the  melted  snow,  and  as  impossible  to  construct 
anything  firm  upon  it  as  it  is  to  travel  in  a  sleigh  over 
a  widely  spreading  river,  from  which  the  ice  has  dis- 
appeared. 

It  cannot  be  otherwise,  since  now  all  men,  with  the 
exception  of  the  coarsest  and  most  uncultured  of  men, 
whose  number  is  growing  less  and  less,  know  what 
immoral  persons  were  Louis  XL,  Elizabeth  of  England, 
John  IV.,  Catherine,  Napoleon,  Nicholas  I.,  who  ruled 
and  decided  the  fates  of  millions,  and  who  did  not  rule 
thanks  to  some  sacred,  invariable  law,  as  people  used  to 
think  formerly,  but  only  because  these  people  were  able 
by  means  of  all  kinds  of  deceptions,  by  cunning,  and  by 
rascalities  so  to  strengthen  their  power  that  it  was  im- 
possible to  dethrone,  kill,  or  drive  them  away,  as  was  done 
in  the  case  of  Charles  I.,  Louis  XVI.,  Maximilian  of  Mex- 
ico, Louis  Philippe,  and  others. 

It  cannot  be  otherwise,  since  all  men  know  that  even 
the  kings  and  emperors  who  rule  at  the  present  time  are 
not  only  not  some  especial,  holy,  great,  wise  people,  who 
are  interested  in  the  good  of  their  nations,  but,  on  the 
contrary,  for  the  most  part  very  badly  educated,  ignorant, 
vainglorious,  immoral,  frequently  very  stupid  and  bad 
men,  who  are  always  corrupted  by  luxury  and  flattery, 
who  are  not  at  all  interested  in  the  good  of  their  subjects, 
but  in  their  own  personal  affairs,  and  are,  above  all 
else,  without  cessation  concerned  in  maintaining  their 
tottering  power,  which  is  upheld  only  by  means  of  cunning 
and  deception. 

Not  only  do  men  now  see  the  material  of  which  are 
made  their  rulers,  who  formerly  presented  themselves  to 
them  as  especial  beings,  and  not  only  have  men  peeped 
behind  the  curtain,  so  that  it  is  impossible  to  reconstruct 
the  old  illusion,  they  also  see  and  know,  besides,  that  it 


EPILOGUE   TO    "  DFvOZUZHIN's   LIFE  "         603 

is  not  really  these  rulers  that  rule,  but,  in  constitutional 
states,  the  members  of  the  Chambers,  the  ministers,  who 
attain  their  positions  by  means  of  intrigues  and  bribes, 
and  in  unconstitutional  countries,  the  wives,  paramours, 
favourites,  flatterers,  and  all  kinds  of  parasitic  accomphces. 

How  can  a  man  respect  the  power  and  obey  it,  not 
from  fear,  but  from  conviction,  when  he  knows  that  this 
power  is  not  something  which  exists  separately  from  him, 
but  is  the  product  of  men's  intrigues  and  cunning,  and 
constantly  passes  from  one  person  to  another  ?  Knowing 
this,  a  man  can  not  only  not  obey  the  power  from  convic- 
tion, but  cannot  even  help  trying  to  destroy  the  existing 
power  and  himself  to  become  it,  that  is,  making  his  way 
into  power,  to  seize  as  much  of  it  as  he  can.  And  this  is 
actually  taking  place. 

The  power  of  which  Paul  spoke,  the  power  which  one 
can  obey  from  conviction,  has  outlived  its  day.  It  no 
longer  exists.  It  has  melted  like  the  ice,  and  it  will  not 
support  anything.  What  formerly  was  a  solid  surface  of 
the  river  is  now  liquid,  and  in  order  to  journey  over  it  we 
do  not  need  a  sleigh  and  horses,  but  a  boat  and  oars. 
Even  so  the  composition  of  life  has  so  completely 
changed,  as  the  result  of  education,  that  the  power,  in  the 
sense  in  which  it  used  to  be  understood,  has  no  longer 
any  place  in  our  world,  and  all  there  is  left  is  rude 
violence  and  deception.  But  violence  and  deception  can- 
not be  obeyed,  "  not  from  fear,  but  from  conviction." 

"  But  how  can  we  help  obeying  the  powers  ?  If  we  do 
not  obey  the  powers,  there  will  happen  terrible  calamities, 
and  bad  men  will  torment,  oppress,  and  kill  the  good." 

"  How  can  we  help  but  obey  the  power  ? "  say  I 
myself.  "  How  can  we  make  up  our  minds  not  to  obey 
the  power,  the  one  unquestionable  power,  from  which  we 
shall  never  get  away,  under  which  we  always  are,  and 
the  demands  of  which  we  know  incontestably  and  unerr- 
ingly  ? " 


504         EPILOGUE    TO    "  DROZHZHIN'S    LIFE  " 

They  say :  "  How  can  we  make  up  our  minds  not  to 
obey  the  powers  ?  " 

What  powers  ?  In  the  time  of  Catherine,  when  Puga- 
chev  rebelled,  half  the  people  swore  allegiance  to  Pugach^v 
and  were  under  his  power.  Well,  what  power  had  to  be 
obeyed  ?  Catherine's  or  Pugachev's  ?  And  again,  who 
was  to  be  obeyed  in  the  time  of  the  same  Catherine, 
who  usurped  the  power  from  her  husband,  the  Tsar, 
to  whom  people  had  sworn  allegiance  ?  Was  it  Peter 
III.  or  Catherine  ? 

Not  one  Eussian  Tsar,  from  Peter  I.  to  Nicholas  I. 
included,  assumed  the  throne  in  such  a  way  that  it  was 
clear  what  power  was  to  be  obeyed.  Who  was  to  be 
obeyed,  Peter  I.  or  Sophia,  or  John,  Peter's  elder  brother  ? 
Sophia  had  just  as  much  right  to  the  throne,  and  the 
proof  of  it  is  this,  that  after  her  ruled  women  who  had 
even  less  right  to  it,  —  the  two  Catherines,  Anna,  Eliza- 
beth. Whose  power  was  to  be  obeyed  after  Peter,  when 
some  courtiers  raised  to  the  throne  a  soldier  woman,  the 
paramour  of  M^nshikov,  Sherem^tev,  and  Peter,  —  Cather- 
ine I.,  —  and  then  Peter  II.,  and  then  Anna  and  Ehza- 
beth,  and  finally  Catherine  II.,  who  had  no  more  right  to 
the  throne  than  had  Pugach^v,  since  during  her  reign  the 
legitimate  heir,  John,  was  kept  in  prison  and  was  killed 
by  her  order,  and  there  was  another,  unquestionably  a 
legitimate  heir,  Paul,  who  was  of  age?  And  whose 
power  had  to  be  obeyed,  Paul's  or  Alexander's,  at  the 
time  that  the  conspirators,  who  killed  Paul,  were  just 
getting  ready  to  kill  him  ?  And  whose  power  had  to  be 
obeyed,  Constantiae's  or  Nicholas's,  when  Nicholas  took 
the  power  away  from  Coustantine  ?  All  history  is  the 
history  of  the  struggle  of  one  power  against  another,  not 
only  in  Eussia,  but  also  in  all  the  other  countries. 

More  than  this :  must  we,  not  in  time  of  civil  war  and 
the  dethronement  of  one  set  of  rulers  and  the  substitution 
of  another  set  in  their  place,  but  in  the  most  peaceful 


EPILOGUE    TO    "DROZHZHIN'S    LIFE  "  505 

times,  obey  Arakch^ev,  who  seized  the  power,  or  must  we 
try  to  overthrow  him  and  convince  the  Tsar  of  the  worth- 
lessness  of  his  ministers  ?  Not  the  supreme  power,  but 
its  servants  control  men :  must  we  obey  these  servants, 
when  their  demands  are  obviously  bad  and  detrimental  ? 

Thus,  no  matter  how  much  we  may  desire  to  obey  the 
power,  we  cannot  do  so,  because  there  is  not  one  definite 
earthly  power,  but  all  the  powers  of  the  earth  waver,  change, 
fight  among  themselves.  What  power  is  the  real  one,  and 
when  is  it  real  ?     And  so,  what  power  is  to  be  obeyed  ? 

But  not  only  is  the  power  which  demands  obedience 
doubtful,  and  we  cannot  know  whether  it  is  the  real  one 
or  not,  —  it  also  demands  of  us  not  indifferent,  harmless 
acts,  such  as  this,  that  we  should  build  a  pyramid,  a 
temple,  a  castle,  or  even  sliould  serve  the  mighty  of  this 
earth  and  should  satisfy  their  lusts  and  their  luxury. 
That  would  still  be  possible  to  do.  But  this  doubtful 
power  demands  of  us  that  we  should  commit  the  most 
terrible  act  for  a  man,  —  murder,  the  preparation  for  it,  the 
acknowledgment  of  our  readiness  for  it ;  it  demands  an 
act  which  is  obviously  prohibited  by  God,  and  which, 
therefore,  causes  our  souls  to  perish.  Is  it  possible  that  I 
must,  out  of  obedience  to  this  human,  accidental,  waver- 
ing, discordant  power,  forget  the  demands  of  that  one  divine 
power,  which  is  so  clearly  and  so  indubitably  known  to 
me,  and  cause  my  soul  to  perish  ? 

"  We  cannot  help  obeying  the  power." 

"  Yes,  we  cannot  help  obeying  the  power,"  say  I 
myself,  "  only  it  is  not  the  power  of  an  emperor,  king, 
president,  parliament,  and  the  chiefs  chosen  by  them, 
whom  I  do  not  know  and  with  whom  I  have  nothing  in 
common,  but  the  power  of  God  whom  I  know,  with  whom 
I  live,  from  whom  I  received  my  soul,  and  to  whom  I 
shall  return  it  to-morrow,  if  not  to-day." 

I  am  told,  "  There  will  be  calamities,  if  we  are  not 
going  to  obey  the  power."    And  they  tell  the  actual  truth 


506         EPILOGUE    TO    "DROZHZHIN's    LIFE  " 

if  by  power  they  mean  the  real  power,  and  not  the  human 
deception  which  is  called  power.  There  are  those  calami- 
ties, and  they  are  terrible,  horrible  calamities,  through 
which  we  are  passing  now,  for  the  very  reason  that  we  do 
not  obey  the  one  unquestionable  power  of  God  which 
was  clearly  revealed  to  us  in  Scripture  and  in  our 
hearts. 

We  say :  "  Our  calamities  consist  in  this,  that  the 
rich  and  the  idle  are  growing  richer,  and  the  poor,  the 
labouring  people  are  growing  poorer ;  that  the  masses  are 
deprived  of  the  land,  and  so  are  compelled  to  do  convict 
labour  in  the  factories  which  manufacture  articles  that 
thev  do  not  use ;  that  the  masses  are  made  drunk  on 
whiskey,  which  the  government  sells  to  them ;  that 
young  men  go  into  the  army,  become  corrupted,  spread 
diseases,  and  are  made  unfit  for  a  simple  life  of  labour ; 
that  the  rich  sit  in  judgment  in  the  courts,  while  the  poor 
sit  in  prisons  ;  that  the  masses  are  stultified  in  the  schools 
and  churches,  and  that  officials  and  the  clergy  are  re- 
warded for  this  by  means  of  the  money  taken  from  the 
masses  ;  that  all  the  popular  forces,  men  and  money,  are 
used  for  war  and  the  army,  and  this  army  is  in  the  hands 
of  the  rulers,  who  by  means  of  this  army  crush  everything 
which  is  not  in  harmony  with  their  advantage." 

These  calamities  are  terrible.  But  whence  do  they 
come  ?  On  what  are  they  based  ?  Only  on  this,  that 
men  do  not  obey  the  one  true  power  and  its  law,  which 
is  written  in  their  hearts,  but  obey  invented  human  stat- 
utes which  they  call  the  law.  If  men  obeyed  this  one 
true  power  of  God  and  His  law,  they  would  not  take  upon 
themselves  the  obhgation  to  kill  their  like,  would  not 
enter  the  army  and  would  not  give  money  for  the  hire 
and  support  of  an  army.  If  there  were  no  army,  there 
would  not  be  all  those  cruelties  and  all  that  injustice, 
which  it  supports.  Only  by  means  of  an  army  is  it  pos- 
sible to  estabUsh  and  maintain  such  an  order  that  all  the 


EPILOGUE    TO    "DROZHZHIN's   LIFE  "  507 

land  is  in  the  hands  of  those  who  do  not  work  it,  and 
those  who  work  are  deprived  of  it ;  only  by  means  of  an 
army  is  it  possible  to  take  away  the  labours  of  the  poor 
and  give  them  to  the  rich ;  only  by  means  of  an  army  is 
it  possible  purposely  to  stupefy  the  masses  and  deprive 
them  of  the  possibility  of  real  enlightenment.  All  that  is 
supported  by  means  of  an  army.  But  the  army  consists 
of  soldiers,  and  we  are  the  soldiers.  If  there  were  no  sol- 
diers, there  would  not  be  anything  of  the  kind. 

The  condition  of  men  is  now  such  that  nothing  can 
change  it  but  obedience  to  the  true,  and  not  to  the  false, 
power. 

"  But  this  new  condition  without  an  army,  without  a 
government,  will  be  many  times  worse  than  the  one  we 
are  in  now,"  we  are  told.  "  Worse  for  whom  ? "  ask  I. 
"  For  those  who  now  rule,  for  one-hundreth  part  of  the 
whole  nation  ?  For  that  part  of  the  nation,  of  course,  it 
will  be  worse,  but  not  for  all  the  mass  of  working  people, 
who  are  deprived  of  tlie  land  and  of  the  products  of  their 
labour,  for  the  simple  reason  that  for  these  ninety-nine- 
hundredths  of  the  people  the  condition  cannot  be  worse 
than  it  now  is." 

And  by  what  right  do  we  assume  that  the  condition  of 
men  will  become  worse,  if  they  obey  the  law  of  not  com- 
mitting murder,  which  is  revealed  to  them  by  God  and  is 
implanted  in  their  hearts  ?  To  say  that  everything  in  this 
world  will  get  worse,  if  the  men  in  it  shall  follow  the 
law  which  God  gave  them  for  the  life  in  this  world,  is 
the  same  as  though  we  should  say  that  it  will  be  worse, 
if  men  are  going  to  use  a  machine  which  is  given  to  them, 
not  according  to  their  arbitrary  will,  but  according  to  the 
instruction  as  regards  the  use  of  the  machine,  which  is 
given  them  by  him  who  invented  and  constructed  the 
machine. 

There  was  a  time  when  humanity  lived  like  wild  beasts, 
and  everybody  took  for  himself  in  life  everything  which 


508         EPILOGUE    TO    "  DROZHZHIn's    LIFE  " 

he  could,  taking  away  from  others  what  he  wanted,  and 
killing  and  annihilating  his  neighbours.  Then  there  came 
a  time,  when  men  united  into  societies  and  states,  and 
began  to  establish  themselves  as  nations,  defending  them- 
selves against  other  nations.  Men  became  less  similar  to 
beasts,  but  still  considered  it  not  only  possible,  but  even 
indispensable,  and  so  proper  to  kill  their  domestic  and 
foreign  enemies.  Now  the  time  is  at  hand  and  is  already 
here,  when  men,  according  to  Christ's  words,  are  entering 
into  the  new  condition  of  the  brotherhood  of  all  men,  into 
that  new  condition  which  was  long  ago  predicted  by  the 
prophets,  when  all  men  shall  be  taught  by  God,  shall  for- 
get how  to  fight,  shall  forge  the  swords  into  ploughshares 
and  the  spears  into  pruning-hooks,  and  there  will  come 
the  kingdom  of  God,  the  kingdom  of  union  and  of  peace. 
This  condition  was  predicted  by  the  prophets,  but  Christ's 
teaching  showed  how  and  through  what  it  can  be  materi- 
alized, namely,  through  brotherly  union,  one  of  the  first 
manifestations  of  which  must  be  the  abolition  of  violence. 
The  necessity  of  the  destruction  of  violence  is  already 
recognized  by  men,  and  so  this  condition  will  arrive  as 
inevitably  as  formerly  the  political  condition  followed 
after  the  savage  state. 

Humanity  is  in  our  time  in  the  child-labour  of  this 
nascent  kingdom  of  God,  and  this  labour  will  inevitably 
end  in  birth.  But  the  arrival  of  this  new  life  will  not 
take  place  of  its  own  accord,  —  it  depends  on  us.  We 
must  do  it  all.     The  kingdom  of  God  is  within  us. 

In  order  to  produce  this  kingdom  of  God  within  us,  we 
do  not  need,  I  repeat,  any  special  mental  or  physical  con- 
ditions ;  we  need  only  be  what  we  are,  what  God  made 
us,  that  is,  rational  and,  above  all,  good  beings,  who  follow 
the  voice  of  our  conscience. 

"  But  that  is  where  the  trouble  is :  men  are  neither 
rational  nor  good  beings,"  I  already  hear  the  voice  of  those 
men  who,  to  have  the  right  to  be  bad,  assert  that  the 


EPILOGUE    TO    "DROZHZHIN's    LIFE  "  609 

whole  human  race  is  bad,  and  that  this  is  not  merely  an 
experimental,  but  also  a  divine,  revealed,  religious  truth. 
"  Men  are  all  evil  and  irrational,"  they  assert,  "  and  so  it 
is  necessary  for  the  rational  and  good  men  to  maintain 
order." 

But  if  all  men  are  irrational  and  bad,  whence  shall  we 
take  the  rational  and  the  good  ?  And  if  there  are  such, 
how  are  we  going  to  tell  them  ?  And  if  we  can  tell 
them,  by  what  means  shall  we  (who  are  those  "  we " 
going  to  be  ?)  put  them  at  the  head  of  other  men  ?  But 
if  even  we  shall  be  able  to  put  these  especial,  rational,  and 
good  men  at  the  head  of  the  others,  will  not  these  rational 
and  good  men  stop  being  such,  if  they  are  going  to  exert 
violence  and  punish  the  irrational  and  the  bad  ?  And, 
above  all  else,  you  say  that,  in  order  to  keep  some  thieves, 
pillagers,  and  murderers  from  violating  and  killing  men, 
you  are  going  to  establish  courts,  a  police,  an  army,  which 
will  constantly  violate  and  kill  men,  and  whose  duty  will 
consist  in  nothing  else,  and  into  these  institutions  you 
will  draw  all  men.  But  in  such  a  case  you  are  putting 
in  the  place  of  a  small  and  assumed  evil  another  which  is 
greater,  a  universal  and  a  certain  evil.  In  order  to  defend 
ourselves  against  some  imaginary  murderers,  you  compel 
all  men  certainly  to  become  murderers.  And  so  I  repeat 
that  for  the  reahzation  of  a  brotherly  intercourse  among 
men  we  need  no  special  efforts,  no  mental  or  bodily 
efforts,  but  need  only  be  what  God  made  us,  —  rational 
and  good  beings,  —  and  act  in  conformity  with  these 
properties. 

It  is  not  for  every  one  of  us  to  bear  all  the  trials  which 
Drdzhzhin  endured  (although,  if  this  shall  be  our  fate,  — 
may  God  help  us  to  bear  it  all,  without  being  false  to 
Him) ;  but  whether  we  want  it  or  not,  —  even  if  we  Hve 
in  a  country  where  there  is  no  military  duty  or  we  are 
not  called  upon  to  perform  such  duty,  —  every  one  is 
called  in  one  way  or  another  to  subject  himself,  though 


510         EPILOGUE    TO    "  DKOZIIZHIN's    LIFE  " 

iu  other,  much  easier  forms,  to  the  same  trial  and,  whether 
he  wills  so  or  not,  to  stand  on  the  side  of  the  oppressors 
or  himself  to  become  an  oppressor,  or  on  the  side  of  the 
oppressed  and  to  help  them  to  bear  their  trials,  or  himself 
to  undergo  them.  Every  one  of  us,  even  if  we  do  not 
take  any  direct  part  in  the  persecutions  against  these  new 
martyrs,  as  do  the  emperors,  ministers,  governors,  judges, 
who  sign  the  decrees  for  the  torturing  of  these  martyrs,  or 
as  still  more  directly  do  the  tormentors  themselves,  such 
as  the  jailers,  guards,  executioners,  —  every  one  of  us  has 
none  the  less  to  take  an  active  part  in  these  affairs  by 
means  of  those  opinions  which  we  pass  upon  them  in 
print,  in  letters,  and  in  conversations.  Frequently  we, 
out  of  laziness,  do  not  reflect  on  the  significance  of  such  a 
phenomenon,  only  because  we  do  not  wish  to  impair  our 
peace  by  a  lively  representation  of  what  is  being  suffered 
by  those  men  who  on  account  of  their  truthfulness,  sin- 
cerity, and  love  of  men  are  pining  away  in  prisons  and  in 
places  of  deportation,  and  we  repeat,  without  thinking  of 
what  we  are  saying,  opiuious  which  we  have  heard  or  read 
elsewhere,  "  What  is  to  be  done  ?  It  serves  them  right. 
They  are  harmful  fanatics  and  the  government  must  sup- 
press such  attempts,"  and  similar  words,  which  support 
the  persecutors  and  increase  the  sufferings  of  the  perse- 
cuted. We  will  think  ten  times  about  an  act  of  ours, 
about  the  disbursement  of  a  certain  sum,  about  the  de- 
struction or  construction  of  a  house,  but  it  seems  »f  so 
little  consequence  to  say  a  few  words  that  we  generally 
speak  without  thinking.  And  yet,  speech  is  the  most 
significant  of  all  the  acts  which  we  can  do.  Public  opin- 
ion is  composed  from  what  is  said.  And  public  opinion 
more  than  all  the  kings  and  sovereigns  rules  all  the 
affairs  of  men.  And  so  every  opinion  of  ours,  concerning 
acts  such  as  Drozhzhin's  act,  may  be  a  work  of  God, 
which  contributes  to  the  realization  of  the  kingdom  of 
God,  the  brotherhood  of  men,  and  which  helps  those  ad- 


EPILOGUE    TO    ^^  DROZTIZHIn's    LIFE  "         511 

vanced  men  who  give  their  lives  for  its  realization,  or 
may  be  a  work  which  is  hostile  to  God,  which  works 
against  Him,  and  which  contributes  to  the  torments  of 
those  men  who  abandon  themselves  to  His  service. 

Drozhzhin  tells  in  his  diary  of  one  such  cruel  effect 
produced  upon  him  Vjy  frivolous  words  that  were  hostile 
to  God.  He  tells  how  in  the  first  of  his  incarceration, 
when  he,  in  spite  of  all  his  physical  sufferiugs  and  all  his 
humiliation,  continued  to  experience  joyous  peace,  in  the 
consciousness  that  he  had  done  what  he  ought  to  have 
done,  he  was  affected  by  a  letter  from  a  friend  of  his,  a 
revolutionist,  who,  out  of  love  for  him,  tried  to  persuade 
him  to  have  pity  on  himself,  to  recant,  and  to  do  the  will 
of  the  authorities,  —  to  take  the  oath  and  serve.  Ap- 
parently this  young  man,  who  had  the  spirit  of  a  revolu- 
tionist and  according  to  the  customary  code  of  the 
revolutionists  admitted  as  a  principle  that  the  end  jus- 
tifies the  means  and  that  all  kinds  of  compromises  with  his 
conscience  were  allowable,  absolutely  failed  to  understand 
those  religious  sentiments  which  guided  Drozhzhin,  and  so 
had  written  him  frivolously,  asking  him  not  to  throw  away 
his  life,  which  was  a  useful  tool  for  the  revolution,  and  to 
fulfil  all  the  demands  of  the  authorities.  These  words, 
it  would  seem,  ought  not  to  have  had  any  special  signifi- 
cance, and  yet  Drozhzhin  writes  that  these  words  deprived 
him  of  his  peace  and  that  he  fell  ill  in  consequence  of 
them. 

This  is  quite  comprehensible.  All  men  who  move  hu- 
manity forward  and  who  are  the  first  and  foremost  to 
step  out  on  the  path  on  which  all  men  will  soon  walk, 
do  not  come  out  on  this  path  lightly,  but  always  with 
suffering  and  with  an  internal  struggle.  An  inner  voice 
draws  them  on  to  the  new  path,  and  all  their  attachments, 
tlie  traditions  of  weakness,  draw  them  back.  In  such 
moments  of  unstable  balance  every  word  of  support  or,  on 
the  contrary,  of  retardation  has  an  enormous  importance. 


512         EPILOGUE    TO    "  DROZHZHIN's    LIFE  " 

The  strongest  man  can  be  pulled  over  by  a  child,  when 
this  man  is  straining  all  his  strength  in  order  to  move  a 
burden  v^hich  is  above  his  strength. 

Drozhzhin  experienced  terrible  despair  from  these  ap- 
parently unimportant  words  of  his  friend,  and  quieted 
down  only  when  he  received  a  letter  from  his  friend 
Izyumch^nko,  who  joyfully  bore  the  same  fate,  and  who 
expressed  a  firm  conviction  of  the  righteousness  of  his 
act.^  And  so,  no  matter  how  far  we  may  personally 
stand  from  events  of  this  character,  we  always  involunta- 
rily take  part  in  them,  iuflueuce  them  through  our  relation 
to  them,  through  our  judgments  of  them. 

Let  us  take  the  standpoint  of  his  friend  the  revolutionist, 
and  consider  that,  to  be  able  at  some  time,  somewhere,  to 
influence  the  external  conditions  of  life,  we  can  and  must 
depart  from  the  very  first  demands  of  our  conscience,  and 
we  not  only  do  not  alleviate  the  sufferings  and  the 
struggle  of  men  who  strive  to  serve  God,  but  we  also 
prepare  these  sufferings  of  an  inner  discord  for  all  those 
who  will  have  to  solve  the  dilemma  in  life.  And  there 
is  not  one  who  will  not  have  to  solve  it.  And  so  all  of 
us,  no  matter  how  far  we  may  be  removed  from  such 
events,  take  part  in  them  with  our  opinions  and  judg- 
ments. A  thoughtless,  careless  word  may  become  the 
source  of  the  greatest  sufferings  for  the  best  men  in 
the  world.  We  cannot  be  too  careful  in  the  use  of  this 
tool :  "  By  thy  words  shalt  thou  be  justified,  and  by  thy 
words  shalt  tlaou  be  condemned." 

But  many  of  us  are  called  to  take  part  in  such  events 
not  with  words  alone,  but  in  a  still  more  direct  way.  I 
am  speaking   of  those  who   serve,   who  in   one   way   or 

1  This  friend  was  for  the  same  refusal  to  do  military  service  locked 
up  in  the  guard-house  in  Kursk.  Just  now,  while  I  am  writing  these 
lines,  this  friend  is  kept  in  strictest  secrecy,  having  no  permission  to 
see  any  one,  in  the  Moscow  transportation  prison,  on  his  way  to  the 
Government  of  Tobdlsk,  whither  he  is  deported  by  order  of  the  Tsar. 
—  Authors  Note. 


EPILOGUE    TO    "  DKOZHZIIIN  S    LIFE    '  513 

another  take  part  in  those  hopeless  oppressions,  by  means 
of  which  the  government  persecutes  such  men  as  Drozh- 
zhin,  and  which  only  strengthen  the  movement ;  I  am 
speaking  of  the  participants  in  these  persecutions,  begin- 
ning with  the  emperor,  the  ministers,  the  judges,  the 
prosecuting  attorneys,  and  ending  with  the  guards  and 
jailers,  who  torture  these  martyrs.  You  all,  participants 
in  these  torments,  know  that  this  man,  whom  you  torture, 
is  not  only  not  a  malefactor,  but  also  an  exceptionally  good 
man,  that  he  is  being  tormented  for  the  very  reason  that 
he  wants  with  all  the  forces  of  his  heart  to  be  good ;  you 
know  that  he  is  young,  that  he  has  friends,  a  mother,  that 
he  loves  you  and  forgives  you.  And  you  will  put  him  in 
a  lockup,  will  take  away  his  clothes,  starve  him,  not  give 
him  to  eat,  not  let  him  sleep,  deprive  him  of  his  com- 
munion with  his  neighbours,  his  friends. 

How  can  you,  emperor,  who  have  signed  such  a  decree, 
minister,  prosecutor,  superintendent  of  the  prison,  jailer,  sit 
down  to  your  dinner,  knowing  that  he  is  lying  on  a  cold 
floor  and  in  exhaustion  is  weeping  on  account  of  your 
malice  ?  How  can  you  fondle  your  child  ?  How  can 
you  think  of  God,  of  death,  which  will  lead  you  to  Him  ? 
No  matter  how  much  you  may  pretend  to  be  the  execu- 
tors of  some  invariable  laws,  you  are  simply  men,  and 
good  men,  and  you  are  to  be  pitied,  and  you  show  pity, 
and  only  in  this  pity  and  love  for  one  another  does  our 
life  consist. 

You  say  that  necessity  compels  you  to  serve  in  your 
capacity.  You  know  yourselves  that  that  is  not  true. 
You  know  that  there  is  no  necessity,  that  necessity  is  a 
conventional  word,  that  what  for  you  is  a  necessity,  is 
for  another  a  luxury  ;  you  know  that  you  can  find  another 
position,  one  in  which  you  will  have  no  need  to  torture 
people,  and  what  people  !  Precisely  in  this  way  did 
they  torture  the  prophets,  and  later  Christ,  and  later  His 
disciples ;    thus  have    they   always   tortured    those   who, 


514         EPILOGUE    TO    "DROZHZHIN'S    LIFE 


j> 


loving  them,  lead  them  ahead  to  their  good.  If  you 
could  only  refrain  from  being  participants  in  these 
tortures ! 

It  is  terrible  to  torture  an  innocent  bird,  an  animal. 
How  much  more  terrible  it  is  to  torture  a  good,  pure 
youth,  who  loves  men  and  wishes  them  well.  It  is  ter- 
rible to  be  a  participant  in  this  matter. 

And,  above  all,  to  be  a  participant  for  nothing,  —  to 
ruin  his  body,  oneself,  one's  soul,  and  yet  not  only  not 
to  put  a  stop  to  the  consummation  of  the  establishment  of 
the  kingdom  of  God,  but,  on  the  contrary,  against  one's 
will  to  contribute  to  its  triumph. 

It  has  come  and  is  already  here, 

Moscow,  March  4,  1895. 


RELIGION    AND    MORALITY 

1894 


RELIGION    AND    MORALITY 


You  asked  me :  (1)  what  I  understand  by  the  word 
"religion,"  and  (2)  whether  I  consider  morahty  possible 
apart  from  religion,  as  I  understand  it. 

I  will  try  to  the  best  of  my  ability  to  answer  these 
extremely  important  and  beautifully  put  questions. 

Among  the  majority  of  the  men  of  modern  culture  it 
is  considered  a  settled  question  that  the  essence  of  every 
religion  consists  in  the  personification  and  deification  of 
the  forces  of  Nature,  resulting  from  superstitious  fear  be- 
fore the  incomprehensible  phenomena  of  Nature,  and  in 
the  worship  of  these  forces. 

This  opinion  is  accepted  without  criticism,  upon  faith, 
by  the  cultured  crowd  of  our  time,  and  not  only  does  not 
meet  with  any  opposition  from  the  men  of  science,  but 
for  the  most  part  finds  among  them  the  most  definite  con- 
firmations. Though  now  and  then  voices,  like  those  of 
Max  Miiller  and  of  others,  who  ascribe  to  religion  a  dif- 
ferent origin  and  meaning,  are  raised,  they  are  not  heard 
(jr  noticed  amidst  the  universal,  unanimous  recognition  of 
religion  as  a  manifestation  of  superstition  in  general. 
Even  recently,  in  the  beginning  of  the  present  century, 
the  most  advanced  men,  who  rejected  Catholicism  and 
Protestantism,  as  did  the  Encyclopiedists  at  the  end  of 
the  last  century,  did  not  deny  that  rehgion  in  general  was 

517 


518  RELIGION    AND    MOllALITT 

a  necessary  condition  of  the  life  of  every  man.  To  say 
nothing  of  the  Deists,  such  as  Bernaidin  de  St.  Pierre, 
Diderot,  and  Eousseau,  Voltaire  erected  a  monument  to 
God,  and  Eobespierre  established  the  holiday  of  the  su- 
preme being.  But  in  our  time,  thanks  to  the  frivolous 
and  superficial  teaching  of  Auguste  Comte,  who,  like  the 
majority  of  the  French,  sincerely  believed  that  Christian- 
ity was  nothing  but  Catholicism,  and  who,  therefore,  saw 
in  Catholicism  a  full  realization  of  Christianity,  it  has 
been  decided  and  recognized  by  the  cultured  crowd, 
which  is  always  prone  to  accept  the  basest  representa- 
tions, that  religion  is  nothing  but  a  certain  outlived  phase 
of  the  evolution  of  humanity.  It  is  assumed  that  human- 
ity has  already  passed  through  two  periods,  the  religious 
and  the  metaphysical,  and  that  it  has  now  entered  on  the 
third,  the  highest,  the  scientific  period,  and  that  all  the 
religious  phenomena  among  men  are  only  the  functions 
of  some  unnecessary  spiritual  organ  of  humanity,  which 
has  long  ago  lost  its  meaning  and  significance,  like  the 
nail  of  a  horse's  fifth  toe.  It  is  assumed  that  the  es- 
sence of  religion  consists  in  the  recognition  of  imaginary 
beings,  evoked  by  fear  in  the  presence  of  the  incompre- 
hensible forces  of  Nature,  and  in  the  worship  of  them,  an 
opinion  which  even  in  antiquity  was  held  by  Democritus, 
and  is  now  reiterated  by  the  most  modern  philosophers 
and  historians  of  religion. 

But,  to  say  nothing  of  the  fact  that  the  recognition  of 
invisible  supernatural  beings,  or  of  one  such  being,  has 
not  always  originated  in  the  fear  of  the  unknown  forces 
of  Nature,  as  is  witnessed  by  hundreds  of  the  most  ad- 
vanced and  highly  cultured  men  of  the  past,  such  as 
Socrates,  Descartes,  Newton,  and  by  similar  men  of  our 
time,  who  certainly  do  not  recognize  a  higher  supernatural 
being  out  of  fear  of  the  unknown  forces  of  Nature,  the 
assertion  that  religion  originated  in  the  superstitious  fear 
of  the  incomprehensible  forces  of  Nature  in  reality  gives 


RELIGION    AND    MORALITY  519 

no  answer  to  the  main  question  as  to  whence  men  have 
taken  the  conception  of  the  invisible  supernatural  beings. 

If  men  were  afraid  of  thunder  and  lightning,  they 
would  still  be  afraid  of  thunder  and  lightning,  but  why- 
did  they  invent  a  certain  invisible,  supernatural  being, 
Jupiter,  who  is  somewhere,  and  at  times  casts  his  arrows 
down  upon  men  ? 

If  men  were  startled  by  the  sight  of  death,  they  would 
continue  to  be  afraid  of  death,  but  why  did  they  "  invent " 
the  souls  of  the  dead,  with  whom  they  entered  into  imag- 
inary relations  ?  From  thunder  people  could  conceal 
themselves,  from  the  terror  of  death  they  could  run  away, 
but  they  invented  an  eternal  and  powerful  being,  on  which 
they  consider  themselves  to  be  dependent,  and  the  living 
souls  of  the  dead,  not  through  fear  alone,  but  for  some 
other  reason.  It  is  in  these  reasons  that,  obviously,  the 
essence  of  what  is  called  religion  is  contained.  Besides, 
every  man  who  at  any  time,  be  it  only  in  childhood,  has 
experienced  the  religious  feeling,  knows  from  his  personal 
experience  that  this  feeling  has  always  been  evoked  in 
him,  not  by  external,  temble  material  phenomena,  but  by 
an  internal  consciousness  of  his  insignificance,  solitude, 
and  sinfulness,  which  has  nothing  in  common  with  the 
fear  of  the  incomprehensible  forces  of  Nature.  And  so 
a  man  may  know  from  external  observation  and  from  per- 
sonal experience  that  religion  is  not  a  worship  of  divini- 
ties, provoked  by  a  superstitious  fear  of  the  unknown  forces 
of  Nature,  which  is  proper  to  men  only  in  a  certain  pe- 
riod of  their  evolution,  but  something  quite  independent 
of  fear  and  the  degree  of  a  man's  culture,  and  something 
which  cannot  be  destroyed  by  any  evolution  of  enhghten- 
ment,  because  man's  recognition  of  his  finiteness  amidst 
an  infinite  world,  and  of  his  sinfulness,  that  is,  of  the  non- 
fulfilment  of  everything  he  could  and  should  do,  but  has 
not  done,  has  always  existed,  and  will  always  exist  so  long 
as  man  remains  man. 


520  RELIGION    x\ND    MORALITY 

Indeed,  as  soon  as  a  man  leaves  his  animal  condition 
of  babyhood  and  first  childhood,  during  which  time  he 
lives  only  by  being  guided  by  those  demands  which  pre- 
sent themselves  to  his  animal  nature,  and  as  soon  as  he 
awakens  to  a  rational  consciousness,  he  cannot  help  but 
notice  that  everything  about  him  lives,  renewing  itself, 
without  dying,  and  unswervingly  submitting  to  one  defi- 
nite, eternal  law,  and  that  only  he  alone,  in  recognizing 
himself  as  a  distinct  being  from  the  rest  of  the  world,  is 
doomed  to  death,  to  disappearance  in  unlimited  space  and 
infinite  time,  and  to  the  agonizing  consciousness  of  re- 
sponsibility for  his  acts,  that  is,  to  the  consciousness  that, 
having  acted  badly,  he  might  have  acted  better.  Having 
come  to  see  this,  every  rational  man  cannot  help  but 
reflect  and  ask  himself  what  this  momentary,  indefinite, 
and  wavering  existence  of  his  is  doing  amidst  this  eternal, 
firmly  established,  and  infinite  world.  Upon  entering  into 
the  true  human  life,  a  man  cannot  avoid  this  question. 

This  question  always  confronts  every  man,  and  every 
man  always  answers  it  in  one  way  or  another.  Now  the 
answer  to  this  question  is  that  which  forms  the  essence  of 
every  religion.  The  essence  of  every  religion  consists  in 
nothing  but  au  answer  to  the  question  why  I  live  and 
what  my  relation  is  to  the  infinite  world  which  surrounds 

me. 

And  the  whole  metaphysics  of  religion,  all  the  doc- 
trines about  the  divinities,  about  the  origin  of  the  world, 
are  only  different  symptoms  of  religion,  accompanying  it 
according  to  the  different  geographical,  ethnographical, 
and  historical  conditions.  There  is  not  a  single  religion, 
from  the  most  exalted  to  the  crudest,  which  has  not  for 
its  base  this  establishment  of  man's  relation  to  the  world 
around  him  or  to  its  prime  cause.  There  is  not  a  crude 
religious  rite  or  a  refined  cult,  which  has  not  the  same  for 
its  base.  Every  religious  teaching  is  an  expression  by  the 
founder  of  the  religion  of  that  relation  v.hich  he  recog- 


RELIGION    AND    MORALITY  521 

nizes  as  existiiig  between  himself,  as  a  man,  and  conse- 
quently between  all  other  men,  and  the  world,  or  its 
beginning  and  prime  cause. 

The  expressions  of  these  relations  are  very  varied,  in 
accordance  with  the  ethnographic  and  historical  condi- 
tions in  which  the  founder  of  the  religion  and  the  nation 
adopting  it  find  themselves ;  besides,  these  expressions 
are  always  differently  interpreted  and  distorted  by  the 
followers  of  the  teacher,  who  anticipates  the  comprehen- 
sion of  the  masses  generally  for  hundreds,  and  sometimes 
even  for  thousands  of  years ;  and  so  there  seem  to  be 
very  many  such  relations  of  man  to  the  w^orld,  that  is, 
religions,  but  in  reality  there  are  but  three  fundamental 
relations  of  man  to  the  world  or  to  its  beginning:  (1)  the 
primitive  personal,  (2)  the  pagan  social,  and  (3)  the 
Christian,  or  divine  relation. 

Strictly  speaking,  there  are  but  two  fundamental  rela- 
tions which  man  bears  toward  the  world,  —  the  personal 
one,  which  consists  in  the  recognition  of  the  meaning  of 
life  as  being  in  the  good  of  personality,  which  may  be 
attained  separately  or  in  conjunction  with  other  personah- 
ties,  and  the  Christian,  which  recognizes  the  meaning  of 
life  to  consist  iu  serving  Him  who  sent  man  into  the 
world.  Man's  second  relation  to  the  world  —  the  social 
one  —  is  in  reality  nothing  but  an  expansion  of  the 
first. 

The  first  of  these  relations,  the  most  ancient  one,  which 
is  now  found  among  men  standing  on  the  lowest  stage  of 
development,  consists  in  this,  that  man  recognizes  him- 
self to  be  a  self-sufficient  being,  which  lives  in  the  world 
for  the  purpose  of  acquiring  in  it  the  greatest  possible 
personal  good,  independently  of  how  much  the  good  of 
other  beings  may  suffer  from  it. 

From  this  very  first  relation  to  the  world,  in  which 
every  child  entering  into  the  world  finds  himself,  and  in 
which  humanity  lived  in  its  first,  the  pagan  stage  of  its 


522  EELiaiojq^  axd  morality 

evolution,  and  in  which  now  hve  many  separate  morally 
very  coarse  people  and  savage  nations,  result  all  the 
ancient  pagan  religions,  as  also  the  lower  forms  of  the 
later  religions  in  their  corrupted  form,  —  Buddhism,^ 
Taoism,  Mohammedanism,  and  others.  From  this  same 
relation  results  also  the  modern  spiritualism,  which  has 
for  its  base  the  preservation  of  personality  and  of  its  good. 
All  the  pagan  cults  of  deification  of  beings  which  enjoy 
themselves  like  man,  all  the  sacrifices  and  prayers  for 
the  acquisition  of  worldly  goods,  result  from  this  relation 
to  hfe. 

The  second  pagan  relation  of  man  to  the  world,  the 
social  one,  which  establishes  itself  at  the  next  stage  of 
evolution,  a  relation  which  is  more  especially  character- 
istic of  full-grown  men,  consists  in  this,  that  the  signifi- 
cance of  life  is  not  recognized  in  the  good  of  one  separate 
personality,  but  in  the  good  of  a  certain  aggregate  of  per- 
sonalities, —  the  family,  the  race,  the  nation,  even  human- 
ity (the  positivists'  attempt  at  religion). 

The  meaning  of  life  with  this  relation  of  man  to  the 
world  is  transferred  from  the  personality  to  the  family, 
the  race,  to  a  certain  aggregate  of  personalities,  whose 
good  is  considered  by  it  to  be  the  purpose  of  existence. 
From  this  relation  result  all  the  patriarchal  and  pubhc 
religions,  which  are  all  of  one  character,  —  the  Chinese 
and  the  Japanese  religions,  the  religion  of  the  chosen 
nation,  the  Jewish,  the  state  religion  of  the  Eomans,  the 
presumptive  religion  of  humanity  of  the  positivists.  All 
the  rites   of   ancestral  worship  in   China  and  in  Japan, 

1  Though  Buddhism  demands  from  its  followers  the  renunciation 
of  all  the  good  of  the  world  and  of  life  itself,  it  is  based  on  the  same 
relation  of  the  self-sufficient  personality,  which  is  intended  for  the 
good,  to  the  world  surrounding  it,  bat  with  this  difference,  that  simple 
paganism  recognizes  man's  right  to  enjoy  himself,  while  Buddhism 
recognizes  the  right  to  avoid  suffering.  Paganism  thinks  that  the 
world  must  serve  the  good  of  the  individual ;  while  Buddhism  thinks 
that  the  world  must  disappear,  since  it  produces  the  sufferings  of 
personality.     Buddhism  is  only  negative  paganism.  — Author's  Note. 


KELIGION    AND    MORALITY  623 

of  the  worship  of  the  emperors  in  Eome,  are  based  on  this 
relation  of  man  to  the  world. 

Man's  third  relation  to  the  world,  the  Christian,  the  one 
in  which  involuntarily  every  old  man  feels  himself  to  be, 
and  which,  in  my  opinion,  is  now  being  entered  upon  by 
humanity,  consists  in  this,  that  the  significance  of  life  is 
no  longer  cognized  by  man  as  consisting  in  the  attainment 
of  his  personal  purpose  or  of  the  purpose  of  any  aggre- 
gate of  men,  but  only  in  the  service  of  that  Will  which 
has  produced  him  and  the  whole  world,  not  for  the 
attainment  of  his  purposes,  but  of  the  purposes  of  this 
Will 

From  this  relation  to  the  world  results  the  highest 
known  religious  teaching,  the  germs  of  which  may  be 
found  among  the  Pythagoreans,  TherapeutcC,  Esseues, 
among  the  Egyptians,  Persians,  Brahmins,  Buddhists,  and 
Taoists  in  their  highest  representatives,  but  which  "re- 
ceived its  full  and  final  expression  only  in  Christianity  in 
its  true  and  uncorrupted  significance. 

All  possible  religious,  whatever  they  may  be,  inevitably 
classify  themselves  among  these  three  relations  of  men 
to  the  world. 

Every  man  who  has  left  the  animal  condition  inevitably 
recognizes  one  of  these  three  relations,  and  in  this  recogni- 
tion does  the  true  religion  of  every  man  consist,  in  spite 
t)f  the  profession  to  which  he  nominally  counts  himself  as 
belonging. 

Every  man  has  inevitably  some  idea  about  his  relation 
to  the  world,  because  a  rational  being  cannot  live  in  the 
world  which  surrounds  him,  without  having  some  relation 
to  it.  And  since  so  far  only  three  such  relations  to  the 
world  have  been  worked  out  by  humanity  and  are  known 
to  us,  every  man  inevitably  holds  to  one  of  the  three 
existing  relations,  and,  whether  he  wants  or  not,  belongs 
to  one  of  these  three  fundamental  religions,  among  which 
the  whole  human  race  is  distributed. 


524  KELIGION   AND    MORALITY 

And  so  the  very  common  assertion  of  the  men  of  the 
cultured  crowd  of  the  Christian  world,  that  they  have 
risen  to  such  a  height  of  evolution  that  they  no  longer  are 
in  need  of  any  .religion  and  do  not  possess  it,  in  reality 
means  this,  that  these  men,  in  not  recognizing  the  Chris- 
tian religion,  the  only  one  which  is  proper  for  our  time, 
are  holding  to  a  lower,  the  pubhc  or  the  primitive  pagan 
religion,  without  being  conscious  of  the  fact.  A  man 
without  religion,  that  is,  without  any  relation  to  the 
world,  is  as  impossible  as  a  man  without  a  heart.  He 
may  not  know  that  he  has  a  religion,  just  as  a  man  may 
not  know  that  he  has  a  heart ;  but  a  man  cannot  live 
without  religion,  just  as  he  cannot  live  without  a  heart. 

Eeligion  is  that  relation  which  a  man  recognizes  as 
existing  between  himself  and  the  infinite  world  surround- 
ing him,  or  to  its  beginning  and  prime  cause,  and  a 
rational  man  cannot  help  but  be  in  some  relation  to  it. 

But  you  wall,  perhaps,  say  that  the  establishment  of 
man's  relation  to  the  world  is  not  the  business  of  religion, 
but  of  philosophy,  or  in  general  of  science,  if  philosophy 
is  to  be  considered  a  part  of  it.  I  do  not  think  so.  I 
think,  on  the  contrary,  that  the  assumption  that  science 
in  general,  including  philosophy  in  it,  is  able  to  establish 
man's  relation  to  the  world  is  quite  faulty  and  serves  as 
the  chief  cause  of  that  confusion  of  ideas  concerning  re- 
ligion, science,  and  morality,  which  exists  in  the  cultured 
strata  of  our  society. 

Science,  with  the  inclusion  of  philosophy,  cannot  estab- 
lish any  relation  of  man  to  the  infinite  world  or  to  its 
beginning,  for  the  simple  reason  that  before  any  philos- 
ophy or  science  could  have  originated,  there  had  already 
to  exist  that  without  which  no  activity  of  the  mind  and 
no  relation  whatsoever  of  man  to  the  world  are  possible. 

Just  as  no  man  can  by  means  of  any  movement  find 
the  direction  in  which  he  is  to  move,  while  every  motion 
inevitably  takes  place  in  some  direction,  so  it  is  impos- 


KELIGION    AND    MOKALITY  525 

sible  by  means  of  the  mental  labour  of  philosophy  or 
science  to  fmd  the  direction  in  which  this  labour  is  to  be 
performed,  whereas  every  mental  labour  has  inevitably  to 
be  performed  in  some  one  given  direction.  Such  a  direc- 
tion is  for  every  mental  work  always  pointed  out  by 
religion.  Ail  philosophies  known  to  us,  beginning  with 
Plato  and  ending  with  Schopenhauer,  have  inevitably 
always  followed  the  direction  given  to  them  by  religion. 
The  pliilosophy  of  Plato  and  of  his  followers  was  a  pagan 
philosophy,  which  investigated  the  means  for  the  attain- 
ment of  the  highest  good  for  the  separate  personality,  as 
also  for  the  aggregate  of  personalities  in  the  state.  The 
mediccval  philosophy,  wdiich  resulted  from  the  same  pagan 
conception  of  life,  investigated  the  means  for  the  salvation 
of  the  personality,  that  is,  for  the  attainment  of  the  high- 
est good  of  the  personality  in  the  future  life,  and  only  in 
its  theocratic  endeavours  did  it  treat  about  the  structure 
of  societies. 

Modern  philosophy,  both  Hegel's  and  Comte's,  has  for 
its  basis  the  social  religious  concept  of  life.  Schopen- 
hauer's and  Hartmann's  philosophy  of  pessimism,  which 
wanted  to  free  itself  from  the  Jewish  religious  world-con- 
ception, involuntarily  fell  a  prey  to  the  religious  founda- 
tions of  Buddhism.  Pliilosophy  has  always  been  and  will 
always  be  an  investigation  of  wliat  results  from  man's 
relation  to  the  world  as  established  by  religion,  because 
previous  to  the  establishment  of  this  relation  there  does 
not  exist  any  material  for  the  philosophic  investigation. 

Even  so  it  is  with  positive  science  in  the  narrower 
sense  of  this  word.  Such  a  science  has  always  been  and 
always  will  be  nothing  but  an  investigation  and  study  of 
all  those  subjects  and  phenomena  which  present  them- 
selves as  subject  to  investigation,  in  consequence  of  a 
certain  relation  of  man  to  the  world,  as  established  by 
religion. 

Science  has  always  been  and  always  will  be,  not  the 


526  KELIGION   AND   MORALITY 

study  of  "  everything,"  as  men  of  science  naively  think 
now  (that,  indeed,  is  impossible,  since  there  are  an  infinite 
number  of  subjects  for  investigation),  but  only  of  that 
which  religion  in  regular  order  and  according  to  the 
degree  of  its  importance  segregates  from  the  infinite  num- 
ber of  subjects,  phenomena,  and  conditions  that  are  sub- 
ject to  investigation.  And  so  there  is  not  merely  one 
science,  but  there  are  as  many  sciences  as  there  are  de- 
grees of  the  development  of  religion.  Every  religion 
segregates  a  certain  circle  of  subjects  of  investigation,  and 
so  the  science  of  every  separate  time  and  nation  inevi- 
tably bears  the  character  of  the  religion  from  the  stand- 
point from  which  it  views  the  subject. 

Thus  the  pagan  science  which  was  resuscitated  during 
the  Eenascence,  and  which  even  now  flourishes  in  our 
society,  has  always  been  and  continues  to  be  nothing  but 
an  investigation  of  all  those  conditions  under  w^hich  a 
man  receives  the  highest  good,  and  of  all  those  phenomena 
of  the  world  which  can  furnish  it.  The  Brahmin  and 
the  Buddhistic  philosophic  sciences  have  always  been 
nothing  but  an  investigation  of  those  conditions  under 
which  a  man  is  freed  from  the  sufferings  which  crush 
him.  The  Jewish  science  (Talmud)  has  always  been 
nothing  but  the  study  and  elucidation  of  those  conditions 
which  must  be  observed  by  a  man,  in  order  to  fulfil  his 
compact  with  God  and  keep  the  chosen  people  on  the 
height  of  its  calling.  The  true  Christian  science,  the  one 
which  is  just  germinating,  is  the  investigation  of  those 
conditions  under  which  man  can  know  the  demands  of 
the  higher  Will  which  sent  him,  and  apply  them  to  life. 

Neither  philosophy  nor  science  can  establish  man's 
relations  to  the  world,  because  such  a  relation  must  be 
established  before  any  philosophy  or  science  can  begin. 
They  cannot  yet  do  so,  for  this  other  reason  also,  because 
science,  with  the  inclusion  of  philosophy,  investigates 
phenomena  intellectually  and  independently  of  the  posi- 


RELIGION    AND    MORALITY  527 

tion  of  the  investigator  and  of  the  sensations  experienced 
by  him.  But  man's  relation  to  the  world  is  not  defined 
by  reason  alone,  but  also  by  feeling,  by  the  whole  aggre- 
gate of  man's  spiritual  forces.  No  matter  how  much 
people  may  try  to  make  it  clear  to  a  man  that  everything 
in  existence  is  only  ideas,  that  everything  consists  of 
atoms,  or  that  the  essence  of  life  is  substance  or  will,  or 
that  heat,  light,  motion,  electricity  are  different  manifesta- 
tions of  one  and  the  same  energy,  all  that  will  not  explain 
to  him,  a  feeling,  suffering,  rejoicing,  fearing,  and  hoping 
being,  his  place  in  the  universe.  Such  a  place,  and  so 
his  relation  to  the  world,  is  pointed  out  to  him  only  by 
religion,  which  says  to  him  :  "  The  universe  exists  for  you, 
and  so  take  from  this  life  everything  you  can  take  from 
it ; "  or :  "  You  are  a  member  of  the  nation  which  is 
beloved  by  God,  so  serve  this  nation,  do  everything  pre- 
scribed by  God,  and  you  will,  together  with  your  nation, 
receive  the  highest  possible  good  ; "  or  :  "  You  are  a  tool 
of  the  highest  Will,  which  sent  you  into  the  world  for  the 
purpose  of  doing  the  work  laid  out  for  you,  so  get  ac- 
quainted with  this  Will  and  do  it,  and  you  will  do  for 
yourself  the  best  you  can  do." 

For  the  comprehension  of  the  data  of  philosophy  and 
of  science,  preparation  and  study  are  necessary ;  for  the 
religious  comprehension  this  is  not  necessary :  it  is  given 
to  every  man,  even  though  he  be  most  limited  in  compre- 
sion  and  most  ignorant. 

For  a  man  to  know  his  relation  to  the  surrounding 
world  or  to  its  beginning,  he  does  not  need  any  philo- 
sophical or  scientific  knowledge,  —  a  mass  of  knowledge, 
by  clogging  consciousness,  is  often  only  in  its  way,  —  but 
only  a  renunciation  of  the  vanity  of  the  world,  even 
though  but  for  a  time,  the  consciousness  of  his  material 
insignificance,  and  righteousness,  which  is  most  frequently 
found,  as  it  says  in  the  Gospel,  among  children  and  the 
simplest,  least  informed   men.     For  this  reason  we  see 


528  RELIGION    AHD    MORALITY 

that  frequently  the  simplest,  most  uncultured,  and  unedu- 
cated people  quite  clearly,  consciously,  and  easily  accept 
the  highest  Christian  life-conception,  while  the  most 
learned  and  cultured  of  people  continue  to  persist  in  the 
crudest  paganism.  Thus,  for  example,  we  see  the  most 
refined  and  highly  cultured  people  assume  the  meaning  of 
life  to  consist  in  personal  enjoyment  or  in  the  liberation 
of  self  from  sufferings,  as  was  assumed  by  the  very  clever 
and  highly  cultured  Schopenhauer,  while  a  half-educated 
Russian  peasant  sectarian,  without  the  slightest  effort, 
takes  the  meaning  of  life  to  consist  in  the  same  that  the 
greatest  sages  of  the  world,  Epictetus,  Marcus  Aurelius, 
Seneca,  took  it  to  consist  in,  —  in  the  recognition  of 
oneself  as  the  tool  of  God's  will,  as  the  son  of  God. 

But  you  will  ask  me :  In  what  does  the  essence  of  this 
unscientific  and  unphilosophical  method  of  cognition 
consist  ?  If  this  cognition  is  not  philosophical  and  not 
scientific,  what  is  it  ?  By  what  is  it  defined  ?  To  these 
questions  I  can  reply  only  this,  that,  since  the  religious 
cognition  is  that  on  which  every  other  is  based,  and  that 
which  precedes  every  other  cognition,  we  cannot  define  it, 
since  we  have  for  it  no  instrument  of  definition.  In 
theological  parlance  this  cognition  is  called  revelation. 
And  this  appellation,  if  we  do  not  ascribe  to  the  word 
"  revelation "  any  false  meaning,  is  quite  exact,  because 
this  cognition  is  acquired,  not  through  study,  nor  through 
the  efforts  of  an  individual  person  or  of  individual  per- 
sons, but  only  through  the  comprehension  by  an  indi- 
vidual man  or  by  individual  men  of  the  manifestation 
of  infinite  reason,  which  gradually  reveals  itself  to  men. 

Why  could  not  men  ten  thousand  years  ago  compre- 
hend that  the  meaning  of  their  lives  is  not  exhausted  by 
the  good  of  the  personahty,  and  why  did  there  then  come 
a  time  when  the  higher  conception  of  life,  the  social, 
national,  political,  was  revealed  to  men  ?  Why  has  the 
Christian  life-conception  been  revealed  to  men  within  our 


RELIGION    AND    MORALITY  529 

historical  memory  ?  Why  was  it  revealed  to  such  a  man 
or  men,  in  such  and  such  a  time,  in  such  and  such  a 
place,  in  such  and  such  a  form  ?  To  try  to  answer  these 
questions,  by  finding  the  causes  of  this  life-conception  in 
the  historical  conditions  of  the  time,  life,  and  character  of 
those  people  who  were  the  first  to  make  it  their  own  and 
to  express  it,  —  in  the  peculiar  properties  of  these  men, 
—  is  the  same  as  trying  to  answer  the  question  as  to  why 
the  rising  sun  first  hghted  up  such  objects  and  no  other. 
The  sun  of  truth,  rising  higher  and  higher  above  the  world, 
illuminates  it  more  and  more,  and  is  reflected  on  those 
objects  which  first  come  under  the  illumination  of  the 
sun's  rays  and  which  are  most  capable  of  reflecting  them. 
But  the  qualities  which  make  certain  men  more  capable 
of  receiving  this  rising  truth  are  not  any  special  active 
properties  of  the  mind,  but,  on  the  contrary,  passive 
qualities  of  the  heart,  which  rarely  coincide  with  a  great 
and  curious  mind,  —  renunciation  of  the  vanity  of  the 
world,  the  recognition  of  his  material  insignificance, 
righteousness,  as  we  see  it  in  the  case  of  all  the  founders 
of  religion,  who  never  were  distinguished  for  any  philo- 
sophic or  scientific  attainments. 

In  my  opinion,  the  chief  error,  which  more  than  any 
other  interferes  with  the  true  progress  of  our  Christian 
humanity,  consists  in  this,  that  the  men  of  science  in  our 
time,  who  are  sitting  in  the  seat  of  Moses,  are  guided  by 
the  pagan  world-conception,  which  was  regenerated  during 
the  lienascence,  and  have  decided  that  Christianity  is  a 
condition  which  people  have  outlived,  and  that,  on  the 
contrary,  that  pagan,  social,  antique  conception  of  life, 
which  humanity  has  actually  outlived,  and  to  which  they 
hold,  is  the  highest  conception  of  life,  and  one  which 
humanity  ought  unswervingly  to  profess.  With  this  they 
not  only  do  not  understand  the  true  Christianity,  which 
forms  that  higher  life-conception  toward  which  all  hu- 
manity moves,  but    even    do    not    try  to  understand  it. 


530  RELIGION    AND    MORALITY 

The  chief  source  of  this  misunderstanding  consists  in  this, 
that  the  men  of  science,  differing  from  Christianity  and 
seeing  the  lack  of  correspondence  between  their  science 
and  Christianity,  have  found  guilty  of  it,  not  their  science, 
but  Christianity ;  that  is,  they  have  considered  not  what 
is  the  fact,  namely,  that  their  science  is  eighteen  hundred 
years  behind  Christianity,  which  has  already  taken  pos- 
session of  a  great  part  of  modern  society,  but  that  Chris- 
tianity has  fallen  behind  science  for  eighteen  hundred 
years. 

From  this  exchange  of  roles  arises  that  striking  phe- 
nomenon that  no  people  have  more  confused  conceptions 
about  the  essence  of  the  true  significance  of  religions, 
about  religion,  about  morality,  about  life,  than  the  men 
of  science ;  and  a  still  more  striking  phenomenon  is  this, 
that  the  science  of  our  time,  which  in  its  field  of  the 
investigation  of  the  conditions  of  the  material  world  has 
indeed  accomplished  great  results,  has  appeared  as  quite 
useless  in  the  life  of  men,  and  sometimes  even  produces 
harmful  results. 

And  so  I  think  that  it  is  not  philosophy  and  not 
science,  but  religion  that  establishes  man's  relation  to 
the  world. 

And  so,  in  response  to  your  first  question,  as  to  what 
T  understand  by  the  word  "  religion,"  I  will  say  :  religion 
is  a  certain  relation  which  is  established  by  man  between 
himself  and  the  eternal,  infinite  world,  or  its  beginning 
and  prime  cause. 

From  this  answer  to  the  first  question  naturally  results 
the  answer  to  the  second : 

If  religion  is  an  established  relation  between  man  and 
the  world,  which  determines  the  meaning  of  his  life,  mo- 
rality is  the  indication  and  elucidation  of  that  activity  of 
man  which  naturally  results  from  this  or  that  relation 
of  man  to  the  world.     But  since  we  know  only  two  such 


RELIGION    AND    MORALITY  531 

fundamental  relations  to  the  world  or  to  its  beginning,  if 
we  consider  the  pagan  social  relation  as  an  expansion 
of  the  personal,  or  three,  if  we  consider  the  pagan  social 
relation  separately,  there  exist  but  three  moral  teach- 
ings :  the  primitive  savage  moral  teaching,  the  pagan 
personal,  or  social,  moral  teaching,  and  the  Christian 
moral  teaching,  that  is,  the  service  of  God,  or  the  divine 
teaching. 

From  man's  first  relation  to  the  world  arise  the  moral 
teaching  common  to  all  the  pagan  religions,  which  have 
for  their  basis  the  striving  after  the  good  of  the  separate 
personality,  and  which,  therefore,  define  all  the  conditions 
which  give  the  highest  good  to  the  personality  and  point 
out  the  means  for  the  attainment  of  this  good.  From 
this  relation  to  the  world  result  the  Epicurean  moral  teach- 
ing in  its  lowest  manifestation,  the  Mohammedan  teaching 
or  morality,  which  promises  a  gross  good  to  the  personal- 
ity in  this  world  and  in  the  world  to  come,  and  the 
teaching  of  the  worldly  utilitarian  morality,  which  has 
for  its  aim  only  the  good  of  the  personality  in  this  world. 

From  the  same  teaching,  which  regards  as  the  aim  of 
life  the  good  of  the  individual  person,  and  so  liberation 
from  the  sufferings  of  the  personality,  arises  the  moral 
teaching  of  Buddhism  in  its  gross  form,  and  the  worldly 
teaching  of  pessimism. 

From  the  second,  the  pagan  relation  of  man  to  the 
world,  which  sets  as  the  aim  of  life  the  good  of  a  certain 
aggregate  of  personalities,  there  result  the  moral  teachings 
which  demand  of  man  the  service  to  this  aggregate,  whose 
good  is  recognized  to  be  the  aim  of  life.  According  to 
this  teaching  the  enjoyment  of  the  personal  good  is  ad- 
mitted only  to  the  extent  to  which  it  is  acquired  by  the 
whole  aggregate  which  forms  the  religious  foundation  of 
life.  From  this  relation  to  the  world  arise  the  familiar 
moral  teachings  of  the  ancient  Roman  and  Greek  worlds, 
where  the  personality  always  sacrificed  itself  for  society, 


532  RELIGION    AND    MORALITY 

and  such  is  also  the  Chinese  morality ;  from  this  same 
relation  arises  the  Jewish  morality,  —  the  subordination 
of  one's  good  to  the  good  of  the  chosen  nation,  and  the 
morality  of  our  time,  which  demands  the  sacrifices  of 
the  personality  for  the  conventional  good  of  the  majority. 
From  the  same  relation  to  the  universe  arises  the  morality 
of  the  majority  of  women,  who  sacrifice  their  personalities 
for  the  good  of  the  family,  and  chiefly  of  their  children. 

All  ancient  history,  and  partly  medieeval  and  modern 
history,  is  full  of  descriptions  of  the  exploits  of  this 
domestic-social  morality.  And  in  our  time  the  majority 
of  men,  who  imagine  that,  by  professing  Christianity,  they 
are  practising  Christian  morality,  in  reality  follow  nothing 
but  the  pagan  morality,  and  this  morality  they  take  as 
the  ideal  of  the  education  of  the  younger  generation. 

From  the  third,  the  Christian  relation  to  the  world, 
which  consists  in  man's  recognition  of  himself  as  a  tool  of 
the  higher  will  for  the  fulfilment  of  its  purposes,  there 
result  the  moral  teachings  corresponding  to  this  compre- 
hension of  life,  which  elucidate  man's  dependence  on  the 
higher  will,  and  which  determine  the  demands  of  this 
will.  From  this  relation  of  man  to  the  world  result  all 
the  higher  moral  teachings  known  to  humanity,  —  the 
Pythagorean,  Stoic,  Buddhistic,  Brahmin,  Taoist,  in  their 
highest  manifestations,  and  the  Christian  in  its  true  mean- 
ing, which  demands  the  renunciation  of  the  personal  will, 
and  not  only  of  the  personal,  but  also  of  the  domestic  and 
the  social  good,  for  the  sake  of  doing  the  will  of  Him  who 
sent  us  into  this  life,  as  revealed  to  us  in  our  conscious- 
ness. From  this  second  or  third  relation  to  the  infinite 
world  or  its  beginning  arises  the  true,  unhypocritical 
morality  of  every  man,  independently  of  what  he  nom- 
inally professes  or  preaches  as  morality,  or  what  he  wants 
to  seem. 

Thus  in  the  case  of  a  man  who  recognizes  the  essence  of 
his  relation  to  the  world   to  be  the   acquisition  of  the 


RELIGION    AND    MORALITY  633 

highest  good  for  himself,  no  matter  how  much  he  may 
say  about  considering  it  moral  to  live  for  the  family,  for 
society,  for  the  state,  for  humanity,  or  for  the  fulfilment 
of  God's  will,  may  artfully  dissemble  before  people,  de- 
ceiving them,  the  real  motive  of  his  activity  will  always 
be  only  the  good  of  his  personality,  so  that,  when  the 
necessity  of  the  choice  presents  itself,  he  will  not  sacrifice 
his  personality  for  the  family,  for  the  state,  for  the  fulfil- 
ment of  God's  will,  but  will  sacrifice  everything  for  him- 
self, because,  seeing  the  meaning  of  his  life  only  in  the 
good  of  his  personality,  he  cannot  act  differently,  so  long 
as  he  does  not  change  his  relation  to  the  world. 

Similarly,  no  matter  how  much  a  man,  whose  relation 
to  the  world  consists  in  serving  his  family  (women  are 
preeminently  such),  or  his  race,  his  nation  (such  are  the 
men  of  the  oppressed  nationahties  or  politicians  in  the  time 
of  struggle),  may  say  that  he  is  a  Christian,  his  morahty 
will  always  be  either  domestic  or  national,  but  not  Chris- 
tian, and  when  the  necessity  comes  of  choosing  between 
the  domestic,  the  social,  and  the  personal  good,  or  be- 
tween the  social  good  and  the  fulfilment  of  God's  will, 
he  will  inevitably  choose  the  service  of  the  good  of  that 
aggregate  of  men  for  which  he  exists,  according  to  his 
world-conception,  because  only  in  tliis  service  does  he 
see  the  meaning  of  his  life.  And  similarly,  no  matter 
how  much  a  man  who  takes  his  relation  to  the  world  to 
consist  in  the  fulfilment  of  the  will  of  Him  who  sent 
him,  may  be  impressed  with  the  idea  that  he  should,  in 
conformity  with  the  demands  of  personality,  family,  the 
nation,  humanity,  commit  acts  that  are  contrary  to  this 
higher  will,  which  is  cognized  by  him  in  the  name  of  the 
qualities  of  reason  and  love  implanted  in  him,  he  will 
always  sacrifice  all  his  Imman  ties  only  not  to  transgress 
the  will  of  Him  who  sent  him,  because  only  in  the  fulfil- 
ment of  this  will  does  he  see  the  meaning  of  his  hfe. 

Morahty  cannot  be  independent  of  religion,  because  it 


634  EELIGION   AND    MOEALITY 

is  not  only  the  consequence  of  religion,  that  is,  of  the  re- 
lation which  a  man  recognizes  himself  to  have  to  the 
world,  but  is  already  included,  implied,  in  religion.  Every 
rehgion  is  an  answer  to  the  question  as  to  what  constitutes 
the  meaning  of  one's  life.  And  the  religious  answer  in- 
cludes a  certain  moral  demand  which  at  times  may  arise 
after  the  explanation  of  the  meaning  of  life,  and  at  times 
before  it.  In  response  to  the  question  as  to  the  meaning 
of  life  we  may  say  :  the  meaning  of  life  is  in  the  good  of 
personality,  and  so  enjoy  all  the  goods  that  are  accessible 
to  you  ;  or  :  the  meaning  of  hfe  is  in  the  good  of  a  certain 
group  of  men,  and  so  serve  this  group  with  all  your 
strength  ;  or :  the  meaning  of  life  is  in  the  doing  of  the 
will  of  Him  who  sent  you,  aud  so  try  with  all  your 
strength  to  know  this  will  aud  to  do  it.  The  same  question 
may  also  be  answered  as  follows :  the  meaning  of  your 
life  is  in  your  personal  enjoyment,  because  in  this  does 
man's  destiny  lie ;  or :  the  meaning  of  your  life  is  in  the 
service  of  that  aggregate  of  which  you  consider  yourself 
to  be  a  member,  because  in  this  does  your  destiny  lie  ;  or  : 
the  meaning  of  your  life  is  in  the  service  of  God,  because 
in  this  does  your  destiny  lie. 

Morality  is  contained  in  the  explanation  of  Hfe  as  given 
by  rehgion,  and  so  it  can  in  no  way  be  separated  from  re- 
ligion. This  truth  is  particularly  evident  in  the  attempts 
of  the  non-Christian  philosophers  to  deduce  the  teaching 
of  the  highest  morality  from  their  philosophy.  These 
philosophers  see  that  the  Christian  philosophy  is  indis- 
pensable, that  it  is  impossible  to  live  without  it;  more 
than  that :  they  see  that  it  exists,  and  they  want  in  some 
way  to  connect  it  with  their  non-Christian  philosophy  and 
even  to  represent  matters  in  such  a  form  as  though  the 
Christian  philosophy  resulted  from  their  pagan  or  social 
philosophy.  This  they  try  to  do,  but  it  is  these  very 
attempts  that  more  obviously  than  anything  else  show, 
not  only  the  independence  of  the  Christian  morahty,  but 


RELIGION    AND    MORALITY  535 

even  the  complete  contradiction  between  it  and  the  pagan 
philosophy. 

The  Christian  ethics,  the  one  which  we  recognize  in 
couvsequence  of  our  religious  world-conception,  not  only 
demands  the  sacrifice  of  the  personality  for  the  aggregate 
of  personalities,  but  also  tlie  renunciation  of  one's  own 
personality  and  of  the  aggregate  of  personalities  for  the 
purpose  of  serving  God ;  but  the  pagan  philosophy  inves- 
tigates only  the  means  for  attaining  the  greatest  good  of 
the  personality  or  of  the  aggregate  of  personalities,  and  so 
the  contradiction  is  inevitable.  In  order  to  conceal  this 
contradiction,  there  is  but  one  means,  —  and  that  is,  to 
heap  abstract  conventional  concepts  upon  one  another. 
Thus  preeminently  have  acted  the  philosophers  since  the 
time  of  the  Renascence,  and  to  this  circumstance  —  to 
the  impossibility  of  harmonizing  the  demands  of  the 
Christian  morality,  which  is  assumed  in  advance  as  given, 
with  philosophy,  which  starts  from  pagan  foundations — has 
to  be  ascribed  that  terrible  abstraction,  obscurity,  incom- 
prehensibility, and  estrangement  from  life,  which  are 
displayed  by  the  modern  philosophy.  With  the  ex- 
ception of  Spinoza,  who  in  his  philosophy,  in  spite  of  his 
not  being  a  Christian,  starts  from  truly  Christian  founda- 
tions, and  of  ingenious  Kant,  who  established  liis  ethics 
independently  of  his  metaphysics,  all  the  other  philoso- 
phers, even  brilliant  Schopenhauer,  apparently  invent  an 
artificial  connection  between  their  ethics  and  their  meta- 
physics. 

It  is  felt  that  the  Christian  ethics  is  something  given  in 
advance,  which  stands  quite  firmly  and  independently  of 
philosophy  and  is  in  no  need  of  the  fictitious  supports 
which  are  put  under  it,  and  that  philosophy  only  invents 
such  propositions  that  the  given  ethics  may  not  contradict 
it,  but  may  combine  with  it  and,  as  it  were,  result  from 
it.  But  all  th(;se  propositions  seem  to  justify  the  Chris- 
tian   ethics    only    so    long    as    they    are  \4ewed   in    the 


536  RELIGION    AND    MORALITY 

abstract.  The  moment  they  are  applied  to  questions  of 
practical  life,  not  only  the  disagreement,  but  even  the 
obvious  contradiction,  between  the  philosophic  bases  with 
what  we  consider  to  be  morality  comes  out  in  full  force. 

Unfortunate  Nietzsche,  who  has  of  late  become  so 
famous,  is  precious  in  so  far  as  he  points  out  this  contra- 
diction. He  is  incontrovertible,  when  he  says  that  all 
the  rules  of  morahty,  from  the  standpoint  of  the  existing 
non-Christian  philosophy,  are  nothing  but  lying  and  hy- 
pocrisy, and  that  it  is  more  advantageous,  more  agreeable, 
and  more  rational  for  people  to  form  a  society  of  Ueber- 
menschen  and  be  such,  than  to  be  that  crowd  which  must 
serve  only  as  a  scaffolding  for  these  Uebermenschen.  No 
structures  of  philosophy,  which  starts  from  the  pagan  phil- 
osophical world-conception,  can  prove  to  man  that  it  is 
more  advantageous  and  rational  for  him  to  hve,  not  for  his 
desirable,  comprehensible,  and  possible  good,  or  for  the 
good  of  his  family,  his  society,  but  for  a  foreign,  undesira- 
ble, and  incomprehensible  good,  which  is  inaccessible  by 
any  human  insignificant  means.  A  philosophy  which  is 
based  on  the  comprehension  of  life  as  to  be  contained  in 
the  good  of  man  will  never  be  able  to  prove  to  a  rational 
man,  who  knows  that  he  may  die  any  moment,  that  it  is 
good  and  proper  for  him  to  renounce  his  desirable,  com- 
prehensible, and  undoubted  good,  not  even  for  the  good 
of  others,  because  he  can  nsver  know  what  the  conse- 
quences from  his  sacrifice  will  be,  but  only  because  it  is 
proper  and  good,  because  it  is  a  categorical  imperative. 

It  is  impossible  to  prove  this  from  the  standpoint  of 
pagan  philosophy.  To  prove  that  all  men  are  equal,  that 
it  is  better  for  a  man  to  give  his  life  in  the  service  of 
others  than  to  make  other  men  serve  him,  by  treading  on 
their  lives,  it  is  necessary  differently  to  define  one's  rela- 
tion to  the  world :  it  is  necessary  to  prove  that  man's 
position  is  such  that  he  has  nothing  else  to  do,  because 
the  meaning  of  his  life  is  only  in  the  fulfilment  of  the  will 


RELIGION    AND    MORALITY  537 

of  Him  who  sent  him  ;  but  the  will  of  Him  who  sent  him 
is  that  he  should  give  his  life  for  the  service  of  men.  It 
is  only  rehgion  which  makes  this  change  in  man's  relation 
to  the  world. 

The  same  is  true  of  the  attempts  to  deduce  Christian 
morahty  from  the  fundamental  positions  of  pagan  science, 
and  to  harmonize  the  two.  No  sophisms  and  no  sinuosi- 
ties of  thought  will  destroy  the  simple  and  obvious  posi- 
tion that  the  law  of  evolution,  which  lies  at  the  foundation 
of  the  whole  science  of  our  time,  is  based  on  a  general, 
eternal,  and  unchangeable  law,  on  the  law  of  the  struggle 
for  existence  and  of  the  survival  of  the  fittest,  and  that, 
therefore,  every  man,  for  the  attainment  of  his  good  or  of 
the  good  of  his  society,  must  be  this  fittest  and  must  make 
his  society  such,  in  order  tliat  not  he  and  not  his  society, 
but  some  other,  less  fitted  one,  may  perish. 

No  matter  how  much  certain  naturalists,  who  have 
become  frightened  at  the  logical  conclusions  from  this 
law,  and  from  their  application  to  human  life,  may  try  to 
bury  this  law  under  words  and  circumvent  it,  all  their 
attempts  only  show  more  obviously  the  ineradicability  of 
this  law,  which  guides  the  hfe  of  the  whole  organic  world, 
and  so  also  of  man  viewed  as  an  animal. 

Just  as  I  was  writing  this,  there  appeared  a  Russian 
translation  of  Mr.  Huxley's  article,  composed  from  a  late 
lecture  of  his  on  evolution  and  ethics,  which  he  delivered 
before  some  English  society. 

In  this  article  the  learned  professor,  like  our  well- 
known  Professor  Bek(5tov  and  many  others  who  have 
written  on  the  same  subject  with  the  same  lack  of  suc- 
cess as  their  predecessors,  tries  to  prove  that  the  struggle 
for  existence  does  not  impair  morality,  and  that  with  the 
recognition  of  the  law  of  the  struggle  for  existence  as 
the  fundamental  law  of  life,  morality  can  not  only  exist, 
but  even  be  perfected.  Mr.  Huxley's  article  is  full  of  all 
kinds  of  jests,  verses,  and  general  considerations  of  the 


538  KELIGION    AND    MORALITY 

religion  and  the  philosophy  of  the  ancients,  and  in  conse- 
quence of  this  is  so  full  of  flourishes,  and  so  confused,  that 
it  is  only  with  great  difficulty  that  one  can  get  at  its 
fundamental  idea.  This  idea  is  as  follows :  the  law  of 
evolution  is  contrary  to  the  law  of  morality,  —  this  was 
known  to  the  ancients,  both  of  the  Greek  and  of  the 
Indian  world.  The  philosophy  and  the  religion  of  the  two 
nations  brought  them  to  the  teaching  of  self-renunciation. 
This  teaching,  according  to  the  author's  view,  is  incorrect, 
and  this  is  what  is  correct :  there  exists  a  law,  which  the 
author  calls  the  cosmic  law,  according  to  which  all  beings 
fight  among  themselves,  and  only  the  fittest  survives. 
Man,  too,  is  subject  to  this  law,  and  only  thanks  to  this 
law  has  man  developed  into  what  he  now  is.  But  this  law 
is  contrary  to  morahty.  How  is  this  law  to  be  harmon- 
ized with  morality  ?  Like  this :  there  exists  a  social 
progress,  which  strives  to  retard  the  cosmic  and  to  substi- 
tute for  it  another  process,  the  ethical,  whose  purpose  is 
no  longer  the  survival  of  the  fittest,  but  of  the  best  in  the 
ethical  sense.  Mr.  Huxley  does  not  explain  whence 
comes  this  ethical  process,  but  in  the  nineteenth  note  he 
says  that  the  basis  of  this  progress  consists  in  this,  that 
on  the  one  hand  men,  hke  the  animals,  themselves  like 
to  be  in  society,  and  repress  in  themselves  the  property 
which  is  detrimental  for  society,  and  on  the  other,  the 
members  of  society  forcibly  suppress  the  acts  which  are 
contrary  to  the  good  of  society.  It  appears  to  Mr.  Huxley 
that  this  process,  which  causes  people  to  bridle  their  pas- 
sions for  the  preservation  of  the  aggregate  of  which  they 
are  members,  and  the  fear  of  being  punished  for  the  vio- 
lation of  the  orders  of  the  aggregate,  are  the  same  ethical 
law,  the  existence  of  which  he  has  to  prove. 

Morality  is  something  constantly  developing  and  grow- 
ing, and  so  the  non-violation  of  the  established  rules  of  a 
certain  society,  their  retention  by  any  external  means,  of 
which  Mr.  Huxley  speaks  as  of  tools  of  morality,  will  not 


RELIGION    AND    MOEALITY  639 

only  fail  to  be  a  confirmation,  but  will  even  be  a  violation 
of  morality.  Every  cannibal  who  stops  eating  his  like, 
and  acts  in  conformity  with  this,  will  violate  the  order  of 
his  society.  And  it  is  uncj^uestionable  that  every  truly 
moral  act,  which  advances  morality,  will  always  be  a  vio- 
lation of  the  habits  of  society.  And  so,  if  in  society  there 
has  appeared  a  law  according  to  which  men  sacrifice  their 
advantages  for  the  preservation  of  the  integrity  of  their  so- 
ciety, this  law  is  not  an  ethical  law,  but,  on  the  contrary, 
generally  a  law  which  is  opposed  to  every  ethics,  the 
same  law  of  the  struggle  for  existence,  only  in  a  latent 
condition.  It  is  the  same  struggle  for  existence,  only  that 
it  is  transferred  from  the  units  to  their  aggregate.  It  is 
not  the  cessation  of  fighting,  but  the  swinging  of  the 
hand  in  order  to  strike  more  powerfully. 

If  the  law  of  the  struggle  for  existence  and  the  survival 
of  the  fittest  is  an  eternal  law  of  everything  living  (and 
it  cannot  be  viewed  otherwise  in  the  case  of  man  con- 
sidered as  an  animal),  no  confused  reflections  concerning 
the  social  progress  and  the  ethical  law,  which,  like  the 
deus  ex  machina,  leaping  out  no  one  knows  whence,  is 
supposed  to  result  from  it,  can  impair  this  law. 

If  social  progress,  as  Mr.  Huxley  asserts,  collects  people 
into  groups,  the  same  struggle  and  the  same  survival  will 
take  place  among  families,  tribes,  nations,  and  this  strug- 
gle will  not  only  not  be  more  moral,  but  will  be  much 
more  cruel  and  immoral,  than  the  struggle  of  individuals, 
as  we  see  to  be  the  case  in  reality. 

If  we  assume  the  impossible,  namely,  tliat  all  humanity 
will  in  a  thousand  years,  through  the  one  social  progress, 
be  united  into  one  whole,  will  form  one  nation  and  one 
state,  even  then,  to  say  nothing  of  the  fact  that  the 
struggle,  made  void  between  the  nations,  will  pass  into 
the  struggle  between  humanity  and  the  world  of  animals, 
struggle  will  always  remain  struggle,  that  is,  an  activity 
which  radically  excludes  the  possibility  of  the  Christian 


540  RELIGION   AND    MORALITY 

morality  as  recognized  by  us.  To  say  nothing  of  this, 
even  then  the  struggle  between  the  individuals  forming 
aggregates,  and  between  the  aggregates  of  families,  tribes, 
nationalities,  will  not  in  the  least  be  diminished,  but  will 
only  take  place  in  another  form,  as  we  see  in  all  the 
combinations  of  men  into  social  groups.  Members  of 
a  family  quarrel  and  struggle  among  themselves  as  much 
as  outsiders,  and  frequently  more  savagely  and  more 
furiously. 

Similarly  in  the  state :  among  the  men  who  hve  in  the 
state  there  is  continued  the  same  struggle  as  among 
the  men  living  outside  the  state,  only  under  different 
forms.  If  the  feeble  are  saved  in  the  family  and  in 
the  state,  this  does  not  happen  at  all  in  consequence  of 
their  social  union,  but  because  among  the  men  united  into 
families  and  states  there  is  self-sacrifice  and  love.  If 
outside  the  family  only  the  fittest  of  two  children  sur- 
vives, while  in  the  family,  with  a  good  mother,  both  will 
remain  alive,  this  is  not  at  all  due  to  the  combination  of 
men  into  families,  but  because  mothers  have  love  and 
self-sacrifice.  But  neither  self-sacrifice  nor  love  can  in 
any  way  result  from  social  progress. 

To  assert  that  social  progress  produces  morality  is  the 
same  as  to  assert  that  the  construction  of  stoves  produces 
heat. 

Heat  is  produced  by  the  sun,  and  stoves  produce  heat 
only  when  wood,  that  is,  sun's  work,  is  put  into  them. 
Similarly  morality  results  from  religion,  while  the  special 
forms  of  life  produce  morality  only  when  into  these  forms 
of  life  have  been  put  the  consequences  of  the  religious 
influence  upon  people,  —  morality. 

Fires  may  be  made  in  stoves,  and  then  they  will  give 
heat,  or  no  fires  may  be  made  in  them,  and  then  they  will 
remain  cold ;  similarly  the  social  forms  may  include  mo- 
rality and  then  morally  affect  society,  or  not  include 
morality  and  then  remain  without  any  effect  upon  society. 


RELIGION    AND    MORALITY  541 

Christian  morality  cannot  be  based  on  the  pagan  com- 
prehension of  hfe,  and  cannot  be  deduced  from  philosophy, 
nor  from  non-Christian  science ;  it  not  only  cannot  be  de- 
duced from  them,  but  cannot  even  be  harmonized  with 
them. 

Thus  every  serious,  severe,  consistent  philosophy  and 
science  have  always  understood  the  matter.  "  If  our 
propositions  do  not  agree  with  morahty,  so  much  the 
worse  for  it,"  quite  correctly  say  such  philosophy  and 
science,  and  they  continue  to  carry  on  their  investigations. 

Ethical  treatises,  which  are  not  based  on  religion,  and 
even  lay  catechisms  are  written  and  taught,  and  people 
may  imagine  that  humanity  is  guided  by  them,  but  that 
only  seems  so,  because  in  reality  men  are  not  guided  by 
these  treatises  and  catechisms,  but  by  religion,  which  they 
have  always  had,  while  the  treatises  and  catechisms  only 
imitate  what  naturally  results  from  rehgion. 

The  prescriptions  of  the  lay  morality  that  are  not  based 
on  the  religious  teaching  are  very  much  like  what  a  man 
would  do  if,  not  knowing  music,  he  should  take  the  direc- 
tor's place  and  swing  his  arms  in  front  of  the  musicians 
doing  their  usual  work.  The  music,  thanks  to  inertia  and 
to  what  the  musiciaiis  have  learned  from  previous  direc- 
tors, would  last  a  little  while  longer ;  but  it  is  evident 
that  the  swaying  of  the  baton  by  him  who  does  not  know 
music  would  not  only  not  be  useful,  but  would  in  time 
certainly  confuse  the  musicians  and  break  up  the  or- 
chestra. A  similar  confusion  is  beginning  to  take  place 
in  the  minds  of  the  men  of  our  time,  in  consequence  of 
the  attempts  of  the  leaders  to  teach  a  morality  which  is 
not  based  on  that  higher  religion  which  is  l^eing  adopted 
and  partly  is  already  adopted  by  the  Christian  morality. 
The  attempts  at  founding  a  morality  outside  of  religion 
are  like  what  children  do,  when,  wishing  to  transplant 
a  plant  to  which  they  have  taken  a  fancy,  they  tear  off 
the  root,  which  they  do  not  hke  and  which  seems  super- 


542  RELIGION    AND   MORALITY 

fluous,  and  without  the  root  stick  the  plant  into  the 
ground.  Without  a  rehgious  foundation  there  can  be  no 
real,  sincere  morality,  just  as  without  a  root  there  can  be 
no  real  plant. 

And  so,  replying  to  your  two  questions,  I  say  :  "  Relig- 
ion is  a  certain  relation,  established  by  man,  of  his  sepa- 
rate personality  to  the  infinite  world  or  to  its  beginning ; 
but  morality  is  a  constant  guide  of  hfe,  resulting  from 
this  relation." 


CONTENTS 


The  Kingdom  of  God  Is  within  You 

Christianity  and  Patriotism 

Keason  and  Religion 

Patriotism  or  Peack 

Letter  to  Ernest  Howard  Crosby 


FAGE 

1 

381 
459 

467 
481 


INTRODUCTIONS    TO    BOOKS 


A.  Stockham's  Tokology 

A  MI  el's  Diary 

S.  T.  Semi^nov's  Peasant  Stories 
Works  of  Guy  de  Maupassant    . 


499 
501 
506 
509 


THE     KINGDOM     OF    GOD     IS 
WITHIN   YOU 

Or,  Christianity   Not  as  a  Mystical   Teaching  but 
as  a  New  Concept  of  Life 

^h3 


'i 


THE     KINGDOM    OF     GOD    IS 
WITHIN  YOU 

Or,  Christianity  Not  as  a  Mystical   Teaching  but 
as  a  New  Concept  of  Life 


And  ye  shall  know  the  truth,  and  the  truth  shall  make 
you  free  (John  viii.  23). 

And  fear  not  them  which  kill  the  body,  but  are  not  able 
to  kill  the  soul  :  but  rather  fear  him  which  is  able  to 
destroy  both  soul  and  body  in  hell  (Matt.  x.  28). 

Ye  are  bought  with  a  price ;  be  not  ye  the  servants  of 
men  (1.  Cor.  vii.  23). 

In  the  year  1884  I  wrote  a  book  under  the  title,  My 
Religion.  In  this  book  I  really  expounded  what  my 
religion  is. 

In  expounding  my  belief  in  Christ's  teaching,  I  could 
not  help  but  express  the  reason  why  I  do  not  believe  in 
the  ecclesiastic  faith,  which  is  generally  called  Christianity, 
and  why  I  consider  it  to  be  a  delusion. 

Among  the  many  deviations  of  this  teaching  of  Christ, 
I  pointed  out  the  chief  deviation,  namely,  the  failure  to 
acknowledge  the  commandment  of  non-resistance  to  evil, 
which  more  obviously  than  any  other  shows  the  distortion 
of  Christ's  teaching  in  the  church  doctrine. 

I  knew  very  little,  like  the  rest  of  us,  as  to  what  had 

8 


4  THE    KINGDOM    OF    GOD    IS    WITHIN    YOU 

been  done  and  preached  and  written  in  former  days  on 
this  subject  of  non-resistance  to  evil.  I  knew  what  had 
been  said  on  this  subject  by  the  fathers  of  the  church, 
Origeu,  Tertulhan,  and  others,  and  I  knew  also  that  there 
have  existed  certain  so-called  sects  of  the  Mennonites, 
Herrnhuters,  Quakers,  who  do  not  admit  for  a  Christian 
the  use  of  weapons  and  who  do  not  enter  military  service, 
but  what  had  been  done  by  these  so-called  sects  for  the 
solution  of  this  question  was  quite  unknown  to  me. 

My  book,  as  I  expected,  was  held  back  by  the  Eussian 
censor,  but,  partly  in  consequence  of  my  reputation  as  a 
writer,  partly  because  it  interested  people,  this  book  was 
disseminated  in  manuscripts  and  lithographic  reprints  in 
Eussia  and  in  translations  abroad,  and  called  forth,  on 
the  one  hand,  on  the  part  of  men  who  shared  my  views, 
a  series  of  references  to  works  written  on  the  subject, 
and,  on  the  other,  a  series  of  criticisms  on  the  thoughts 
expressed  in  that  book  itself. 

Both,  together  with  the  historical  phenomena  of  recent 
times,  have  made  many  things  clear  to  me  and  have 
brought  me  to  new  deductions  and  conclusions,  which  I 
wish  to  express. 

First  I  shall  tell  of  the  information  which  I  received 
concerning  the  history  of  the  question  of  non-resistance 
to  evil,  then  of  the  opinions  on  this  subject  which  were 
expressed  by  ecclesiastic  critics,  that  is,  such  as  profess 
the  Christian  religion,  and  also  by  laymen,  that  is,  such 
as  do  not  profess  the  Christian  religion  ;  and  finally,  those 
deductions  to  which  I  was  brought  by  both  and  by  the 
historical  events  of  recent  times. 


Among  the  first  answers  to  my  book  there  came  some 
letters  from  the  American  Quakers.  In  these  letters, 
which  express  their  sympathy  with  my  views  concerning 
the  unlawfulness  for  Christianity  of  all  violence  and  war, 
the  Quakers  informed  me  of  the  details  of  their  so-called 
sect,  which  for  more  than  two  hundred  years  has  in  fact 
professed  Christ's  teaching  about  non-resistance  to  evil, 
and  which  has  used  no  arms  in  order  to  defend  itself. 
With  their  letters,  the  Quakers  sent  me  their  pamphlets, 
periodicals,  and  books.  From  these  periodicals,  pamphlets, 
and  books  which  they  sent  me  I  learned  to  what  extent 
they  had  many  years  ago  incontestably  proved  the  obliga- 
tion for  a  Christian  to  fulfil  the  commandment  about  non- 
resistance  to  evil  and  had  laid  bare  the  incorrectness  of 
the  church  teaching,  which  admitted  executions  and  wars. 

Having  proved,  by  a  whole  series  of  considerations  and 
texts,  that  war,  that  is,  the  maiming  and  killing  of  men, 
is  incompatible  with  a  religion  which  is  based  on  love  of 
peace  and  good-will  to  men,  the  Quakers  affirm  and  prove 
that  nothing  has  so  much  contributed  to  the  obscuration 
of  Christ's  truth  in  the  eyes  of  the  pagans  and  impeded 
the  dissemination  of  Christianity  in  the  world  as  the  non- 
acknowledgment  of  tliis  commandment  by  men  who 
called  themselves  Christians,  —  as  the  permission  granted 
to  a  Christian  to  wage  war  and  use  violence. 

"  Christ's  teaching,  which  entered  into  the  consciousness 
of  men,  not  by  means  of  the  sword  and  of  violence,"  they 
say,  "but  by  means  of  non-resistance  to  evil,  can  be  dis- 
seminated in  the  world  oidy  througli  humility,  meekness, 
peace,  concord,  and  love  among  its  followers. 

6 


6  THE    KINGDOM    OF    GOD    IS    WITHIN    YOU 

"  A  Christian,  according  to  the  teaching  of  God  Him- 
self, can  be  guided  in  his  relations  to  men  by  peace  only, 
and  so  there  cannot  be  such  an  authority  as  would  compel 
a  Christian  to  act  contrary  to  God's  teaching  and  contrary 
to  the  chief  property  of  a  Christian  in  relation  to  those 
who  are  near  to  him. 

"  The  rule  of  state  necessity,"  they  say,  "  may  compel 
those  to  become  untrue  to  God's  law,  who  for  the  sake  of 
worldly  advantages  try  to  harmonize  what  cannot  be  har- 
monized, but  for  a  Christian,  who  sincerely  believes  in 
this,  that  the  adherence  to  Christ's  teaching  gives  him 
salvation,  this  rule  can  have  no  meaning." 

My  acquaintance  with  the  activity  of  the  Quakers  and 
with  their  writings,  —  with  Fox,  Paine,  and  especially  with 
Dymond's  book  (1827),  —  showed  me  that  not  only  had 
the  impossibility  of  uniting  Christianity  with  violence  and 
war  been  recognized  long  ago,  but  that  this  incompati- 
bility had  long  ago  been  proved  so  clearly  and  so  incon- 
testably  that  one  has  only  to  marvel  how  this  impossible 
connection  of  the  Christian  teaching  with  violence,  which 
has  been  preached  all  this  time  by  the  churches,  could 
have  been  continued. 

Besides  the  information  received  by  me  from  the 
Quakers,  I,  at  about  the  same  time,  received,  again  from 
America,  information  in  regard  to  the  same  subject  from 
an  entirely  different  source,  which  had  been  quite  un- 
known to  me  before. 

The  son  of  William  Lloyd  Garrison,  the  famous  cham- 
pion for  the  liberation  of  the  negroes,  wrote  to  me  that, 
when  he  read  my  book,  in  which  he  found  ideas  resem- 
bling those  expressed  by  his  father  in  1838,  he,  assuming 
that  it  might  be  interesting  for  me  to  know  this,  sent  me 
the  "  Declaration  of  Non-resistance,"  which  his  father  had 
made  about  fifty  years  ago. 

This  declaration  had  its  origin  under  the  following  con- 
ditions :    Wilham  Lloyd  Garrison,  in   speaking    before  a 


THE    KINGDOM    OF    GOD    IS    WITHIN    YOU  7 

society  for  the  establishment  of  peace  among  men,  which 
existed  in  America  in  1838,  about  the  measures  for  abol- 
ishing war,  came  to  the  conclusion  that  the  establishment 
of  universal  peace  could  be  based  only  on  the  obvious  rec- 
ognition of  the  commandment  of  non-resistance  to  evil 
(Matt.  V.  39)  in  all  its  significance,  as  this  was  under- 
stood by  the  Quakers,  with  whom  Garrison  stood  in 
friendly  relations.  When  he  came  to  this  conclusion,  he 
formulated  and  proposed  to  the  society  the  following 
declaration,  which  was  then,  in  1838,  signed  by  many 
members. 

DECLARATION  OF  SENTIMENTS  ADOPTED  BY  THE  PEACE 
CONVENTION,  HELD  IN  BOSTON  IN  1838 

"  We,  the  undersigned,  regard  it  as  due  to  ourselves,  to 
the  cause  which  we  love,  to  the  country  in  which  we  live, 
and  to  the  world,  to  publish  a  Declaration,  expressive  of 
the  principles  we  cherish,  the  purposes  we  aim  to  accom- 
plish, and  the  measures  we  shall  adopt  to  carry  forward 
the  work  of  peaceful  and  universal  reformation. 

"  We  cannot  acknowledge  allegiance  to  any  human 
government.  .  .  .  We  recognize  but  one  King  and  Law- 
giver, one  Judge  and  Ruler  of  mankind.  .  .  . 

"  Our  country  is  the  world,  our  countrymen  are  all 
mankind.  We  love  the  land  of  our  nativity,  only  as  we 
love  all  other  lands.  The  interests,  rights,  and  liberties 
of  American  citizens  are  no  more  dear  to  us  than  are 
those  of  the  whole  human  race.  Hence  we  can  allow  no 
appeal  to  patriotism,  to  revenge  any  national  insult  or 
injury.  .  .  . 

"  We  conceive,  that  if  a  nation  has  no  right  to  defend 
itself  against  foreign  enemies,  or  to  punish  its  invaders, 
no  individual  possesses  that  right  in  his  own  case.  The 
unit  cannot  be  of  greater  importance  than  the  aggregate. 
,  .  .  But  if  a  rappcious  and  bloodthirsty  soldiery,  throng- 


8  THE    KINGDOM    OF    GOD    IS    WITHIN    YOU 

ing  these  shores  from  abroad,  with  intent  to  commit 
rapine  and  destroy  life,  may  not  be  resisted  by  the  people 
or  magistracy,  then  ought  no  resistance  to  be  offered  to 
domestic  troublers  of  the  public  peace,  or  of  private 
security.  ... 

"  The  dogma,  that  all  the  governments  of  the  world  are 
approvingly  ordained  of  God,  and  that  the  powers  that  be  in 
the  United  States,  in  Russia,  in  Turkey,  are  in  accordance 
with  His  will,  is  not  less  absurd  than  impious.  It  makes 
the  impartial  Author  of  human  freedom  and  equality 
unequal  and  tyrannical.  It  cannot  be  alfirmed  that  the 
powers  that  be,  in  any  nation,  are  actuated  by  the  spirit, 
or  guided  by  the  example  of  Christ,  in  the  treatment  of 
enemies :  therefore,  they  cannot  be  agreeable  to  the  will 
of  God :  and,  therefore,  their  overthrow,  by  a  spiritual 
regeneration  of  their  subjects,  is  inevitable. 

"  We  register  our  testimony,  not  only  against  all  wars, 
whether  offensive  or  defensive,  but  all  preparations  for 
war ;  against  every  naval  ship,  every  arsenal,  every  forti- 
fication ;  against  the  militia  system  and  a  standing  army ; 
against  all  military  chieftains  and  soldiers  ;  against  all 
monuments  commemorative  of  victory  over  a  foreign  foe, 
all  trophies  won  in  battle,  all  celebrations  in  honour  of 
military  or  naval  exploits  :  against  all  appropriations  for  the 
defence  of  a  nation  by  force  and  arms  on  the  part  of  any 
legislative  body ;  against  every  edict  of  government, 
requiring  of  its  subjects  military  service.  Hence,  we 
deem  it  unlawful  to  bear  arms,  or  to  hold  a  military  office. 

"  As  every  human  government  is  upheld  by  physical 
strength,  and  its  laws  are  enforced  virtually  at  the  point 
of  the  bayonet,  we  cannot  hold  any  office  which  imposes 
upon  its  incumbent  the  obligation  to  do  right,  on  pain  of 
imprisonment  or  death.  We  therefore  voluntarily  exclude 
ourselves  from  every  legislative  and  judicial  body,  and 
repudiate  all  human  politics,  worldly  honours,  and  stations 
of  authority.     If  we  cannot  occupy  a  seat  in  the  legisla- 


THE    KINGDOM    OF    GOD    IS    WITHIN    YOU  9 

ture,  or  on  the  bench,  neither  can  we  elect  others  to  act 
as  our  substitutes  in  any  such  capacity. 

"  It  follows  that  we  cannot  sue  any  man  at  law,  to 
compel  him  by  force  to  restore  anything  which  he  may 
have  wrongfully  taken  from  us  or  others  ;  but,  if  he  has 
seized  our  coat,  we  shall  surrender  up  our  cloak,  rather 
than  subject  him  to  punishment. 

"  We  believe  that  the  penal  code  of  the  old  covenant, 
An  eye  for  an  eye,  and  a  tooth  for  a  tooth,  has  been 
abrogated  by  Jesus  Christ ;  and  that,  under  the  new  cov- 
enant, the  forgiveness,  instead  of  the  punishment  of 
enemies,  has  been  enjoined  upon  all  His  disciples,  in  all 
cases  whatsoever.  To  extort  money  from  enemies,  or  set 
them  upon  a  pillory,  or  cast  them  into  prison,  or  hang 
them  upon  a  gallows,  is  obviously  not  to  forgive,  but  to 
take  retribution.  .  .  . 

"  The  history  of  mankind  is  crowded  with  evidences, 
proving  that  physical  coercion  is  not  adapted  to  moral 
regeneration ;  that  the  sinful  disposition  of  man  can  be 
subdued  only  by  love ;  that  evil  can  be  exterminated 
from  the  earth  only  l)y  goodness;  that  it  is  not  safe  to 
rely  upon  an  arm  of  flesh.  ...  to  preserve  us  from 
harm  ;  that  there  is  great  security  in  being  gentle,  harm- 
less, long-suffering,  and  abundant  in  mercy  ;  that  it  is  only 
the  meek  who  sliall  inherit  the  earth,  for  the  violent,  who 
resort  to  the  sword,  shall  perish  with  the  sword.  Hence, 
as  a  measure  of  sound  policy,  of  safety  to  property,  life, 
and  liberty,  of  public  quietude,  and  private  enjoyment,  as 
well  as  on  the  ground  of  allegiance  to  Him  who  is  King 
of  kings,  and  Lord  of  lords,  we  cordially  adopt  the  non- 
resistance  principle ;  being  confident  that  it  provides  for 
all  possible  consequences,  will  ensure  all  things  needful 
to  us,  is  armed  with  omnipotent  power,  and  must  ulti- 
mately triumph  over  every  assailing  foe. 

"  We  advocate  no  Jacobinical  doctrines.  The  spirit  of 
jacobinism  is  the  spirit  of  retaliation,  violence,  and  mur- 


10        THE    KINGDOM    OF    GOD    IS    WITHIN    YOU 

der.  It  neither  fears  God,  nor  regards  man.  We  would 
be  filled  with  the  spirit  of  Christ.  If  we  abide  by 
our  principles,  it  is  impossible  for  us  to  be  disorderly, 
or  plot  treason,  or  participate  in  any  evil  work :  we  shall 
submit  to  every  ordinance  of  man,  for  the  Lord's  sake ; 
obey  all  the  requirements  of  government,  except  such  as 
we  deem  contrary  to  the  commands  of  the  gospel ;  and 
in  no  wise  resist  the  operation  of  law,  except  by  meekly 
submitting  to  the  penalty  of  disobedience. 

"  But,  while  we  shall  adhere  to  the  doctrines  of  non- 
resistance  and  passive  submission  to  enemies,  we  purpose, 
in  a  moral  and  spiritual  sense,  to  speak  and  act  boldly  in 
the  cause  of  God ;  to  assail  iniquity  in  high  places  and 
in  low  places ;  to  apply  our  principles  to  all  existing 
civil,  political,  legal,  and  ecclesiastical  institutions ;  and 
to  hasten  the  time  when  the  kingdoms  of  this  world 
shall  become  the  kingdom  of  our  Lord  and  of  His  Christ, 
and  He  shall  reign  for  ever. 

"  It  appears  to  us  as  a  self-evident  truth,  that,  what- 
ever the  gospel  is  designed  to  destroy,  any  period  of  the 
world,  being  contrary  to  it,  ought  now  to  be  abandoned. 
If,  then,  the  time  is  predicted,  when  swords  shall  be 
beaten  into  ploughshares,  and  spears  into  pruning-hooks, 
and  men  shall  not  learn  the  art  of  war  any  more,  it 
follows  that  all  who  manufacture,  sell,  or  wield  these 
deadly  weapons  do  thus  array  themselves  against  the 
peaceful  dominion  of  the  Son  of  God  on  earth. 

"  Having  thus  briefly,  but  frankly,  stated  our  principles 
and  purposes,  we  proceed  to  specify  the  measures  we 
propose  to  adopt,  in  carrying  our  object  into  effect. 

"  We  expect  to  prevail  through  the  foolishness  of  preach- 
ing —  striving  to  commend  ourselves  unto  every  man's 
conscience,  in  the  sight  of  God.  From  the  press,  we  shall 
promulgate  our  sentiments  as  widely  as  practicable.  We 
shall  endeavour  to  secure  the  cooperation  of  all  persons, 
of  whatever  name  or  sect.  .  .  .  Hence  we  shall  employ 


THE    KINGDOM    OF    GOD    IS    WITHIN    YOU         11 

lectures,  circulate  tracts  and  publicatious,  form  societies, 
and  petition  our  State  and  national  governments  in  rela- 
tion to  the  subject  of  universal  peace.  It  will  be  our 
leading  object  to  devise  ways  and  means  for  effecting  a 
radical  change  in  the  views,  feelings,  and  practices  of 
society  respecting  the  sinfulness  of  war,  and  the  treat- 
ment of  enemies. 

"  In  entering  upon  the  great  work  before  us,  we  are  not 
unmindful  that,  in  its  prosecution,  we  may  be  called  to 
test  our  sincerity,  even  as  in  a  fiery  ordeal.  It  may  sub- 
ject us  to  insult,  outrage,  suffering,  yea,  even  death 
itself.  We  anticipate  no  small  amount  of  misconception, 
misrepresentation,  calumny.  Tumults  may  arise  against 
us.  The  ungodly  and  the  violent,  the  proud  and  pharisa- 
ical,  the  ambitious  and  tyrannical,  principalities  and 
powers,  and  spiritual  wickedness  in  higli  places,  may 
combine  to  crush  us.  So  they  treated  the  Messiah, 
whose  example  we  are  humbly  striving  to  imitate.  .  .  . 
We  shall  not  be  afraid  of  their  terror,  neither  be 
troubled.  Our  confidence  is  in  the  Lord  Almighty,  not 
in  man.  Having  withdrawn  from  human  protection, 
what  can  sustain  us  but  that  faith  whicli  overcomes  the 
world  ?  We  shall  not  think  it  strange  concerning  the 
fiery  ordeal  which  is  to  try  us,  as  though  some  strange 
thing  had  happened  unto  us  ;  but  rejoice,  inasmuch  as  we 
are  partakers  of  Christ's  sufferings.  Wherefore,  we  com- 
mit the  keeping  of  our  souls  to  God,  in  well-doing,  as 
unto  a  faithful  Creator.  '  For  every  one  that  forsakes 
houses,  or  brethren,  or  sisters,  or  father,  or  mother,  or  wife, 
or  children,  or  lands,  for  Christ's  sake,  shall  receive  an 
hundredfold,  and  shall  inherit  everlasting  life.' 

"  Firmly  relying  upon  the  certain  and  universal  triumph 
of  the  sentiments  contained  in  this  Declaration,  however 
formidable  may  be  the  opposition  arrayed  against  them,  in 
solenm  testimony  of  our  faith  in  their  divine  origin,  we 
hereby  affix  our  signatures  to  it;  commending  it  to  the 


12        THE    KINGDOM    OF    GOD    IS    VriTHIN    YOU 

reason  and  conscience  of  mankind,  giving  ourselves  no  anx- 
iety as  to  what  may  befall  us,  and  resolving,  in  the  strength 
of  the  Lord  God,  calmly  and  meekly  to  abide  the  issue." 

Immediately  after  this  declaration  Garrison  founded 
a  society  of  non-resistance,  and  a  periodical,  called  The 
Non-Resistant,  in  which  was  preached  the  doctrine  of 
non-resistance  in  all  its  significance  and  with  all  its  con- 
sequences, as  it  had  been  expressed  in  the  "  Declaration." 
The  information  as  to  the  later  fate  of  the  society  and  the 
periodical  of  non-resistance  I  received  from  the  beautiful 
biography  of  WilHam  Lloyd  Garrison,  written  by  his  sons. 

The  society  and  the  periodical  did  not  exist  long :  the 
majority  of  Garrison's  collaborators  in  matters  of  freeing 
the  slaves,  fearing  lest  the  too  radical  demands,  as  ex- 
pressed in  The  Non-Resistant,  might  repel  people  from 
the  practical  work  of  the  liberation  of  the  negroes,  re- 
fused to  profess  the  principle  of  non-resistance,  as  it  had 
been  expressed  in  the  "  Declaration,"  and  the  society  and 
the  periodical  ceased  to  exist. 

This  "  Declaration  "  by  Garrison,  which  so  powerfully 
and  so  beautifully  expressed  such  an  important  profession 
of  faith,  ought,  it  seems,  to  have  startled  men  and  to  have 
become  universally  known  and  a  subject  of  wide  discus- 
sion. But  nothing  of  the  kind  happened.  It  is  not  only 
unknown  in  Europe,  but  even  among  the  Americans,  who 
so  highly  esteem  Garrison's  memory,  this  declaration  is 
almost  unknown. 

The  same  ingloriousness  has  fallen  to  the  share  of  an- 
other champion  of  non-resistance  to  evil,  the  American 
Adin  Ballou,  who  lately  died,  and  who  preached  this  doc- 
trine for  fifty  years.  How  little  is  known  of  w^hat  refers 
to  the  question  of  non-resistance  may  be  seen  from  the 
fact  that  Garrison's  son,  who  has  written  an  excellent 
biography  of  his  father  in  four  volumes,  this  son  of  Gar- 
rison, in  reply  to  my  question  whether  the  society  of  non- 


THE    KINGDOM    OF    GOD    IS    WITHIN    YOU        13 

resistance  was  still  in  existence,  and  whether  there  were 
any  followers  of  it,  answered  me  that  so  far  as  he  knew 
the  society  had  fallen  to  pieces,  and  there  existed  no  fol- 
lowers of  this  doctrine,  whereas  at  the  time  of  his  writing, 
there  lived  in  Hopedale,  Massachusetts,  Adiu  Ballon,  who 
had  taken  part  in  Garrison's  labours  and  had  devoted  fifty 
years  of  his  life  to  the  oral  and  printed  propaganda  of  the 
doctrine  of  non-resistance.  Later  on  I  received  a  letter 
from  Wilson,  a  disciple  and  assistant  of  Ballon,  and  en- 
tered into  direct  communication  with  Ballon  himself.  I 
wrote  to  Ballon,  and  he  answered  me  and  sent  me  his 
writings.     Here  are  a  few  extracts  from  them : 

"  Jesus  Christ  is  my  Lord  and  Master,"  says  Ballou  in 
one  of  the  articles,^  in  which  he  arraigns  the  inconsistency 
of  the  Christians  who  recognize  the  right  of  defence  and 
war.  "  I  have  covenanted  to  forsake  all  and  follow  Him, 
through  good  and  evil  report,  until  death.  But  I  am 
nevertheless  a  Democratic-Bepublican  citizen  of  the 
United  States,  implicitly  sworn  to  bear  true  allegiance  to 
my  country,  and  to  support  its  Constitution,  if  need  be, 
with  my  life.  Jesus  Christ  requires  me  to  do  unto  others 
as  I  would  that  others  should  do  unto  me.  The  Consti- 
tution of  the  United  States  requires  me  to  do  unto 
twenty-seven  hundred  slaves "  (there  were  slaves  then, 
now  we  may  put  the  working  people  in  their  place)  "  the 
very  contrary  of  what  I  would  have  them  do  unto  me, 
viz.,  assist  to  keep  them  in  a  grievous  bondage.  .  .  .  But 
I  am  quite  easy.  I  vote  on.  I  help  govern  on.  I  am 
willing  to  hold  any  olilce  I  may  be  elected  to  under  the 
Constitution.  And  I  am  still  a  Christian.  I  profess  on. 
I  find  no  difficulty  in  keeping  covenant  both  with  Christ 
and  the  Constitution.  .  .  . 

"  Jesus  Christ  forbids  me  to  resist  evil-doers  by  taking 
'  eye  for  eye,  tooth  for  tooth,  blood  for  blood,  and  life  for 

^In  The  Non-Resistant,  Vol.  i.,  No.  4,  Hopedale,  Milford,  Mass., 
Feb.  15,  1845. 


14         THE    KINGDOM    OF    GOD    IS    WITHIN    TOU 

life.'  My  government  requires  the  very  reverse,  and  de- 
pends, for  its  own  self-preservation,  on  the  halter,  the 
musket,  and  the  sword,  seasonably  employed  against  its 
domestic  and  foreign  enemies.  Accordingly,  the  land  is 
well  furnished  with  gibbets,  prisons,  arsenals,  train-bands, 
soldiers,  and  ships-of-war.  In  the  maintenance  and  use 
of  this  expensive  life-destroying  apparatus,  we  can  exem- 
plify the  virtues  of  forgiving  our  iujurers,  loving  our  ene- 
mies, blessing  them  that  curse  us,  and  doing  good  to  those 
that  hate  us.  For  this  reason,  we  have  regular  Christian 
chaplains  to  pray  for  us,  and  call  down  the  sins  of  God 
on  our  holy  murderers.  .  .  . 

"I  see  it  all;  and  yet  I  insist  that  I  am  as  good  a 
Christian  as  ever.  I  fellowship  all;  I  vote  on;  I  help 
govern  on  ;  I  profess  on  ;  and  I  glory  in  being  at  once 
a  devoted  Christian,  and  a  no  less  devoted  adherent  to  the 
existing  government.  I  will  not  give  in  to  those  miser- 
able non-resistant  notions.  I  will  not  throw  away  my 
political  influence,  and  leave  unprincipled  men  to  carry 
on  government  alone.  .  .  . 

"  The  Constitution  says,  '  Congress  shall  have  power  to 
declare  war.'  ...  I  agree  to  this.  I  endorse  it.  I  swear 
to  help  carry  it  through.  .  .  .  What  then,  am  I  less  a 
Christian  ?  Is  not  war  a  Christian  service  ?  Is  it  not 
perfectly  Christian  to  murder  hundreds  of  thousands  of 
fellow  human  beings ;  to  ravish  defenceless  females,  sack 
and  burn  cities,  and  exact  all  the  other  cruelties  of  war  ? 
Out  upon  these  new-fangled  scruples !  This  is  the  very 
way  to  forgive  injuries,  and  love  our  enemies !  If  we 
only  do  it  all  in  true  love,  nothing  can  be  more  Christian 
than  wholesale  murder  !  " 

In  another  pamphlet,  under  the  title.  How  Many  Does 
It  TakeJ^  he  says,  "How  many  does  it  take  to  meta- 
morphose wickedness  into  righteousness  ?     One  man  must 

iNot  a  pamphlet,  but  an  article  iu  The  Non-Resistant,  Vol.  i. 
No.  4,  and  very  imperfectly  quoted  by  Tolstdy. 


THE    KINGDOM    OF    GOD    IS    WITHIN    YOU         15 

not  kill.  If  he  does,  it  is  murder.  Two,  ten,  one  hun- 
dred men,  acting  on  their  own  responsibility,  must  not 
kill.  If  they  do,  it  is  still  murder.  But  a  state  or  nation 
may  kill  as  many  as  they  please,  and  it  is  no  murder.  It 
is  just,  necessary,  commendable,  and  right.  Only  get 
people  enough  to  agi'ee  to  it,  and  the  butchery  of  myriads 
of  human  beings  is  perfectly  innocent.  But  how  many 
men  does  it  take  ?  This  is  the  question.  Just  so  with 
theft,  robbery,  burglary,  and  all  other  crimes.  .  .  .  But  a 
whole  nation  can  commit  it.  .  .  .  But  how  many  does  it 
take  ? "  1 

Here  is  Ballou's  catechism,  composed  for  his  flock  (^The 
Catechism  of  Non-Resistance  ^) : 

Q.  "Whence  originated  the  term  "  non-resistance  ? " 

A.  Trom  the  injunction,  "  Ptesist  not  evil,"  Matt.  v. 
39. 

Q.  What  does  the  term  signify  ? 

A.  It  expresses  a  high  Christian  virtue,  prescribed  by 
Christ. 

Q.  Is  the  word  "  resistance  "  to  be  taken  in  its  widest 
meaning,  that  is,  as  showing  that  no  resistance  whatever 
is  to  be  shown  to  evil  ? 

A.  No,  it  is  to  be  taken  in  the  strict  sense  of  the 
Saviour's  injunction ;  that  is,  we  are  not  to  retaliate  evil 
with  evil.  Evil  is  to  be  resisted  by  all  just  means,  but 
never  with  evil. 

Q.  From  what  can  we  see  that  Christ  in  such  cases 
prescribed  non-resistance  ? 

A.  From  the  words  which  He  then  used.     He  said, 

i  To  this  Tolst6y  adds,  on  his  own  responsibility  :  "  Why  must 
one,  ten,  one  hundred  men  not  violate  God's  law,  while  very  many 
may  ?  " 

2 Translated  freely,  with  some  omissions. — Author^ s  Note.  I 
fail  to  11  nd  this  Catechism  in  any  of  Ballou's  writings  accessible  in 
and  about  15o.ston.  The  nearest  approach  to  these  questions  and 
answers  is  found  scattered  thmnirhont  his  Christian  Non-Iiesisfance, 
in  Its  Important  Bearings,  Illustrated  and  Defended,  Philadelphia, 
1846. 


16        THE    KINGDOM    OF    GOD    IS    WITHIN    YOU 

"  Ye  have  heard  that  it  hath  been  said,  An  eye  for  an 
eye,  and  a  tooth  for  a  tooth.  But  I  say  unto  you  that 
ye  resist  not  evil ;  but  whosoever  shall  smite  thee  on  thy 
right  cheek,  turn  to  him  the  other  also.  And  if  any  man 
will  sue  thee  at  the  law,  and  take  away  thy  coat,  let  him 
have  thy  cloak  also." 

Q.  To  whom  does  Jesus  refer  in  the  words,  "  It  has  been 
said  ? " 

A.  To  the  patriarchs  and  prophets,  to  what  they  said, — 
to  what  is  contained  in  the  writings  of  the  Old  Testa, 
ment,  which  the  Jews  generally  call  the  Law  and  the 
Prophets. 

Q.  What  injunctions  did  Christ  mean  by  "  It  hath  been 
said  ? " 

A.  Those  injunctions  by  which  Noah,  Moses,  and 
other  prophets  authorize  men  to  inflict  personal  injury 
on  injurers,  in   order  to  punish  and  destroy  evil. 

Q.  Quote  these  precepts. 

A.  Whoso  sheddeth  man's  blood,  by  man  shall  his 
blood  be  shed  :  for  in  the  image  of  God  made  He  man 
(Gen.  ix.  6).  He  that  smiteth  a  man,  so  that  he  die, 
shall  be  surely  put  to  death,  and  if  any  mischief  follow, 
then  thou  shalt  give  life  for  life,  eye  for  eye,  tooth  for 
tooth,  hand  for  hand,  foot  for  foot,  burning  for  burning, 
wound  for  wound,  stripe  for  stripe  (Ex.  xxi.  12,  23-25). 

And  he  that  killeth  any  man  shall  surely  be  put  to 
death.  And  if  a  man  cause  a  blemish  in  his  neighbour ; 
as  he  hath  done,  so  shall  it  be  done  to  him :  breach  for 
breach,  eye  for  eye,  tooth  for  tooth :  as  he  hath  caused  a 
blemish  in  a  man,  so  shall  it  be  done  to  him  again  (Lev. 
xxiv.  17,  19,  20). 

And  the  judges  shall  make  diligent  inquisition:  and, 
behold,  if  the  witness  be  a  false  witness,  and  hath  testi- 
fied falsely  against  his  brother  ;  then  shall  ye  do  unto 
him,  as  he  had  thought  to  have  done  unto  his  brother: 
and  thine  eye  shall  not  pity  ;  but  life  shall  go  for  life. 


THE    KINGDOM    OF    GOD    IS    WITHIN    YOU        17 

eye  for  eye,  tooth  for  tooth,  hand  for  hand,  foot  for  foot 
(Deut.  xix.  18,  19,  21).  These  are  the  precepts  of  which 
Jesus  is  speaking. 

Noah,  Moses,  and  the  prophets  taught  that  he  who  kills, 
maims,  and  tortures  his  neighbours  does  evil.  To  resist 
such  evil  and  destroy  it,  the  doer  of  evil  is  to  be  punished 
by  death  or  maiming  or  some  personal  injury.  Insult  is  to 
be  opposed  to  insult,  murder  to  murder,  torture  to  torture, 
evil  to  evil.  Thus  taught  Noah,  Moses,  and  the  proph- 
ets. But  Christ  denies  it  all.  "But  I  say  unto  you," 
it  says  in  the  Gospel,  "  that  ye  resist  not  evil,  resist  not  an 
insult  with  an  insult,  but  rather  bear  the  repeated  insult 
from  the  doer  of  evil."  What  was  authorized  is  pro- 
hibited. If  we  understand  what  kind  of  resistance  they 
taught,  we  clearly  see  what  we  are  taught  by  Christ's  non- 
resistance. 

Q.  Did  the  ancients  authorize  the  resistance  of  insult 
with  insult  ? 

A.  Yes;  but  Jesus  prohibited  this.  A  Christian  has 
under  no  condition  the  right  to  deprive  of  life  or  to  sub- 
ject to  insult  him  who  does  evil  to  his  neighbour. 

Q.  May  a  man  kill  or  maim  another  in  self-defence  ? 

A.  No. 

Q.  May  he  enter  a  court  with  a  complaint,  to  have  his 
insulter  punished  ? 

A.  No ;  for  what  he  is  doing  through  others,  he  is  in 
reality  doing  in  his  own  person. 

Q.  May  he  fight  with  an  army  against  enemies,  or 
against  domestic  rebels  ? 

A.  Of  course  not.  He  cannot  take  any  part  in  war  or 
warlike  preparations.  He  cannot  use  death-dealing  arms. 
He  cannot  resist  injury  with  injury,  no  matter  whether 
he  be  alone  or  with  others,  through  himself  or  through 
others. 

Q.  May  he  choose  or  fit  out  military  men  for  the 
government  ? 


18        THE    KINGDOM    OF    GOD    IS    WITHIN    YOU 

A.  He  can  do  nothing  of  the  kind,  if  he  wishes  to  be 
true  to  Christ's  law. 

Q.  May  he  vokmtarily  give  money,  to  aid  the  govern- 
ment, which  is  supported  by  mihtary  forces,  capital  pun- 
ishment, and  violence  in  general  ? 

A.  No,  if  the  money  is  not  intended  for  some  special 
object,  just  in  itself,  where  the  aim  and  means  are 
good. 

Q.  May  he  pay  taxes  to  such  a  government  ? 

A.  No ;  he  must  not  voluntarily  pay  the  taxes,  but  he 
must  also  not  resist  their  collection.  The  taxes  imposed 
by  the  government  are  collected  independently  of  the  will 
of  the  subjects.  It  is  impossible  to  resist  the  collection, 
without  having  recourse  to  violence  ;  but  a  Christian  must 
not  use  violence,  and  so  he  must  give  up  his  property  to 
the  violence  which  is  exerted  by  the  powers. 

Q.  May  a  Christian  vote  at  elections  and  take  part  in  a 
court  or  in  the  government  ? 

A.  No ;  the  participation  in  elections,  in  the  court,  or 
in  the  government,  is  a  participation  in  governmental  vio- 
lence. 

Q.  In  what  does  the  chief  significance  of  the  doctrine 
of  non-resistance  consist  ? 

A.  In  that  it  alone  makes  it  possible  to  tear  the  evil 
out  by  the  root,  both  out  of  one's  own  heart  and  out  of 
the  neighbour's  heart.  This  doctrine  forbids  doing  that 
by  which  evil  is  perpetuated  and  multiplied.  He  who 
attacks  another  and  insults  him,  engenders  in  another  the 
sentiment  of  hatred,  the  root  of  all  evil.  To  offend  another, 
because  he  offended  us,  for  the  specious  reason  of  removing 
an  evil,  means  to  repeat  an  evil  deed,  both  against  him 
and  against  ourselves,  —  to  beget,  or  at  least  to  free,  to 
encourage,  the  very  demon  whom  we  claim  we  wish 
to  expel.  Satan  cannot  be  driven  out  by  Satan,  untruth 
cannot  be  cleansed  by  untruth,  and  evil  cannot  be  van- 
quished by  evil. 


THE    KINGDOM    OF    GOD    IS    WITHIN    YOU        19 

True  non-resistance  is  the  one  true  resistance  to  evil. 
It  kills  and  finally  destroys  the  evil  sentiment. 

Q.  But,  if  the  idea  of  the  doctrine  is  right,  is  it  practi- 
cable ? 

A.  It  is  as  practicable  as  any  good  prescribed  by  the 
Law  of  God.  The  good  cannot  under  all  circumstances 
be  executed  without  self-renunciation,  privation,  suffering, 
and,  in  extreme  cases,  without  the  loss  of  life  itself.  But 
he  who  values  hfe  more  than  the  fulfilment  of  God's  will 
is  already  dead  to  the  one  true  life.  Such  a  man,  in  trying 
to  save  his  life,  shall  lose  it.  Besides,  in  general,  where 
non-resistance  costs  the  sacrifice  of  one  life,  or  the  sacrifice 
of  some  essential  good  of  life,  resistance  costs  thousands  of 
such  sacrifices. 

Non-resistance  preserves,  resistance  destroys. 

It  is  incomparably  safer  to  act  justly  than  unjustly ;  to 
bear  an  insult  than  to  resist  it  with  violence,  —  it  is  safer 
even  in  relation  to  the  present  life.  If  all  men  did  not 
resist  evil  with  evil,  the  world  would  be  blessed. 

Q.  But  if  only  a  few  shall  act  thus,  what  wiU  become 
of  them  ? 

A.  If  only  one  man  acted  thus,  and  all  the  others  agreed 
to  crucify  him,  would  it  not  be  more  glorious  for  him  to 
die  in  the  triumph  of  non-resisting  love,  praying  for  his 
enemies,  than  to  live  wearing  the  crown  of  Casar,  be- 
spattered with  the  blood  of  the  slain  ?  But  one  or  thou- 
sands who  have  firmly  determined  not  to  resist  evil  with 
evil,  whether  among  the  enlightened  or  among  savage 
neighbours,  are  much  safer  from  violence  than  those  who 
rely  on  violence.  A  robber,  murderer,  deceiver,  will  more 
quickly  leave  them  alone  tlian  those  who  resist  with 
weapons.  They  who  take  the  sword  perish  with  the 
sword,  and  those  who  seek  peace,  who  act  in  a  friendly 
manner,  inoffensively,  who  forget  and  forgive  offences,  for 
the  most  part  enjoy  peace  or,  if  they  die,  die  blessed. 

Thus,  if  all  kept  the  commandment  of  non-resistance,  it 


20    THE  KINGDOM  OF  GOD  IS  WITHIN  YOU 

is  evident  that  there  would  be  no  offences,  no  evil  deeds. 
If  these  formed  a  majority,  they  would  establish  the  reign 
of  love  and  good-will,  even  toward  the  ill-disposed,  by  never 
resisting  evil  with  evil,  never  using  violence.  If  there  were 
a  considerable  minority  of  these,  they  would  have  such  a 
corrective,  moral  effect  upon  society  that  every  cruel  pun- 
ishment would  be  abolished,  and  violence  and  enmity  would 
be  changed  to  peace  and  love.  If  there  were  but  a  small 
minority  of  them,  they  would  rarely  experience  anything 
worse  than  the  contempt  of  the  world,  and  the  world  would 
in  the  meantime,  without  noticing  it,  and  without  feeling 
itself  under  obligation,  become  wiser  and  better  from  this 
secret  influence.  And  if,  in  the  very  worst  case,  a  few 
members  of  the  minority  should  be  persecuted  to  death, 
these  men,  dying  for  the  truth,  would  leave  behind  them 
their  teaching,  which  is  already  sanctified  by  their  martyr's 
death. 

Peace  be  with  all  who  seek  peace,  and  all-conquering 
love  be  the  imperishable  inheritance  of  every  soul,  which 
voluntarily  submits  to  the  Law  of  Christ :  "  Eesist  not 
evil."  In  the  course  of  fifty  years,  Ballou  wrote  and 
edited  books  dealing  mainly  with  the  question  of  non- 
resistance  to  evil.  In  these  works,  which  are  beautiful 
in  their  lucidity  of  thought  and  elegance  of  expression, 
the  question  is  discussed  from  every  possible  side.  He 
establishes  the  obligatoriness  of  this  commandment  for 
every  Christian  who  professes  the  Bible  as  a  divine  reve- 
lation. He  adduces  all  the  customary  retorts  to  the  com- 
mandment of  non-resistance,  both  from  the  Old  Testament 
and  from  the  New,  as,  for  example,  the  expulsion  from  the 
temple,  and  so  forth,  and  all  these  are  overthrown  ;  he 
shows,  independently  of  Scripture,  the  practical  wisdom 
of  this  rule,  and  adduces  all  the  objections  which  are 
usually  made  to  it,  and  meets  all  these  objections.  Thus 
one  chapter  of  a  work  of  his  treats  of  non-resistance  to 
evil  in  exclusive  cases,  and  here  he  acknowledges  that, 


THE   KINGDOM    OF   GOD   IS   WITHIN   YOU        21 

if  there  were  cases  when  the  appKcation  of  non-resistance 
to  evil  were  impossible,  this  would  prove  that  the  rule  is 
altogether  untenable.  In  adduciug  these  special  cases,  he 
proves  that  it  is  precisely  in  them  that  the  application  of 
this  rule  is  necessary  and  rational.  There  is  not  a  single 
side  of  the  question,  either  for  his  followers  or  for  his 
adversaries,  which  is  not  investigated  in  these  works.  I 
say  all  this,  in  order  to  show  the  unquestionable  interest 
which  such  works  ought  to  have  for  men  who  profess 
Christianity,  and  that,  therefore,  one  would  think  Ballou's 
activity  ought  to  have  been  known,  and  the  thoughts  ex- 
pressed by  him  ought  to  have  been  accepted  or  refuted ; 
but  there  has  been  nothiufif  of  the  kind. 

The  activity  of  Garrison  the  father,  with  his  foundation 
of  a  society  of  non-resistants  and  his  declaration,  convinced 
me  even  more  than  my  relations  with  the  Quakers,  that 
the  departure  of  state  Christianity  from  Christ's  law  about 
non-resistance  to  evil  is  something  that  has  been  observed 
and  pointed  out  long  ago,  and  that  men  have  without  cessa- 
tion worked  to  arraign  it.  Ballou's  activity  still  more  con- 
firmed this  fact  to  me.  But  the  fate  of  Garrison  and 
especially  of  Ballou,  who  is  not  known  to  any  one,  in 
spite  of  his  fifty  years  of  stubborn  and  constant  work 
in  one  and  the  same  direction,  has  also  confirmed  to  me 
the  other  fact,  that  there  exists  some  kind  of  unexpressed 
but  firm  understanding  as  to  passing  all  such  attempts  in 
silence. 

Ballou  died  in  August,  1890,  and  his  obituary  was 
given  in  an  American  periodical  with  a  Christian  tendency 
(Rdigio-Philosophical  Journal,  August  23d). 

In  this  eulogistic  obituary  it  says  that  Ballou  was  a 
spiritual  guide  of  a  community,  that  he  delivered  between 
eight  and  nine  thousand  sermons,  married  one  thousand 
pairs,  and  wrote  about  five  hundred  articles,  but  not  a 
word  is  said  about  the  aim  to  which  he  devoted  all  his 
life,  —  the  word  "  non-resistance  "  is  not  even  used. 


22        THE   KINGDOM    OF   GOD   IS   WITHIN   TOTT 

Like  all  that  which  the  Quakers  have  been  preaching 
for  two  hundred  years,  like  the  activity  of  Garrison  the 
father,  the  foundation  of  his  society  and  periodical,  and 
his  declaration,  so  Ballou's  whole  activity  does  not  seem 
to  have  existed  at  all. 

A  striking  example  of  such  an  ingloriousness  of  writings 
intended  to  elucidate  non-resistance  to  evil,  and  to  arraign 
those  who  do  not  recognize  this  commandment,  is  found 
in  the  fate  of  the  book  by  the  Bohemian  Chelcicky,  which 
has  but  lately  become  known  and  has  so  far  not  yet  been 
printed. 

Soon  after  the  publication  of  my  book  in  German,  I 
received  a  letter  from  a  professor  of  the  Prague  University, 
which  informed  me  of  the  existence  of  a  still  unpublished 
work  by  the  Bohemian  Chelcicky,  of  the  fifteenth  century, 
by  the  name  of  The  Drawnet  of  Faith.  In  this  work,  as 
the  professor  wrote  me,  Chelcicky  about  four  centuries 
ago  expressed  the  same  view  in  regard  to  the  true  and 
the  false  Christianity,  which  I  had  expressed  in  my  work. 
My  Religion.  The  professor  wrote  to  me  that  Chelcicky's 
work  was  for  the  first  time  to  be  published  in  Bohemian 
in  the  periodical  of  the  St.  Petersburg  Academy  of 
Sciences.  As  I  was  unable  to  procure  the  work  itself, 
I  tried  to  become  acquainted  with  what  was  known  of 
Chelcicky,  and  such  information  I  got  from  a  German 
book  sent  me  by  the  same  Prague  professor,  and  from 
Pepin's  "  History  of  Bohemian  Literature."  This  is  what 
Pypin  says: 

"  Tlie  Drawnet  of  Faith  is  that  teaching  of  Christ  which 
is  to  draw  man  out  from  the  dark  depths  of  the  sea  of 
life  and  its  untruths.  True  faith  consists  in  believing 
in  God's  words  ;  but  now  there  has  come  a  time  when 
men  consider  the  true  faith  to  be  heresy,  and  so  reason 
must  show  wherein  the  true  faith  consists,  if  one  does 
not  know  it.  Darkness  has  concealed  it  from  men,  and 
they  do  not  know  Christ's  true  law. 


THE    KINGDOM    OF    GOD    IS    WITHIN    YOU        23 

"  To  explain  this  law,  Chelcicky  points  out  the  original 
structure  of  Christian  society,  which,  he  says,  is  now 
regarded  as  rank  heresy  by  the  Eoman  Church. 

"  This  primitive  church  was  his  own  ideal  of  a  social 
structure,  based  on  equality,  freedom,  and  brotherhood. 
Christianity,  according  to  Chelcicky,  still  treasures  these 
principles,  and  all  that  is  necessary  is,  that  society  should 
return  to  its  pure  teaching,  and  then  any  other  order,  in 
which  kings  and  popes  are  needed,  would  seem  super- 
fluous :  in  everything  the  law  of  love  alone  is  sufficient. 

"  Historically  Chelcicky  refers  the  fall  of  Christianity 
to  the  times  of  Constantiue  the  Great,  whom  Pope  Sylvester 
introduced  into  Christianity  with  all  the  pagan  customs 
and  life.  Coustautine,  in  his  turn,  invested  the  Pope  with 
worldly  wealth  and  power.  Since  then  both  powers  have 
been  aiding  one  another  and  have  striven  after  external 
glory.  Doctors  and  masters  and  the  clergy  have  begun 
to  care  only  for  the  subjugation  of  the  whole  world  to 
their  dominion,  have  armed  men  against  one  another  for 
the  purpose  of  murdering  and  plundering,  and  have  com- 
pletely destroyed  Christianity  in  faith  and  in  life.  Chel- 
cicky absolutely  denies  the  right  to  wage  war  and  admin- 
ister capital  punishment ;  every  warrior  and  even  '  knight' 
is  only  an  oppressor,  malefactor,  and  murderer." 

The  same,  except  for  some  biographical  details  and 
excerpts  from  Chelcicky's  correspondence,  is  said  in  the 
German  book. 

Having  thus  learned  the  essence  of  Chelcicky's  teaching, 
I  with  much  greater  impatience  waited  for  the  appearance 
of  The  Drawnet  of  Faith  in  the  journal  of  the  Academy. 
But  a  year,  two,  three  years  passed,  and  the  book  did 
not  appear.  Only  in  1888  I  learned  that  the  printing 
of  the  book,  which  had  been  begun,  had  come  to  a  stop. 
I  got  the  proof-slieets  of  as  much  as  had  been  printed,  and 
I  read  the  book.    The  book  is  in  every  respect  remarkable. 

The  contents  are  quite  correctly  rendered  by  l*ypin. 


24        THE    KINGDOM    OF    GOD    IS    WITHIN    YOU 

Chelcicky's  fundamental  idea  is  this,  that  Christianity, 
having  united  with  the  power  in  the  time  of  Constantine 
and  having  continued  to  develop  under  these  conditions, 
has  become  absolutely  corrupt  and  has  ceased  to  be  Chris- 
tianity. The  title  "  The  Drawnet  of  Faith,"  was  given  by 
Chelcicky  to  his  work,  because,  taking  for  his  motto  the 
verse  of  the  Gospel  about  calling  the  disciples  to  become 
fishers  of  men,  Chelcicky,  continuing  this  comparison, 
says,  "  Christ  by  means  of  His  disciples  caught  in  His 
drawnet  of  faith  the  whole  world,  but  the  larger  fish, 
tearing  the  net,  jumped  out  of  it,  and  through  the  holes, 
which  these  larger  fish  had  made,  all  the  others  went 
away,  and  the  net  was  left  almost  empty." 

The  large  fish  that  broke  through  the  net  are  the  rulers, 
emperors,  popes,  kings,  who,  in  not  renouncing  their  power, 
did  not  accept  Christianity,  but  its  semblance  only. 

Chelcicky  taught  what  has  been  taught  until  the  present 
by  the  Mennonites  and  Quakers,  and  what  in  former 
years  was  taught  by  the  Bogomils,  Paulicians,  and  many 
others.  He  teaches  that  Christianity,  which  demands 
from  its  followers  meekness,  humility,  kindness,  forgive- 
ness of  sins,  the  offering  of  the  other  cheek  when  one 
cheek  has  been  smitten,  love  of  enemies,  is  incompatible 
with  violence,  which  forms  an  indispensable  condition  of 
power. 

A  Christian,  according  to  Chelcicky's  interpretation, 
can  not  only  not  be  a  chief  or  a  soldier,  but  cannot  even 
take  part  in  the  government,  be  a  merchant  or  even  a 
landowner ;  he  can  be  only  an  artisan  or  an  agriculturist. 

This  book  is  one  of  the  extremely  few  that  have  sur- 
vived the  auto-da-fes  of  books  in  which  the  official  Chris- 
tianity is  arraigned.  All  such  books,  which  are  called 
heretical,  have  been  burned  together  with  the  authors,  so 
that  there  are  very  few  ancient  works  which  arraign  the 
departure  of  official  Christianity,  and  so  this  book  is 
especially  interesting. 


THE    KINGDOM    OF    GOD    IS    WITHIN    YOU        25 

Biit  besides  being  interesting,  no  matter  how  we  look 
upon  it,  this  book  is  one  of  the  most  remarkable  produc- 
tions of  thoughts,  as  judged  by  the  depth  of  its  contents, 
and  the  wonderful  force  and  beauty  of  the  popular  lan- 
guage, and  its  antiquity.  And  yet  this  book  has  for  more 
than  four  centuries  remained  uuprinted,  and  continues  to 
be  unknown,  except  to  learned  specialists. 

One  would  think  that  all  these  kinds  of  works,  by  the 
Quakers,  and  Garrison,  and  Ballon,  and  Chelcicky,  which 
assert  and  prove,  on  the  basis  of  the  Gospel,  that  our 
world  comprehends  Christ's  teaching  falsely,  ought  to 
rouse  interest,  agitation,  discussions,  in  the  midst  of  the 
pastors  and  of  the  flock. 

Works  of  this  kind,  which  touch  on  the  essence  of  the 
Christian  teaching,  ought,  it  seems,  to  be  analyzed  and 
recognized  as  true,  or  to  be  rejected  and  overthrown. 

But  nothing  of  the  kind  has  happened.  One  and  the 
same  thing  is  repeated  with  all  these  works.  People  of 
the  most  different  views,  both  those  who  believe  and, 
what  is  most  surprising,  those  who  are  unbelieving 
liberals,  seem  to  have  an  agreement  to  pass  them  stub- 
bornly in  silence,  and  all  that  has  been  done  by  men  to 
elucidate  the  true  meaning  of  Christ's  teaching  remains 
unknown  or  forgotten. 

But  still  more  startling  is  the  ingloriousness  of  two 
works,  of  which  I  learned  also  in  connection  with  the 
appearance  of  my  book.  These  are  Dymoud's  book  On 
War,  published  for  the  first  time  in  London,  in  1824, 
and  Daniel  Musser's  book  On  Non-Resistance,  written  in 
1864.  The  ignorance  about  these  two  books  is  particu- 
larly remarkable,  l)ecause,  to  say  nothing  of  their  worth, 
both  books  treat  not  so  much  of  the  theory  as  of  the 
practical  application  of  the  theory  to  life,  of  the  relation 
of  Christianity  to  military  service,  which  is  particularly 
important  and  interesting  now,  in  connection  with  the 
universal  liability  to  do  military  service. 


26        THE   KINGDOM    OF    GOD    IS    WITHIN    TOTJ 

People  will,  perhaps,  ask :  "  What  are  the  duties  of  a 
subject,  who  believes  that  war  is  incompatible  with  his 
religion,  but  of  whom  the  government  demands  a  partici- 
pation in  military  service  ? " 

It  seems  that  this  is  a  very  living  question,  one,  the 
answer  to  which  is  particularly  important  in  connection 
with  the  military  service  of  the  present  time.  All,  or 
a  vast  majority  of  men,  —  Christians,  —  all  males,  are 
called  on  to  perform  military  service.  What  must  a 
man,  as  a  Christian,  answer  in  reply  to  this  demand  ? 
Dymoud's  answer  is  as  follows  : 

"  It  is  his  duty,  mildly  and  temperately,  yet  firmly,  to 
refuse  to  serve. 

"  There  are  some  persons,  who,  without  any  determin- 
ate process  of  reasoning,  appear  to  conclude  that  responsi- 
bility for  national  measures  attaches  solely  to  those  who 
direct  them;  that  it  is  the  business  of  governments  to 
consider  what  is  good  for  the  community,  and  that,  in 
these  cases,  the  duty  of  the  subject  is  merged  in  the  will 
of  the  sovereign.  Considerations  like  these  are,  I  believe, 
often  voluntarily  permitted  to  become  opiates  of  the  con- 
science. '  I  have  no  part,'  it  is  said, '  in  the  councils  of 
the  government,  and  am  not  therefore  responsible  for  its 
crimes.'  We  are,  indeed,  not  responsible  for  the  crimes 
of  our  rulers,  but  we  are  responsible  for  our  own ;  and  the 
crimes  of  our  rulers  are  our  own,  if,  whilst  we  believe 
them  to  be  crimes,  we  promote  them  by  our  coopera- 
tion. 

"  But  those  who  suppose  that  obedience  in  aU  things  is 
required,  or  that  responsibihty  in  political  affairs  is  trans- 
ferred from  the  subject  to  the  sovereign,  reduce  themselves 
to  a  great  dilemma. 

"  It  is  to  say  that  we  must  resign  our  conduct  and  our 
consciences  to  the  will  of  others,  and  act  wickedly  or  well, 
as  their  good  or  evil  may  preponderate,  without  merit  for 
virtue,  or  responsibility  for  crime." 


THE   KINGDOM    OF    GOD    IS    WITHIN    TOU        27 

What  is  remarkable  is  this,  that  precisely  the  same  is 
expressed  in  the  instruction  to  the  soldiers,  which  they 
are  made  to  learn  by  rote:  it  says  there  that  only  the 
general  is  responsible  for  the  consequences  of  his  com- 
mand. But  this  is  not  true.  A  man  cannot  shift  the 
responsibility  for  his  acts.  And  this  may  be  seen  from 
what  follows : 

"  If  the  government  direct  you  to  fire  your  neighbour's 
property,  or  to  throw  him  over  a  precipice,  will  you 
obey  ?  ^  If  you  will  not,  there  is  an  end  of  the  argument, 
for  if  you  may  reject  its  authority  in  one  instance,  where 
is  the  limit  to  rejection  ?  There  is  no  rational  limit  but 
that  which  is  assigned  by  Christianity,  and  that  is  both 
rational  and  practicable. 

"  We  think,  then,  that  it  is  the  business  of  every  man, 
who  believes  that  war  is  inconsistent  with  our  rehgion, 
respectfully,  but  steadfastly,  to  refuse  to  engage  in  it. 
Let  such  as  these  remember  that  an  honourable  and  an 
awful  duty  is  laid  upon  them.  It  is  upon  their  fidelity, 
so  far  as  human  agency  is  concerned,  that  the  cause  of 
peace  is  suspended.  Let  them  be  wilhng  to  avow  their 
opinions  and  to  defend  them.  Neither  let  them  be  con- 
tented with  words,  if  more  than  words,  if  suffering  also, 
is  required.  If  you  believe  that  Jesus  Christ  has  pro- 
hibited slaughter,  let  not  the  opinion  or  the  commands  of 
a  world  induce  you  to  join  in  it.  By  this  '  steady  and 
determinate  pursuit  of  virtue/  the  benediction  which 
attaches  to  those  who  hear  the  sayings  of  God  and  do 
them,  will  rest  upon  you,  and  the  time  will  come  when 
even  the  world  will  honour  you,  as  contributors  to  the 
work  of  human  reformation." 

Musser's  book  is  called  Non-Resistancc  Asserted ;  or, 

1  Tolstdy's  translation  from  the  English,  which  i.s  generally  loose, 
here  departs  entirely  from  the  text.  Tolst6y  writes:  "If  a  chief 
direct  you  to  kill  your  neighbour's  child,  or  your  father,  or  your 
mother,  will  you  obey  ?  " 


28        THE    KINGDOM    OF   GOD    IS    WITHIN   YOU 

Kingdom  of  Christ  and  Kingdom  of  This  World  Sepa- 
rated, 1854.1 

The  book  is  devoted  to  the  same  question,  which  it 
analyzes  in  relation  with  the  demand  made  by  the  gov- 
ernment of  the  United  States  on  its  citizens  as  regards 
military  service  during  that  Civil  War,  and  it  has  the 
same  contemporary  importance,  in  that  it  analyzes  the 
question  as  to  how  and  under  what  conditions  men  must 
and  can  refuse  to  do  military  service.  In  the  introduc- 
tion the  author  says : 

"  It  is  well  known  that  in  the  United  States  there  are 
many  people  who  consciously  deny  war.  They  are  called 
'  non-resistant '  or  '  defenceless  '  Christians.  These  Chris- 
tians refuse  to  defend  their  country  or  to  bear  arms,  or  to 
engage,  at  the  request  of  the  government,  in  war  against 
its  enemies.  Until  now  this  religious  cause  has  been 
respected  by  the  government,  and  those  who  professed  it 
were  excused  from  service.  But  with  the  beginning  of 
our  civil  war  public  opinion  has  been  wrought  up  by  this 
state  of  affairs.  Naturally,  people  who  consider  it  their 
duty  to  bear  all  the  burdens  and  perils  of  a  military  life 
for  the  defence  of  their  country  feel  harsh  toward  those 
who  for  a  long  time  have  with  them  enjoyed  the  protec- 
tion and  the  advantages  of  the  government,  but  in  time 
of  necessity  and  danger  do  not  wish  to  share  in  bearing 
the  labours  and  dangers  in  its  defence.  It  is  also  natural 
for  the  condition  of  such  men  to  be  considered  irrational, 
monstrous,  and  suspicious. 

"Many  orators  and  writers,"  says  the  author,  "have 
raised  their  voice  against  this  state  and  liave  tried  to 
prove  the  injustice  of  non-resistance  from  common  sense 
and  from   Scripture;    and  this  is  quite  natural,   and   in 

^A  thorough  search  through  bibliographies,  catalogues,  and  libra- 
ries lias  failed  to  reveal  such  a  book  or  such  an  author,  and  as  Tol- 
st6y  speaks  above  of  the  book  as  being  written,  it  may  be  that  Tolst6y 
bad  a  manuscript  before  him. 


THE   KINGDOM    OF    GOD   IS    WITHIN    YOU        29 

many  cases  these  authors  are  right,  —  they  are  right  in 
relation  to  those  persons  who,  dechning  the  labours  con- 
nected with  military  service,  do  not  decline  the  advan- 
tages which  they  receive  from  the  governments,  —  but 
they  are  not  right  in  relation  to  the  principle  of  non- 
resistance  itself." 

First  of  all  the  author  proves  the  obligatoriness  of  the 
rule  of  non-resistance  for  every  Christian  in  that  it  is 
clear  and  that  it  is  given  to  a  Christian  beyond  any  possi- 
bility of  misinterpretation.  "  Judge  yourselves  whether 
it  is  right  to  obey  man  more  than  God,"  said  Peter  and 
John.  Similarly  every  man  who  wants  to  be  a  Christian 
must  act  in  relation  to  the  demand  that  he  should  go  to 
war,  since  Christ  has  told  him,  "  Eesist  not  evil  with 
violence." 

With  this  the  author  considers  the  question  as  to  prin- 
ciple itself  completely  solved.  The  author  analyzes  in 
detail  tlie  other  question  as  to  whether  persons,  who  do 
not  decline  the  advantages  which  are  obtained  through 
the  violence  of  government,  have  a  right  to  refuse  to  do 
military  service,  and  comes  to  the  conclusion  that  a 
Christian,  who  follows  Christ's  law  and  refuses  to  go  to 
war,  can  just  as  little  take  part  in  any  governmental 
affairs,  —  either  in  courts  or  in  elections,  —  nor  can  he 
in  private  matters  have  recourse  to  power,  poHce  or  court. 
Theju  the  book  proceeds  to  analyze  the  relation  of  the 
Old  Testament  to  the  New,  —  the  significance  of  gov- 
ernment for  non-Christians ;  there  are  offered  objections 
to  the  doctrine  of  non-resistance,  and  these  are  refuted. 
The  author  concludes  his  book  with  the  following : 

"  Christ  chose  His  disciples  in  the  world,"  he  says. 
"  They  do  not  expect  any  worldly  goods  or  worldly  hap- 
piness, but,  on  the  contrary,  everlasting  life.  The  spirit 
in  which  they  live  makes  them  satisfied  and  happy  in 
every  situation.  If  the  world  tolerates  them,  they  are 
always  satisfied.     But  if  the  world  will  not  leave  them 


30        THE   KINGDOM    OF    GOD   IS    WITHIN   YOU 

in  peace,  they  will  go  elsewhere,  since  they  are  wan- 
darers  on  the  earth  and  have  no  definite  place  of  abode. 
They  consider  that  the  dead  can  bury  the  dead,  —  they 
need  but  one  thing,  and  that  is  to  follow  their  teacher." 

Without  touching  the  question  whether  the  duty  of 
a  Christian  in  relation  to  war,  as  established  in  these  two 
books,  is  correct  or  not,  it  is  impossible  not  to  see  the 
practical  importance  and  urgency  of  the  solution  of  this 
question. 

There  are  some  people,  —  hundreds  of  thousands  of 
Quakers,  —  and  all  our  Spirit  Wrestlers  and  Milkers,  and 
people  belonging  to  no  definite  sects,  who  assert  that  vio- 
lence —  and  so  military  service  —  is  not  compatible  with 
Christianity,  and  therefore  every  year  several  recruits  in 
Eussia  refuse  to  do  military  service  on  the  basis  of  their 
religious  convictions.  What  does  the  government  do  ? 
Does  it  excuse  them  ?  No.  Does  it  compel  them  to 
serve,  and,  in  case  of  a  refusal,  punish  them  ?  No.  In 
1818  the  government  acted  as  follows.  Here  is  an  ex- 
cerpt, which  is  almost  unknown  in  Eussia,  from  a  diary 
by  N.  N.  Murav^v-Karski,  which  was  not  sanctioned  by 
the  censor. 

"TiFLis,  October  2,  1818. 

"  In  the  morning  the  commandant  told  me  that  lately 
five  manorial  peasants  from  the  Government  of  Tambov 
had  been  sent  to  Georgia.  These  men  had  been  sent  to 
the  army,  but  they  refused  to  serve ;  they  have  been 
flogged  several  times  and  have  been  sent  between  the 
rows,  but  they  gladly  undergo  the  most  cruel  torments 
and  are  prepared  for  death,  if  only  they  can  avoid  serving. 
'  Send  us  away,'  they  say,  '  and  do  not  touch  us ;  we  shall 
not  touch  any  one.  All  men  are  equal  and  the  Tsar  is 
just  such  a  man  as  we  are.  Why  should  we  pay  him 
tribute  ?  Why  should  I  subject  my  life  to  danger  in  order 
to  kill  in  war  a  man  who  has  done  mo  no  wrong  ?  You 
may  cut  us  into  small  pieces,  but  we  will  not  change  our 


THE    KINGDOM    OF    GOD    IS    WITHIN    YOU        31 

ideas,  we  will  uot  put  on  the  military  cloak,  and  will  not 
eat  rations.  He  who  will  pity  us  will  give  us  an  alms, 
but  we  have  nothing  belonging  to  the  Crown  and  we 
want  nothing.'  Such  are  the  words  of  these  peasants, 
who  assert  that  there  is  a  large  number  like  them  in 
Eussia,  They  have  four  times  been  taken  before  the 
Committee  of  Ministers,  and  it  was  finally  decided  to 
refer  the  matter  to  the  Tsar,  who  commanded  that  they 
be  sent  to  Georgia  to  mend  their  ways,  and  ordered  the 
commander-in-chief  to  report  to  him  every  month  con- 
cerning the  gradual  success  in  turning  these  peasants  to 
the  proper  ideas." 

It  is  not  known  how  this  improvement  ended,  just  as 
nothing  is  known  of  the  whole  episode,  which  was  kept  a 
profound  secret. 

Thus  the  government  acted  seventy -five  years  ago, — 
thus  it  has  acted  in  the  vast  majority  of  cases,  which  are 
always  cautiously  concealed  from  the  people.  Thus  it 
acts  even  at  present,  except  in  relation  to  the  German 
Mennonites,  who  live  in  the  Government  of  Kherson,  for 
their  refusal  to  do  military  service  is  heeded  and  they 
are  made  to  serve  their  time  in  connection  with  forestry 
work. 

In  the  late  cases  of  refusal  to  do  military  service  in 
consequence  of  religious  convictions,  other  than  those  of 
the  Mennonites,  the  authorities  have  acted  as  follows : 

At  first  they  use  all  moans  of  violence  employed  in  our 
time  for  the  purpose  of  "  mending  "  them  and  bringing 
them  back  to  "  the  proper  ideas,"  and  the  whole  matter 
is  kept  a  profound  secret.  I  know  that  in  the  case  of 
one  man  in  Moscow,  who  in  1884  refused  to  serve,  they 
wrote  up  voluminous  documents  two  months  after  his 
refusal,  and  these  were  kept  in  the  ministry  as  the  great- 
est secret. 

They  generally  begin  by  sending  the  one  who  refuses 


32        THE    KINGDOM    OF    GOD    IS    WITHIN    YOU 

to  tlie  priests,  who,  to  their  shame  be  it  said,  always 
admonish  the  person  refusing.  But  since  the  admoni- 
tion, in  the  name  of  Christ,  to  renounce  Christ  is  gener- 
ally fruitless,  the  refusing  person  is  after  the  admonition 
by  the  clergy  sent  to  the  gendarmes.  The  gendarmes, 
finding  nothing  of  a  political  nature  in  the  case,  generally 
return  him,  and  then  the  refusing  person  is  sent  to  the 
learned,  to  the  physicians,  and  into  the  insane  asylum. 
In  all  these  recommitments  the  refuser,  who  is  deprived 
of  his  liberty,  undergoes  all  kinds  of  humiliations  and 
sufferings,  like  a  condemned  criminal.  (This  was  re- 
peated in  four  cases.)  The  physicians  dismiss  the  refuser 
from  the  insane  asylum,  and  then  begin  all  kinds  of 
secret,  cunning  measures,  in  order  not  to  dismiss  the 
refuser  and  thus  encourage  others  to  refuse  like  him,  and 
at  the  same  time  not  to  leave  him  amidst  the  soldiers, 
lest  the  soldiers  might  find  out  from  him  that  the  levy 
for  military  service  does  not  at  all  take  place  in  accord- 
ance with  God's  law,  as  they  are  assured,  but  contrary 
to  it. 

The  most  convenient  thing  for  the  government  to  do 
would  be  to  have  the  refuser  executed,  beaten  to  death 
with  sticks,  as  they  used  to  do  of  old,  or  executed  in 
some  other  manner.  But  it  is  impossible  openly  to  exe- 
cute a  man  for  being  true  to  a  teaching  which  we  all 
profess,  and  it  is  equally  impossible  to  let  a  man  alone, 
who  refuses  to  serve.  And  so  the  government  tries  either 
through  suffering  to  compel  the  man  to  renounce  Christ, 
or  in  some  way  imperceptibly  to  get  rid  of  tlie  man,  with- 
out having  him  publicly  executed,  —  in  some  way  to 
conceal  this  man's  act  and  the  man  himself  from  other 
people.  And  so  there  begin  all  kinds  of  devices  and  cun- 
ning and  tortures  of  this  man.  Either  he  is  sent  to  some 
outlying  region,  or  he  is  provoked  to  commit  some  act  of 
insubordination,  and  then  he  is  tried  for  breach  of  dis- 
cipline and  is  locked  up  in  prison,  in  a  discipUnary  battal- 


THE   KINGDOM    OF    GOD   IS    WITHIN   YOU        33 

ion,  where  he  is  freely  tortured  in  secret,  or  he  is  declared 
insane  and  is  locked  up  in  an  insane  asylum.  Thus  one 
man  was  sent  to  Tashkent,  that  is,  as  though  he  were 
transferred  to  the  Tashk(5nt  army,  another  to  Omsk,  a 
third  was  tried  for  insubordination  and  sent  to  prison, 
and  a  fourth  was  put  into  a  lunatic  asylum. 

Everywhere  the  same  is  repeated.  Not  only  the  gov- 
ernment, but  also  the  majority  of  liberals,  of  freethinkers, 
as  though  by  agreement,  carefully  turn  away  from  every- 
thing which  has  been  said,  written,  and  done  by  men  to 
show  the  incompatibility  of  violence  in  its  most  terrible, 
rude,  and  lurid  form,  in  the  form  of  militarism,  that  is, 
the  readiness  to  kill  anybody,  with  the  teaching,  not  only 
of  Christianity,  but  even  of  humanitarianism,  which 
society  pretends  to  be  professing. 

Thus  the  information  which  I  received  concerning  the 
extent  to  which  the  true  significance  of  Christ's  teaching 
has  been  elucidated  and  is  being  elucidated  more  and 
more,  and  concerning  the  attitude  which  the  highest 
ruling  classes,  not  only  in  Eussia,  but  also  in  Europe  and 
in  America,  take  toward  this  elucidation  and  execution  of 
the  teaching,  convinced  me  that  in  these  ruling  classes 
there  existed  a  consciously  hostile  relation  toward  true 
Christianity,  which  found  its  expression  mainly  in  the 
sUence  observed  concerning  all  its  manifestations. 


11. 

The  same  impression  of  a  desire  to  conceal,  to  pass  in 
silence,  what  I  attempted  so  carefully  to  express  in  my 
book,  has  been  produced  on  me  by  the  criticisms  upon  it. 

When  my  book  appeared,  it  was,  as  I  had  expected, 
prohibited,  and  according  to  the  law  it  ought  to  have  been 
burned.  But,  instead  of  being  burned,  it  was  distributed 
among  the  officials,  and  it  was  disseminated  in  a  large 
number  of  written  copies  and  lithographic  reprints,  and 
in  translations  printed  abroad.  Very  soon  there  appeared 
criticisms  upon  the  book,  not  only  by  the  clergy,  but  also 
by  the  laity,  which  the  government  not  only  sanctioned, 
but  even  encouraged,  so  that  the  refutation  of  the  book, 
which  was  assumed  to  be  unknown  to  any  one,  was  made 
a  theme  for  theological  essays  in  the  academies. 

The  critics  upon  my  books,  both  the  Eussian  and  the 
foreign  critics,  can  be  divided  into  two  classes :  into  the 
religious  critics,  —  people  who  consider  themselves  to  be 
believers,  —  and  lay  critics,  who  are  freethinkers. 

I  shall  begin  with  the  first : 

In  my  book  I  accuse  the  church  teachers  of  teaching 
contrary  to  Christ's  commandments,  which  are  clearly 
and  definitely  expressed  in  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount, 
and  especially  contrary  to  the  commandment  about  non- 
resistance  to  evil,  thus  depriving  Christ's  teaching  of  all 
significance.  The  church  teachers  recognize  the  Sermon 
on  the  Mount  with  the  commandment  about  non-resist- 
ance to  evil  as  a  divine  revelation,  and  so,  if  they  have 
found  it  necessary  to  write  about  my  book  at  all,  they 
ought,  it  would  seem,  first  of  all  to    answer  this  chief 

34 


THE    KINGDOM    OF    GOD    IS    WITHIN    YOU        35 

poiut  of  accusation  and  say  outright  whether  they  con- 
sider the  teachiug  of  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount  and  of 
the  commandmeDt  about  non-resistance  to  evil  obligatory 
for  a  Christian,  or  not,  —  and  they  must  not  answer  it 
as  this  is  generally  done,  that  is,  by  saying  that,  although 
on  the  one  hand  it  cauuot  properly  be  denied,  on  the 
other  it  cannot  be  affirmed,  the  more  so  that,  and  so  forth, 
—  but  must  answer  it  just  as  the  question  is  put  by  me  in 
my  book :  did  Christ  actually  demand  from  His  disciples 
the. fulfilment  of  what  He  taught  in  the  Sermon  on  the 
Mount  ?  and  so,  can  a  Christian,  remaining  a  Christian, 
go  to  court,  taking  part  in  it  and  condemning  people,  or 
seeking  in  it  defence  by  means  of  violence,  or  can  he  not  ? 
Can  a  Christian,  still  remaining  a  Christian,  take  part  in 
the  government,  using  violence  against  his  neighbours,  or 
not  ?  And  the  chief  question,  which  now,  with  the  uni- 
versal military  service,  stands  before  all  men,  —  can  a 
Christian,  remaining  a  Christian,  contrary  to  Christ's  in- 
junction, make  any  promises  as  to  future  acts,  which  are 
directly  contrary  to  the  teaching,  and,  taking  part  in  mili- 
tary service,  prepare  himself  for  the  murder  of  men  and 
commit  it  ? 

The  questions  are  put  clearly  and  frankly,  and,  it  would 
seem,  they  ought  to  be  answered  clearly  and  frankly. 
But  nothing  of  the  kind  has  been  done  in  all  the  crit- 
icisms upon  my  b(xjk,  just  as  nothing  of  the  kind  has 
been  done  in  the  case  of  all  those  arraignments  of  the 
church  teachers  for  departing  from  Christ's  law,  with 
which  history  is  filled  since  the  time  of  Constantine. 

Very  much  has  been  said  in  reference  to  my  book , 
about  how  incorrectly  I  interpret  this  or  that  passage  in 
the  Gospel,  how  1  err  in  not  acknowledging  the  Trinity, 
the  redemption,  and  the  immortality  of  the  soul ;  very 
much  has  l:)een  said,  but  this  one  thing,  which  for  every 
Christian  forms  the  chief,  essential  question  of  life :  how 
to  harmonize  what  was  clearly  expressed  in  the  teacher's 


36        THE   KINGDOM    OF    GOD   IS   WITHIN   YOU 

words  and  is  clearly  expressed  in  the  heart  of  every  one 
of  us,  —  the  teaching  about  forgiveness,  humility,  renunci- 
ation, and  love  of  all  men,  of  our  neighbours  and  of 
our  enemies,  —  with  the  demand  of  military  violence 
exerted  against  the  men  of  one's  own  nation  or  another 
nation. 

Everything  which  may  be  called  semblances  of  answers 
to  this  question  may  be  reduced  to  the  five  following 
divisions.  I  have  tried  in  this  respect  to  collect  every- 
thing I  could,  not  only  in  reference  to  the  criticisms  upon 
my  book,  but  also  in  reference  to  what  has  been  writ- 
ten upon  the  subject  in  former  times. 

The  first,  the  rudest  way  of  answering,  consists  in  the 
bold  assertion  that  violence  does  not  contradict  Christ's 
teaching,  and  that  it  is  permitted  and  even  prescribed  by 
the  Old  and  the  New  Testament. 

Assertions  of  this  kind  issue  for  the  most  part  from 
people  high  up  in  the  governmental  or  ecclesiastic  hier- 
archy, who  are,  therefore,  quite  convinced  that  no  one  will 
dare  to  contradict  their  assertions,  and  that  if  one  actually 
dared  to  do  so,  they  would  not  hear  these  objections. 
These  men  have,  in  consequence  of  their  intoxication  with 
their  power,  for  the  most  part  to  such  an  extent  lost  the 
concept  of  what  that  Christianity  is,  in  the  name  of  which 
they  occupy  their  places,  that  everything  of  a  Christian 
nature  in  Christianity  presents  itself  to  them  as  sectarian  ; 
but  everything  which  in  the  writings  of  the  Old  and  the 
New  Testament  may  be  interpreted  in  an  anti-Christian 
and  pagan  sense,  they  consider  to  be  the  foundation  of 
Christianity.  In  favour  of  their  assertion  that  Christi- 
anity does  not  contradict  violence,  these  men  with  the 
greatest  boldness  generally  bring  forward  the  most  offen- 
sive passages  from  the  Old  and  the  New  Testament,  and 
interpret  them  in  the  most  non-Christian  manner :  the 
execution  of  Ananias  and  Sapphira,  the  execution  of 
Simon   Magus,   and   so  forth.     They    adduce   all   those 


THE    KINGDOM    OF    GOD    IS    WITHIN    YOU        37 

words  of  Christ  which  may  be  interpreted  as  a  justifica- 
tion of  cruelty,  such  as  the  expulsion  from  the  temple, 
"  It  shall  be  more  tolerable  on  that  day  for  Sodom,  than 
for  that  city,"  and  so  forth. 

According  to  the  concepts  of  these  men,  the  Christian 
government  is  not  in  the  least  obliged  to  be  guided  by  the 
spirit  of  humility,  forgiveness  of  offences,  and  love  of  our 
enemies. 

It  is  useless  to  refute  such  an  assertion,  because  the 
men  who  assert  this  refute  themselves,  or  rather,  turn 
away  from  Christ,  inventing  their  own  Christ  and  their 
own  Christianity  in  place  of  Him  in  w^hose  name  the 
church  exists  and  also  the  position  which  they  occupy  in 
it.  If  all  men  know  that  the  church  preaches  Christ 
punishing,  and  not  forgiving,  and  warring,  no  one  would 
be  believing  in  this  church,  and  there  would  be  no  one  t6 
prove  what  it  is  proving. 

The  second  method  is  a  little  less  rude.  It  consists  in 
asserting  that,  although  Christ  I'eally  taught  to  offer  one's 
cheek  and  give  up  a  sliirt,  and  this  is  a  very  high  moral 
demand,  there  are  malefactors  in  the  world,  and  if  these 
are  not  curljed  l)y  tlie  exercise  of  force,  the  whole  world 
and  all  good  men  will  perish.  This  proof  I  found  for  the 
first  time  in  John  Chrysostom  and  I  pointed  out  its  in- 
correctness in  my  book,  My  Religion. 

This  argument  is  ungrounded,  because,  in  the  first 
place,  if  we  allow  ourselves  to  recognize  any  men  as 
special  malefactors  (Kaca),  we  thus  destroy  the  whole 
meaning  of  the  Christian  teacliing,  according  to  which  we 
are  all  e([ual  and  brothers,  as  the  sons  of  one  heavenly 
Father ;  in  the  second  place,  because,  even  if  God  per- 
mitted the  exertion  of  violence  against  malefactors,  it  is 
absolutely  impossible  to  find  that  safe  and  indu1)itable 
sign  by  wliich  a  malefactor  may  be  unerringly  told  from 
one  who  is  not,  and  so  every  man,  or  society  of  men, 
would  recognize  another  as  a  malefactor,  which  is  the  case 


38        THE   KINGDOM   OF    GOD   IS    WITHIN   YOU 

now ;  in  the  third  place,  because  even  if  it  were  possible 
unerringly  to  tell  malefactors  from  those  who  are  not 
malefactors,  it  would  still  not  be  possible  in  a  Christian 
society  to  execute,  or  mairn,  or  lock  up  these  malefactors, 
because  in  Christian  society  there  would  be  no  one  to  do 
this,  because  every  Christian,  as  a  Christian,  is  enjoined 
not  to  use  violence  against  a  malefactor. 

The  third  method  of  answering  is  still  shrewder  than 
the  previous  one.  It  consists  in  asserting  that,  although 
the  commandment  of  non-resistance  to  evil  is  obligatory 
for  a  Christian  when  the  evil  is  directed  against  him  per- 
sonally, it  ceases  to  be  obligatory  when  the  evil  is  directed 
against  his  neighbours,  and  that  then  a  Christian  is  not 
only  not  obliged  to  fulfil  the  commandments,  but  is  also 
obliged  in  the  defence  of  his  neighbours,  contrary  to  the 
commandment,  to  use  violence  against  the  violators. 

This  assertion  is  quite  arbitrary,  and  m  the  whole  of 
Christ's  teaching  no  confirmation  of  such  an  interpretation 
can  be  found.  Such  an  interpretation  is  not  only  a  limi- 
tation of  the  commandment,  but  a  direct  negation  and 
annihilation  of  it.  If  any  man  has  a  right  to  use  vio- 
lence when  another  is  threatened  by  danger,  then  the 
question  as  to  the  use  of  violence  reduces  itself  to  the 
question  of  defining  what  constitutes  a  danger  for  another 
person.  But  if  my  private  judgment  decides  the  question 
of  danger  for  another,  then  there  does  not  exist  such  a 
case  of  violence  that  it  could  not  be  explained  on  the 
basis  of  a  danger  with  which  another  is  threatened. 
Wizards  were  executed  and  burned,  aristocrats  and  Giron- 
dists were  executed,  and  so  were  their  enemies,  because 
those  who  were  in  power  considered  them  to  be  danger- 
ous for  others. 

If  this  important  hmitation,  which  radically  undermines 
the  meaning  of  the  commandment,  entered  Christ's  mind, 
there  ought  somewhere  to  be  mention  made  of  it.  But 
iu  all  the  preaching  and  the  life  of  the  teacher  there  is 


THE   KINGDOM   OF   GOD   IS   WITHIN   YOU        39 

not  only  no  such  limitation,  but,  on  the  contrary,  there  is 
expressed  a  particular  caution  against  such  a  false  and 
offensive  limitation,  which  destroys  the  commandment. 
The  mistake  and  the  blunder  of  such  a  limitation  is  with 
particular  clearness  shown  in  the  Gospel  in  connection 
with  the  judgment  of  Caiaphas,  who  made  this  very  limi- 
tation. He  recognized  that  it  was  not  good  to  execute 
innocent  Jesus,  but  he  saw  in  Him  danger,  not  for  himself, 
but  for  the  whole  nation,  and  so  he  said  :  "  It  is  expedient 
for  us  that  one  man  should  die  for  the  people,  and  that 
the  whole  nation  perish  not."  And  more  clearly  still  was 
the  negation  of  such  a  limitation  expressed  in  the  words 
said  to  Peter  when  he  attempted  with  violence  to  resist 
the  evil  which  was  directed  against  Jesus  (Matt.  xxvi. 
52).  Peter  was  not  defending  himself,  but  his  beloved 
and  divine  teacher.  And  Christ  directly  forbade  him  to 
do  so,  saying  that  he  who  takes  the  sword  shall  perish 
with  the  sword. 

Besides,  the  justification  of  violence  used  against  a 
neighbour  for  the  sake  of  defending  another  man  against 
worse  violence  is  always  incorrect,  because  in  using  vio- 
lence against  an  evil  which  is  not  yet  accomplished,  it  is 
impossible  to  know  which  evil  will  be  greater,  —  whether 
the  evil  of  my  violence  or  of  that  against  which  I  wish 
to  defend  my  neighbour.  We  execute  a  criminal,  thus 
freeing  society  from  him,  and  we  are  positively  unable 
to  tell  whether  the  criminal  would  not  have  changed  on 
the  morrow  and  whether  our  execution  is  not  a  useless 
cruelty.  We  lock  up  a  man  whom  we  suppose  to  be  a 
dangerous  member  of  society,  but  beginning  with  to-mor- 
row this  man  may  cease  to  be  dangerous,  and  his  incar- 
ceration is  futile.  I  see  that  a  man  whom  I  know  to  be 
a  robber  is  pursuing  a  girl,  and  T  have  a  gun  in  my  hand, 
—  I  kill  the  robber  and  save  the  girl ;  the  robber  has  cer- 
tainly been  killed  or  wounded,  but  it  is  unknown  to  me 
what  would  happen  if  that  were  not  the  casa     What  an 


40         THE    KINGDOM    OF    GOD    IS    WITHUST    YOU 

enormous  amount  of  evil  must  take  place,  as  it  actually 
does,  as  the  result  of  arrogating  to  ourselves  the  right  to 
prevent  an  evil  that  may  occur !  Ninety-nine  hundredths 
of  the  evil  of  the  world,  from  the  Inquisition  to  dynamite 
bombs  and  the  executions  and  sufferings  of  tens  of  thou- 
sands of  so-called  political  criminals,  are  based  on  this 
reflection. 

The  fourth,  still  more  refined  answer  to  the  question  as 
to  how  a  Christian  should  act  toward  Christ's  command- 
ment of  non-resistance  to  evil  consists  in  asserting  that 
the  commandment  of  non-resistance  to  evil  is  not  denied 
by  them,  but  is  accepted  like  any  other ;  but  that  they  do 
not  ascribe  to  this  commandment  any  special  exclusive 
significance,  as  the  sectarians  do.  To  ascribe  to  this  com- 
mandment an  invariable  condition  of  Christian  life,  as  do 
Garrison,  Ballou,  Dymond,  the  Quakers,  the  Mennonites, 
the  Shakers,  and  as  did  the  Moravian  brothers,  the  Wal- 
denses,  Albigenses,  Bogomils,  Paulicians,  is  one-sided  sec- 
tarianism. This  commandment  has  neither  more  nor 
less  significance  than  all  the  others,  and  a  man  who  in 
his  weakness  transgresses  any  one  of  the  commandments 
about  non-resistance  does  not  cease  to  be  a  Christian, 
provided  he  believes  correctly.  This  subterfuge  is  very 
clever,  and  men  who  wish  to  be  deceived  are  easily  de- 
ceived by  it.  The  subterfuge  consists  in  reducing  the 
direct  conscious  negation  of  the  commandment  to  an 
accidental  violation  of  the  same.  But  we  need  only 
compare  the  relation  of  the  church  teachers  to  this  com- 
mandment and  to  others,  which  they  actually  recognize, 
in  order  that  we  may  con\dnce  ourselves  that  the  relation 
of  the  church  teachers  to  the  commandments  which  they 
recognize  is  quite  different  from  their  relation  to  this  one. 

They  actually  recognize  the  commandment  against  for- 
nication, and  so  never,  under  any  condition,  admit  that 
fornication  is  not  an  evil.  The  preachers  of  the  church 
never  point  out  any  cases  when  the  commandment  against 


THE    KINGDOM    OF    GOD   IS   WITHIN   YOU        41 

fornication  ought  to  be  broken,  and  they  always  teach 
that  we  must  avoid  the  offences  which  lead  to  the  temp- 
tation of  fornication.  But  this  is  not  the  case  with  the 
commandment  about  non-resistance.  All  the  church 
preachers  know  cases  when  this  commandment  may  be 
broken.  And  thus  they  teach  men.  And  they  not  only 
do  not  teach  how  to  avoid  these  offences,  of  which  the 
chief  one  is  the  oath,  but  themselves  commit  them.  The 
church  preachers  never  and  under  no  condition  preach 
the  violation  of  any  otlier  commandment ;  but  in  relation 
to  the  commandment  of  non-resistance  they  teach  outright 
that  this  prohibition  must  not  be  understood  in  too  direct 
a  sense,  and  not  only  that  this  commandment  must  not 
be  carried  out  at  all  times,  but  that  there  are  conditions, 
situations,  when  directly  the  opposite  should  be  done, 
that  is,  that  we  should  judge,  wage  war,  execute.  Thus, 
in  reference  to  the  commandment  about  non-resistance  to 
evil,  they  in  the  majority  of  cases  preach  how  not  to  ful- 
fil it.  The  fulfilment  of  this  commandment,  they  say,  is 
very  difficult  and  is  characteristic  only  of  perfection.  But 
how  can  it  help  but  be  difficult,  when  its  breach  is  not 
only  not  prohibited,  but  is  also  directly  encouraged,  when 
they  directly  bless  the  courts,  prisons,  guns,  cannon,  ar- 
mies, battles  ?  Consequently  it  is  not  true  that  this  com- 
mandment is  recognized  by  the  church  preachers  as  of 
equal  significance  with  the  other  commandments.  The 
church  preachers  simply  do  not  recognize  it,  and  only  be- 
cause they  do  not  dare  to  confess  it,  try  to  conceal  their 
failure  to  recognize  it. 

Such  is  the  fourth  method  of  answers. 

The  fifth  method,  the  most  refined,  most  popular,  and 
most  powerful  one,  consists  in  begging  the  question,  in 
making  it  appear  as  though  the  question  had  long  ago 
been  decided  by  some  one  in  an  absolutely  clear  and  sat- 
isfactory manner,  and  as  though  it  were  not  worth  while 
to  speak  of  it.     This  method  is  employed  by  more  or  less 


42        THE   KINGDOM    OF    GOD    IS    WITHIN    YOU 

cultivated  ecclesiastic  writers,  that  is,  such  as  feel  the 
laws  of  logic  to  be  obligatory  for  them.  Knowing  that 
the  contradiction  which  exists  between  Christ's  teaching, 
which  we  profess  in  words,  and  the  whole  structure  of 
our  life  cannot  be  solved  with  words,  and  that,  by  touch- 
ing it,  we  can  only  make  it  more  obvious,  they  with 
greater  or  lesser  agility  get  around  it,  making  it  appear 
that  the  question  about  the  connection  of  Christianity 
with  violence  has  been  decided  or  does  not  exist  at  all.^ 

The  majority  of  the  ecclesiastic  critics  of  my  book 
employ  this  method.  I  could  adduce  dozens  of  such 
criticisms,  in  which  without  exception  one  and  the  same 
thing  is  repeated :  they  speak  of  everything  but  the  chief 
subject  of  the  book.  As  a  characteristic  example  of  such 
criticisms,  I  shall  quote  an  article  by  the  famous,  refined 
English  writer  and  preacher,  Farrar,  a  great  master,  like 
many  learned  theologians,  of  evasions  and  reticence.  This 
article  was  printed  in  the  American  periodical.  Forum,  in 
October,  1888. 

Having  conscientiously  given  a  short  review  of  my 
book,  Farrar  says : 

"  Tolstoy  came  to  the  conclusion  that  a  coarse  deceit 
was  palmed  upon  the  world  when  these  words  were  held 
by   civil  society   to  be   compatible  with  war,  courts  of 

1 1  know  but  one  piece  of  writing,  not  a  criticism  in  tlie  strict  sense 
of  the  word,  but  an  article  which  treats  the  samo  subject,  and  which 
has  my  book  in  view,  that  departs  from  this  common  definition.  It 
is  Tr6itski's  pamphlet  (Kazan)  The  Sermon  on  '.he  Mount.  The 
author  obviously  recognizes  Christ's  teaching  in  its  real  significance. 
He  says  that  the  commandment  about  non-resistance  to  evil  means 
what  it  does,  and  the  same  is  true  of  the  commandment  about  swear- 
ing ;  he  does  not  deny,  as  others  do,  the  significance  of  Christ's  teach- 
ing, but  unfortunately  he  does  not  make  from  this  recognition  those 
inevitable  deductions,  which  in  our  life  beg  for  recognition  in  connec- 
tion with  such  a  comprehension  of  Christ's  teaching.  If  it  is  not 
right  to  resist  evil  and  to  swear,  every  man  will  naturally  ask:  "  How 
about  military  service  ?  "  And  to  this  question  the  author  gives  no 
answer,  though  an  answer  is  demanded.  And  if  it  cannot  be  an- 
swered, it  is  best  not  to  speak  at  all,  because  silence  produces  error- 
—  Author's  Note. 


THE    KINGDOM    OF    GOD   IS    WITHIN   YOU        43 

justice,  capital  punishment,  divorce,  oaths,  national  preju- 
dice, and  indeed  with  most  of  the  institutions  of  civil 
and  social  Hfe.  He  now  believes  that  the  kingdom  of 
God  would  come  if  aU  men  kept  these  five  command- 
ments, ...  (1)  Live  in  peace  with  all  men ;  (2)  be  pure ; 
(3)  take  no  oaths ;  (4)  never  resist  evil ;  (5)  renounce 
national  distinctions. 

"  Tolstoy,"  he  says,  "  rejects  the  divine  inspiration  of 
the  Old  Testament  and  of  the  epistles ;  he  rejects  all  the 
dogmas  of  the  church,  that  of  the  atonement  by  blood, 
that  of  the  Trinity,  that  of  the  descent  of  the  Holy  Ghost 
upon  the  apostles  .  .  .  and  recognizes  only  the  words 
and  commandments  of  Christ. 

"  Is  this  interpretation  of  Christ  a  true  one  ? "  he  asks. 
"  Are  all  men  bound,  or  is  any  man  bound,  to  act  as 
Tolstoy  has  taught,  that  is,  to  fulfil  the  five  command- 
ments of  Christ?" 

One  just  hopes  that  in  reply  to  this  essential  question, 
which  alone  could  have  urged  the  man  to  write  an  article 
on  the  book,  he  will  say  that  this  interpretation  of  Christ's 
teaching  is  correct,  or  that  it  is  not  correct,  and  so  will 
prove  why,  and  will  give  another,  a  correct  interpretation 
to  the  words  which  I  interpret  incorrectly.  But  nothing 
of  the  kind  is  done.  Farrar  only  expresses  his  conviction 
that,  "  though  actuated  by  the  noblest  sincerity,  Tolstdy 
has  been  misled  by  partial  and  one-sided  interpretations 
of  the  meaning  of  the  Gospel  and  the  mind  and  will  of 
Christ." 

No  explanation  is  given  as  to  what  this  error  consists 
in,  but  all  there  is  said,  is  : 

"  To  enter  into  the  proof  of  this  is  impossible  in  this 
article,  for  I  have  already  exceeded  the  space  at  my 
command." 

And  he  concludes  with  an  easy  mind : 

"  Meanwhile  the  reader  who  feels  troubled  lest  it  should 
be  his  duty  also  to  forsake  all  conditions  of  his  life,  and 


'14         THE    KINGDOM    OF    GOD    IS    WITHIN    YOU 

to  take  up  the  position  and  work  of  a  common  labourer, 
may  rest  for  the  present  on  the  principle,  Securus  judicat 
orhis  terrarum.  With  few  and  rare  exceptions,"  he  con- 
tinues, "  the  whole  of  Christendom,  from  the  days  of  the 
apostles  down  to  our  own,  has  come  to  the  firm  conclu- 
sion that  it  was  the  object  of  Christ  to  lay  down  great 
eternal  principles,  but  not  disturb  the  bases  and  revolu- 
tionize the  institutions  of  all  human  society,  which  them- 
selves rest  on  divine  sanction  as  well  as  on  inevitable 
conditions.  Were  it  my  object  to  prove  how  untenable 
is  the  doctrine  of  communism,  based  by  Tolstoy  upon  the 
divine  paradoxes  {sic  !),  which  can  be  interpreted  on  only 
historical  principles  in  accordance  with  the  whole  method 
of  the  teaching  of  Jesus,  it  would  require  an  ampler 
canvas  than  I  have  here  at  my  disposal." 

What  a  misfortune,  —  he  has  not  any  space !  And, 
strange  to  say,  space  has  been  lacking  for  fifteen  centuries, 
to  prove  that  Christ,  whom  we  profess,  said  something 
different  from  what  He  said.  They  could  prove  it,  if  they 
only  wanted  to.  However,  it  does  not  pay  to  prove  what 
everybody  knows.  It  is  enough  to  say  :  "  Securus  judicat 
orhis  terrarum." 

And  such  are,  without  exception,  all  the  criticisms  of 
the  cultivated  believers,  who,  therefore,  do  not  understand 
the  perilousness  of  their  position.  The  only  way  out 
for  them  is  the  hope  that,  by  using  the  authority  of  the 
church,  of  antiquity,  of  holiness,  they  may  be  able  to 
confuse  the  reader  and  draw  him  away  from  the  thought 
of  reading  the  Gospel  for  himself  and  of  considering  the 
question  with  his  own  mind.  And  in  this  they  are  suc- 
cessful. To  whom,  indeed,  will  it  occur  that  all  that 
which  with  such  assurance  and  solemnity  is  repeated  from 
century  to  century  by  all  these  archdeacons,  bishops, 
archbishops,  most  holy  synods,  and  Popes,  is  a  base  lie 
and  calumny,  which  they  foist  on  Christ  in  order  to 
secure  the  money  which  they  need  for  the  purpose  of  lead- 


THE    KINGDOM    OF    GOD    IS    WITHIN    YOU        45 

ing  a  life  of  pleasure,  while  sitting  on  the  backs  of  others, 
—  a  lie  and  a  calumny,  which  is  so  obvious,  especially 
now  that  the  only  possibility  of  continuing  this  lie  con- 
sists in  frightening  men  into  belief  by  their  assurance, 
their  unscrupulousness  ?  It  is  precisely  the  same  that  of 
late  years  has  taken  place  in  the  Eecruiting  Sessions : 
at  the  head  of  the  table,  with  the  Mirror  of  Laws  upon  it, 
and  beneath  the  full-sized  portrait  of  the  emperor,  sit 
dignified  old  officials  in  their  regaha,  conversing  freely 
and  unreservedly,  noting  down,  commanding,  calling  out. 
Here  also,  with  the  cross  over  his  breast  and  in  silk  vest- 
ments, with  his  gray  hair  falling  down  straight  over  his 
scapulary,  stands  an  imposing  old  man,  the  priest,  in  front 
of  the  pulpit,  on  which  lies  a  gold  cross  and  a  gold- 
trimmed  Gospel. 

Ivan  Petrdv  is  called  out.  A  young  man  steps  out. 
He  is  poorly  and  dirtily  dressed  and  looks  frightened,  and 
the  muscles  of  his  face  tremble,  and  his  fugitive  eyes 
sparkle,  and  in  a  faltering  voice,  almost  in  a  whisper,  he 
says  :  "  I  —  according  to  the  law  I,  a  Christian  —  I  can- 
not—" 

"  What  is  he  nuittering  there  ? "  impatiently  asks  the 
presiding  officer,  half-closing  his  eyes  and  listening,  as 
he  raises  his  head  from  the  book. 

"  Speak  louder ! "  shouts  to  him  the  colonel  with  the 
shining  shoulder-straps. 

"I  —  I  —  I  —  as  a  Christian  —  " 

It  finally  turns  out  that  the  young  tnan  refuses  to  do 
military  service,  because  he  is  a  Christian. 

"  Talk  no  nonsense  !  Get  your  measure  !  Doctor,  be 
so  kind  as  to  take  his  measure.  Is  he  fit  for  the 
army  ? " 

«  He  is." 

"  Reverend  father,  have  him  sworn  in." 

No  one  is  confused ;  no  one  even  pays  any  attention  to 
what  this  frightened,  pitiable  young  man  is  muttering. 


46        THE   KINGDOM    OF    GOD    IS    WITHIN   YOU 

"  They  all  mutter  something,  but  we  have  no  time :  we 
have  to  receive  so  many  recruits." 

The  recruit  wants  to  say  something  again. 

"  This  is  against  Christ's  law." 

"Go,  go,  we  know  without  you  what  is  according  to 
the  law,  —  but  you  get  out  of  here.  Keverend  father, 
admonish  him.     Next :  Vasili  Nikitin." 

And  the  trembling  youth  is  taken  away.  And  to  whom 
—  whether  the  janitor,  or  Vasili  Nikitin,  who  is  being 
brought  in,  or  any  one  else  who  witnessed  this  scene  from 
the  side  —  will  it  occur  that  those  indistinct,  short  words 
of  the  youth,  which  were  at  once  put  out  of  court  by 
the  authorities,  contain  the  truth,  while  those  loud,  solemn 
speeches  of  the  self-possessed,  calm  officials  and  of  the 
priest  are  a  lie,  a  deception  ? 

A  similar  impression  is  produced,  not  only  by  the  arti- 
cles of  a  Farrar  but  by  all  those  solemn  sermons,  articles, 
and  books,  which  appear  on  all  sides,  the  moment  the 
truth  peeps  out  and  arraigns  the  ruhng  lie.  Immediately 
there  begin  long,  clever,  elegant  conversations  or  writings 
about  questions  which  touch  closely  upon  the  subject  with 
a  shrewd  reticence  concerning  the  question  itself. 

In  this  consists  the  fifth  and  most  effective  means  for 
removing  the  contradiction  in  which  the  ecclesiastic 
Christianity  has  placed  itself  by  professing  Christ  in 
words  and  denying  His  teaching  in  hfe,  and  teaching  the 
same  to  others. 

Those  who  justify  themselves  by  the  first  method, 
asserting  outright  and  rudely  that  Christ  has  permitted 
violence,  —  wars,  murder,  —  withdraw  themselves  from 
Christ's  teaching  ;  those  who  defend  themselves  according 
to  the  second,  the  third,  and  the  fourth  methods  get 
themselves  entangled,  and  it  is  easy  to  point  out  their 
untruth ;  but  these  last,  who  do  not  discuss,  who  do  not 
condescend  to  discuss,  but  hide  themselves  behind  their 
greatness  and  make  it  appear  that  all  this  has  been  decided 


THE   KINGDOM    OF    GOD   IS    WITHIN   YOU        47 

long  ago  by  them,  or  by  somebody  else,  and  that  it  no 
longer  is  subject  to  any  doubt,  seem  invulnerable,  and 
they  will  be  invulnerable  so  long  as  people  will  remain 
under  the  influence  of  hypnotic  suggestion,  which  is 
induced  in  them  by  governments  and  churches,  and  will 
not  shake  it  off. 

Such  was  the  attitude  which  the  ecclesiasti-cs,  that  is, 
those  who  profess  Christ's  faith,  assumed  toward  me.  Nor 
could  they  have  acted  otherwise :  they  are  bound  by  the 
contradiction  in  which  they  live, —  the  faith  in  the  divinity 
of  the  teacher  and  the  unbelief  in  His  clearest  words,  — 
from  which  they  must  in  some  way  extricate  themselves, 
and  so  it  was  not  possible  to  expect  from  them  any  free 
opinion  concerning  the  essence  of  the  question,  concerning 
that  change  in  the  lives  of  men  which  results  from  the 
application  of  Christ's  teaching  to  the  existing  order. 
Such  opinions  I  expected  from  the  freethinking  lay 
critics,  who  are  in  no  way  bound  to  Christ's  teaching  and 
who  can  look  upon  it  without  restraint.  I  expected  that 
the  freethinking  writers  would  look  upon  Christ  not  only 
as  the  estal)lisher  of  a  religion  of  worship  and  personal 
salvation  (as  which  the  ecclesiastics  understand  him),  but, 
to  express  myself  in  their  language,  as  a  reformer,  who 
destroys  the  old,  and  gives  the  new  foundations  of  life, 
the  reform  of  which  is  not  yet  accomplished,  but  continues 
until  the  present. 

Such  a  view  of  Christ  and  His  teaching  results  from 
my  book,  but,  to  my  surprise,  out  of  the  large  number  of 
criticisms  upon  my  book,  there  was  not  one,  either  lius- 
sian  or  foreign,  which  treated  the  subject  from  the  same 
side  from  which  it  is  expounded  in  my  book,  that  is, 
which  looked  upon  Christ's  teaching  as  a  philosopliical, 
moral,  and  social  doctrine  (again  to  speak  in  the  language 
of  the  learned).  This  was  not  the  case  in  a  single 
criticism. 

The  Kussian  lay  critics,  who  understood  my  book  in 


48        THE    KINGDOM    OF   GOD   IS   WITHIN   YOU 

such  a  way  that  all  its  contents  reduced  themselves  to  non- 
resistance  to  evil,  and  who  understood  the  teaching  about 
non-resistance  to  evil  itself  (apparently  for  convenience 
of  refutal)  as  meaning  that  it  prohibited  any  struggle 
against  evil,  furiously  attacked  this  teaching  and  very 
successfully  proved  for  the  period  of  several  years  that 
Christ's  teaching  was  incorrect,  since  it  taught  us  not 
to  resist  evil.  Their  refutals  of  this  supposed  teaching  of 
Christ  were  the  more  successful,  since  they  knew  in 
advance  that  their  views  could  neither  be  overthrown  nor 
corrected,  because  the  censorship,  having  failed  to  sanction 
the  book  itself,  did  not  sanction  the  articles  in  its  defence 
either. 

What  is  remarkable  in  connection  with  the  matter  is 
this,  that  with  us,  where  not  a  word  may  be  said  about 
the  Holy  Scripture  without  a  prohibition  by  the  censor- 
ship, the  clearly  and  directly  expressed  commandment  of 
Matt.  V.  39  has  for  several  years  been  openly  contorted, 
criticized,  condemned,  and  ridiculed  in  all  the  periodicals. 

The  Russian  lay  critics,  who  evidently  did  not  know 
all  that  had  been  done  in  the  development  of  the  question 
as  to  non-resistance  to  evil,  and  who  at  times  even  seemed 
to  assume  that  I  personally  invented  the  rule  of  not 
resisting  evil  with  violence,  attacked  the  idea  itself,  reject- 
ing and  contorting  it,  and  with  much  fervour  advancing 
arguments  which  have  long  ago  been  analyzed  from  every 
side  and  rejected,  proved  that  a  man  is  obliged  (with 
violence)  to  defend  all  the  insulted  and  the  oppressed, 
and  that,  therefore,  the  doctrine  about  not  resisting  evil 
with  violence  is  immoral. 

The  whole  significance  of  Christ's  preaching  presented 
itself  to  the  Russian  critics  as  though  maliciously  interfer- 
ing with  a  certain  activity,  which  was  directed  against 
what  they  at  a  given  moment  considered  to  be  an  evil, 
so  that  it  turned  out  that  the  principle  of  not  resisting 
evil  with  violence  was  attacked  by  two  opposite  camps, — 


THE    KINGDOM    OF    GOD    IS    WITHIN   YOU        49 

by  the  conservatives,  because  this  principle  interfered  with 
their  activity  of  resisting  the  evil  which  was  produced  by 
the  revolutionists,  and  with  their  persecutions  and  execu- 
tions ;  and  by  the  revolutionists,  because  this  principle 
interfered  with  the  resistance  to  the  evil  which  was  pro- 
duced by  the  conservatives,  and  with  the  overthrow  of 
the  conservatives.  The  conservatives  were  provoked, 
because  the  doctrine  of  non-resistance  to  evil  interfered 
witli  the  energetic  suppression  of  the  revolutionary 
elements,  who  are  likely  to  ruin  the  welfare  of  the  na- 
tion ;  while  the  revolutionists  were  provoked,  because 
the  doctrine  of  non-resistance  to  evil  interfered  with  the 
overthrow  of  the  conservatives,  who  were  ruining  the 
well-being  of  the  nation. 

What  is  remarkable  is,  that  the  revolutionists  attacked 
the  principle  of  non-resistance,  although  it  is  most  terrible 
and  most  dangerous  for  every  despotism,  because  ever 
since  the  beginning  of  the  world  the  opposite  principle  of 
the  necessity  of  resisting  evil  with  violence  has  been  lying 
at  the  basis  of  all  violence,  from  the  Inquisition  to  the 
Schliisselburg  Fortress. 

Besides,  the  Prussian  critics  pointed  out  that  the  applica- 
tion to  life  of  the  commandment  about  non-resistance  to 
evil  would  turn  humanity  away  from  the  path  of  civiliza- 
tion, on  which  it  was  marching  now ;  but  the  path  of 
civilization,  on  which  the  European  civilization  is  march- 
ing, is,  in  their  opinion,  the  one  on  which  all  humanity 
must  always  march. 

Such  was  the  chief  character  of  the  Russian  criticisms. 

The  foreign  critics  proceeded  from  the  same  bases,  but 
their  reviews  of  my  book  differed  from  those  of  the  Rus- 
sian critics  not  only  in  a  lesser  degree  of  irritability  and 
a  greater  degree  of  culture,  but  also  in  the  essence  of  the 
matter. 

In  discussing  my  book  and  the  Gospel  teaching  in 
general,  as  it  is  expressed  in  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount, 


50        THE   KINGDOM    OF   GOD   IS    WITHIN   YOU 

the  foreign  critics  asserted  that  such  a  teaching  is  really 
not  Christian  (Christian  in  their  opinion  is  Catholicism 
and  Protestantism),  and  that  the  doctrine  of  the  Sermon 
on  the  Mount  is  only  a  series  of  very  charming,  impracti- 
cable reveries  "  d^i  charmant  doctcur"  as  Eenan  used  to 
say,  which  were  good  enough  for  the  naive  and  half-wild 
inhabitants  of  Galilee,  who  lived  eighteen  hundred  years 
ago,  and  for  the  Eussian  peasants,  Syutaev  and  Bondar^v, 
and  the  Eussian  mystic,  Tolstoy,  but  can  in  no  way  be 
applied  to  the  high  degree  of  European  culture. 

The  foreign  lay  critics  tried,  in  a  refined  manner,  with- 
out giving  me  any  offence,  to  let  me  know  that  my  opinion 
that  humanity  can  be  guided  by  such  a  naive  teaching  as 
the  Sermon  on  the  Mount  is  due  partly  to  my  ignorance, 
lack  of  acquaintance  with  history,  lack  of  knowledge  of 
all  those  vain  attempts  to  realize  in  life  the  principles 
of  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount,  wliich  have  been  made  in 
history,  and  have  led  to  nothing,  thanks  to  ignorance  con- 
cerning the  whole  significance  of  that  high  degree  of 
culture  on  which  European  civilization  now  stands,  with 
its  Krupp  guns,  smokeless  powder,  the  colonization  of 
Africa,  the  government  of  Ireland,  parliaments,  journal- 
ism, strikes,  constitutions,  and  Eiffel  Tower. 

Thus  wrote  Vogii^,  and  Leroy  Beaulieu,  and  Matthew 
Arnold,  and  the  American  writer  Savage,  and  Ingersoll, 
a  popular  American  preacher  of  free  thought,  and  many 
others. 

"  Christ's  teaching  is  no  good,  because  it  does  not  har- 
monize with  our  industrial  age,"  naively  says  Ingersoll, 
thus  expressing  with  absolute  precision  and  naivet(^  what 
the  refined  and  cultured  men  of  our  time  think  about 
Christ's  teaching.  The  teaching  is  no  good  for  our  indus- 
trial age,  as  though  the  existence  of  the  industrial  age 
is  something  sacred  which  must  not  and  cannot  be 
changed.  It  is  something  like  what  drunkards  would 
do,  if,  in  response  to  advice  about  how  to  get  themselves 


THE   KINGDOM    OF    GOD   IS    WITHIN   YOU        51 

into  a  sober  state,  they  should  reply  that  the  advice  is  out 
of  place  in  connection  with  tlieir  present  alcoholic  state. 

The  discussions  of  all  the  lay  writers,  both  Russian  and 
foreign,  no  matter  how  different  their  tone  and  the  man- 
ner of  their  arguments  may  be,  in  reality  reduce  them- 
selves to  one  and  the  same  strange  misunderstanding, 
namely,  that  Christ's  teaching,  one  of  the  consequences  of 
which  is  non-resistance  to  evil,  is  useless  to  us,  because 
it  demands  that  our  life  be  changed. 

Christ's  teaching  is  useless,  because,  if  it  were  put  into 
practice,  our  life  could  not  continue ;  in  other  words,  — 
if  we  began  to  live  well,  as  Christ  has  taught  us,  we  could 
not  continue  to  live  badly,  as  we  live  and  are  accustomed 
to  live.  The  question  of  non-resistance  to  evil  is  not  dis- 
cussed, and  the  very  mention  of  the  fact  that  the  demand 
for  non-resistance  to  evil  enters  into  Christ's  teaching  is 
considered  a  sufficient  proof  of  the  inapplicability  of  the 
whole  teaching. 

And  yet,  it  would  seem,  it  is  indispensable  to  point 
out  some  kind  of  a  solution  to  this  question,  because  it 
lies  at  the  foundation  of  nearly  all  affairs  which  interest 
us. 

The  question  consists  in  this  :  how  are  we  to  harmonize 
the  conflicts  of  men,  when  some  consider  an  evil  what 
otliers  consider  to  be  good,  and  vice  versa  ?  And  so,  to 
consider  that  an  evil  which  I  consider  an  evil,  although 
my  adversary  may  consider  it  good,  is  no  answer.  There 
can  be  but  two  answers :  either  we  have  to  find  a  true 
and  indisputable  criterion  of  what  an  evil  is,  or  we  must 
not  resist  evil  with  violence. 

The  first  solution  has  been  tried  since  the  beginning  of 
historical  times,  and,  as  we  all  know,  has  so  far  led  to  no 
satisfactory  results. 

The  second  answer,  not  to  resist  with  violence  what 
we  consider  evil,  so  long  as  we  have  found  no  common 
criterion,  was  proposed  by  Christ. 


52        THE    KINGDOM    OF    GOD    IS    WITHIN    YOU 

It  may  be  found  that  Christ's  answer  is  not  correct : 
it  may  be  possible  to  put  in  its  place  another,  better 
answer,  by  finding  a  criterion  which  would  indubitably 
and  simultaneously  for  all  define  the  evil ;  we  may  simply 
not  recognize  the  essence  of  the  question,  as  it  is  not 
recognized  by  the  savage  nations,  —  but  it  is  impossible, 
as  the  learned  critics  of  the  Christian  teaching  do,  to  make 
it  appear  that  such  a  question  does  not  at  all  exist,  or  that 
the  relegation  of  the  right  to  determine  the  evil  and  resist 
it  with  violence  to  certain  persons  or  assemblies  of  men 
(much  less,  if  we  are  these  men),  solves  the  question  ; 
whereas  we  all  know  that  such  a  relegation  does  not  at 
all  solve  the  question,  since  there  are  some  people  who 
do  not  recognize  this  right  as  belonging  to  cei'tain  people 
or  to  assemblies  of  men. 

But  it  is  this  recognition  that  what  to  us  appears  evil 
is  evil,  or  an  absolute  failure  to  comprehend  the  question, 
which  serves  as  a  foundation  for  the  judgment  of  the 
lay  critics  concerning  the  Christian  teaching,  so  that  the 
opinions  concerning  my  book,  both  of  the  ecclesiastic  and 
the  lay  critics,  showed  me  that  the  majority  of  men  abso- 
lutely fail  to  comprehend,  not  only  Christ's  very  teaching, 
but  even  those  questions  to  which  it  serves  as  an  answer. 


in. 

Thus,  both  the  information  received  by  me  after  the 
publication  of  my  book,  as  to  how  the  Christian  teaching 
in  its  direct  and  true  sense  has  without  interruption  been 
understood  by  the  minority  of  men,  and  the  criticisms 
upon  it,  both  the  ecclesiastic  and  the  lay  criticisms,  which 
denied  the  possibility  of  understanding  Christ's  teaching 
in  the  direct  sense,  convinced  me  that,  while,  on  the  one 
hand,  the  true  comprehension  of  this  teaching  never 
ceased  for  the  minority,  and  became  clearer  and  clearer 
to  them,  on  the  other  hand,  for  the  majority,  its  meaning 
became  more  and  more  obscure,  finally  reaching  such  a 
degree  of  obscuration  that  men  no  longer  comprehend  the 
simplest  propositions,  which  are  expressed  in  the  Gospel 
in  the  simplest  words. 

The  failure  to  comprehend  Christ's  teaching  in  its  true, 
simple,  and  direct  sense  in  our  time,  when  the  light  of 
this  teaching  has  penetrated  all  the  darkest  corners  of 
human  consciousness ;  when,  as  Christ  has  said,  that 
which  He  has  spoken  in  the  ear,  they  now  proclaim  upon 
the  housetops ;  when  this  teaching  permeates  all  the 
sides  of  human  lifd,  —  the  domestic,  the  economic,  the 
civil,  the  political,  and  the  international,  —  this  failure  to 
comprehend  would  be  incomprehensible,  if  there  were  no 
causes  for  it. 

One  of  these  causes  is  this,  that  both  the  believers  and 
the  unbelievers  are  firmly  convinced  that  Christ's  teaching 
has  been  compreliended  by  them  long  ago,  and  so  com- 
pletely, indubitably,  and  finally,  that  there  can  be  no 
other  meaning  in  it  than  the  one  they  ascribe  to  it.     This 

53 


54        THE   KINGDOM    OF    GOD    IS    WITniN   TOU 

cause  is  due  to  the  duration  of  the  tradition  of  the  false 
comprehension,  and  so  of  the  faihire  to  understand  the 
true  teaching. 

The  most  powerful  stream  of  water  cannot  add  a  drop 
to  a  vessel  that  is  full.  * 

It  is  possible  to  explain  the  most  intricate  matters  to  a 
man  of  very  hard  comprehension,  so  long  as  he  has  not 
formed  any  idea  about  them ;  but  it  is  impossible  to  ex- 
plain the  simplest  thing  to  a  very  clever  man,  if  he  is 
firmly  convinced  that  he  knows,  and,  besides,  incontest- 
ably  knows,  what  has  been  transmitted  to  him. 

The  Christian  teaching  presents  itself  to  the  men  of 
our  world  precisely  as  such  a  teaching,  which  has  for  a 
long  time  and  in  a  most  indubitable  manner  been  known 
in  its  minutest  details,  and  which  cannot  be  comprehended 
in  any  other  manner  than  it  now  is. 

Christianity  is  now  understood  by  those  who  profess 
the  church  doctrines  as  a  supernatural,  miraculous  revela- 
tion concerning  everything  which  is  given  in  the  symbol 
of  faith,  and  by  those  who  do  not  believe,  as  an  obsolete 
raanif(!station  of  humanity's  need  of  believing  in  some- 
thing supernatural,  as  a  historical  phenomenon,  which  is 
completely  expressed  in  Catholicism,  Orthodoxy,  Protes- 
tantism, and  which  has  no  longer  any  vital  meaning  for 
us.  For  the  believers  the  meaning  of  the  teaching  is  con- 
cealed by  the  church,  for  unbelievers  by  science. 

I  sliall  begin  with  the  .Irst : 

Eighteen  hundred  years  ago  there  appeared  in  the 
pagan  Eoman  world  a  strange,  new  teaching,  which  re- 
sembled nothing  which  preceded  it,  and  which  was  ascribed 
to  the  man  Christ. 

This  new  teaching  was  absolutely  new,  both  in  form 
and  in  contents,  for  the  European  world,  in  the  midst  of 
which  it  arose,  and  especially  in  the  Eoman  world,  where 
it  was  preached  and  became  diffused. 

Amidst  the  elaborateness  of  the  religious  rules  of  Juda- 


THE    KINGDOM    OF    GOD    IS    WITHIN    YOU         55 

ism,  where,  according  to  Isaiah,  there  was  rule  upon  rule, 
and  amidst  the  Koman  legislation,  which  was  worked  out 
to  a  great  degree  of  perfection,  there  appeared  a  teaching 
which  not  only  denied  all  the  divmities,  —  every  fear  of 
them,  every  divination  and  faith  in  them,  —  but  also  all 
human  institutions  and  every  necessity  for  them.  In  the 
place  of  all  the  rules  of  former  faiths,  this  teaching  ad- 
vanced only  the  model  of  an  inner  perfection  of  truth  and 
of  love  in  the  person  of  Christ,  and  the  consequences  of 
this  inner  perfection,  attainable  by  men,  —  the  external 
perfection,  as  predicted  by  the  prophets,  —  the  kingdom 
of  God,  in  which  all  met.  will  stop  warring,  and  all  will 
be  taught  by  God  and  united  in  love,  and  the  lion  will  lie 
with  the  lamb.  In  place  of  the  threats  of  punishments 
for  the  non-compliance  with  the  rules,  which  were  made 
by  the  former  laws,  both  religious  and  political,  in  place 
of  the  enticement  of  rewards  for  fulfilling  them,  this 
teaching  called  men  to  itself  only  by  its  being  the  truth. 
John  vii.  17:  "If  any  man  wants  to  know  of  this  doc- 
trine, whether  it  be  of  God,  let  him  fulfil  it."  John  viii. 
46 :  "  If  I  say  the  truth,  why  do  ye  not  believe  me  ? " 
Why  do  you  seek  to  kill  a  man  who  has  told  you  the 
truth  ?  The  truth  alone  will  free  you.  God  must  be 
professed  in  truth  only.  The  whole  teaching  will  be  re- 
vealed and  will  be  made  clear  by  the  spirit  of  truth.  Do 
what  I  say,  and  you  will  know  whether  what  I  say  is 
true. 

No  proofs  were  given  of  the  teaching,  except  the  truth, 
except  the  correspondence  of  the  teaching  with  the  truth. 
The  whole  teaching  consisted  in  the  knowledge  of  the 
truth  and  in  following  it,  in  a  greater  and  ever  greater 
approximation  to  it,  in  matters  of  life.  According  to  this 
teaching,  there  are  no  acts  wldch  can  justify  a  man,  make 
hiui  righteous;  there  is  only  the  model  of  truth  which 
attracts  all  hearts,  for  the  inner  perfection  —  in  the  person 
01  Christ,  and  for  the  outer  —  in  the  realization  of  the 


56        THE   KINGDOM    OF    GOD    IS    WITHIN   YOU 

kingdom  of  God.  The  fulfilment  of  the  teaching  is  only 
in  the  motion  along  a  given  path,  in  the  approximation  to 
perfection,  —  the  inner,  —  the  imitation  of  Christ,  and 
the  outer,  —  the  establishment  of  the  kingdom  of  God. 
A  man's  greater  or  lesser  good,  according  to  this  teaching, 
depends,  not  on  the  degree  of  perfection  which  he  attains, 
but  on  the  greater  or  lesser  acceleration  of  motion. 

The  motion  toward  perfection  of  the  publican,  of 
Zacchaeus,  of  the  harlot,  of  the  robber  on  the  cross,  is, 
according  to  this  teaching,  a  greater  good  than  the  im- 
movable righteousness  of  the  Pharisee.  A  sheep  gone 
astray  is  more  precious  than  ninety-nine  who  have  not. 
The  prodigal  son,  the  lost  coin  which  is  found  again,  is 
more  precious,  more  loved  by  God  than  those  who  were 
not  lost. 

Every  condition  is,  according  to  this  teaching,  only  a 
certain  step  on  the  road  toward  the  unattainable  inner 
and  outer  perfectiou,  and  so  has  no  meaning.  The  good 
is  only  in  the  motion  toward  perfection  ;  but  the  stopping 
at  any  stage  whatsoever  is  only  a  cessation  of  the  good. 

"  Let  not  thy  left  hand  know  what  thy  right  hand 
doeth,"  and  "  No  man,  having  put  his  hand  to  the  plough, 
and  looking  back,  is  fit  for  the  kingdom  of  God."  "  Ee- 
joice  not,  that  the  spirits  are  subject  unto  you  ;  but  rather 
rejoice,  because  your  names  are  written  in  heaven." 

"  Be  ye  perfect  as  your  Father  which  is  in  Heaven  is 
perfect."  "  Seek  the  kingdom  of  God  and  His  righteous- 
ness." 

The  fulfilment  of  the  teaching  is  only  in  unceasing 
motion,  —  in  the  attainment  of  a  higher  and  ever  higher 
truth,  and  in  an  ever  greater  realization  of  the  same  in 
oneself  by  means  of  an  ever  increasing  love,  and  outside 
of  oneself  by  an  ever  greater  realization  of  the  kingdom  of 
God. 

It  is  evident  that,  having  appeared  in  the  midst  of  the 
Jewish  and  the  pagan  world,  this  teaching  could  not  have 


THE    KINGDOM    OF    GOD    IS    WITHIN    YOU        57 

been  accepted  by  the  majority  of  men,  who  lived  a  life 
entirely  different  from  the  one  which  this  teaching  de- 
manded ;  and  that  it  could  not  even  be  comprehended  in 
its  full  significance  by  those  who  accepted  it,  as  it  was 
diametrically  opposed  to  their  former  views. 

Only  by  a  series  of  misconceptions,  blunders,  one-sided 
explanations,  corrected  and  supplemented  by  generations 
of  men,  was  the  meaning  of  the  Christian  teaching  made 
more  and  more  clear  to  men.  The  Christian  world-con- 
ception affected  the  Jewish  and  the  pagan  conceptions, 
and  the  Jewish  and  pagan  conceptions  affected  the  Chris- 
tian world-conception.  And  the  Christian,  as  being  vital, 
penetrated  the  reviving  Jewish  and  pagan  conceptions 
more  and  more,  and  stood  forth  more  and  more  clearly, 
freeing  itself  from  the  false  admixture,  which  was  imposed 
upon  it.  Men  came  to  comprehend  the  meaning  better 
and  better,  and  more  and  more  realized  it  in  life. 

The  longer  humanity  lived,  the  more  and  more  was  the 
meaning  of  Christianity  made  clear  to  it,  as  indeed  it  could 
not  and  cannot  be  otherwise  with  any  teaching  about  life. 

The  subsequent  generations  corrected  the  mistakes  of 
their  predecessors,  and  more  and  more  approached  the 
comprehension  of  its  true  meaning.  Thus  it  has  been 
since  the  earliest  times  of  Christianity.  And  here,  in  the 
earliest  times,  there  appeared  men,  who  began  to  assert 
that  the  meaning  which  they  ascribed  to  the  teaching  was 
the  only  true  one,  and  that  as  a  proof  of  it  served  the 
supernatural  phenomena  which  confirmed  the  correctness 
of  their  comprehension. 

It  was  this  that  was  the  chief  cause,  at  first,  of  the 
failure  to  comprehend  the  teaching,  and  later,  of  its  com- 
plete corruption. 

It  was  assumed  that  Christ's  teaching  was  not  trans- 
natted  to  men  like  any  other  truth,  but  in  a  special, 
supernatural  manner,  so  that  the  truth  of  the  comprehen- 
sion of  the  teaching  was  not  proved  by  the  correspondence 


58        THE   KINGDOM    OF    GOD    IS    WITHIN    YOU 

of  what  was  transmitted  with  the  demands  of  reason  and 
of  the  whole  human  nature,  but  by  the  miraculousness  of 
the  transmission,  which  served  as  an  incontrovertible  proof 
of  the  correctness  of  the  comprehension.  This  proposition 
arose  from  a  lack  of  comprehension,  and  its  consequence 
was  an  impossibility  of  comprehending. 

This  began  with  the  very  first  times,  when  the  teaching 
was  still  understood  incompletely  and  often  perversely,  as 
we  may  see  from  the  gospels  and  from  the  Acts.  The  less 
the  teaching  was  understood,  the  more  obscurely  did  it 
present  itself,  and  the  more  necessary  were  the  external 
proofs  of  its  veracity.  The  proposition  about  not  doing  unto 
another  what  one  does  not  wish  to  have  done  to  oneself  did 
not  need  any  proof  by  means  of  miracles,  and  there  was  no 
need  for  demanding  belief  in  this  proposition,  because  it 
is  convincing  in  itself,  in  that  it  corresponds  to  both  man's 
reason  and  nature,  but  the  proposition  as  to  Christ  being 
God  had  to  be  proved  by  means  of  miracles,  which  are 
absolutely  incomprehensible. 

The  more  obscure  the  comprehension  of  Christ's  teaching 
was,  the  more  miraculous  elements  were  mixed  in  with  it ; 
and  the  more  miraculous  elements  were  mixed  in,  the 
more  did  the  teaching  deviate  from  its  meaning  and  be- 
come obscure  ;  and  the  more  it  deviated  from  its  meaning 
and  became  obscure,  the  more  strongly  it  was  necessary  to 
assert  one's  infallibility,  and  the  less  did  the  teaching 
become  comprehensible. 

We  can  see  from  the  gospels,  the  Acts,  the  epistles, 
how  from  the  earliest  times  the  failure  to  comprehend  the 
teaching  called  forth  the  necessity  of  proving  its  truth  by 
means  of  the  miraculous  and  the  incomprehensible. 

According  to  the  Acts,  this  began  with  the  meeting  of 
the  disciples  at  Jerusalem,  who  assembled  to  settle  the 
question  which  had  arisen  as  to  baptizing  or  not  baptizing 
the  uncircumcised  who  were  still  eating  meats  ofifered  to 
idols. 


THE   KINGDOM    OF   GOD   IS   WITHIN    YOU        59 

The  very  putting  of  the  question  showed  that  those 
who  were  discussing  it  did  not  understand  the  teaching 
of  Christ,  who  rejected  all  external  rites  —  ablutious, 
purifications,  fasts,  Sabbaths.  It  says  directly  that  not  the 
things  which  enter  a  man's  mouth,  but  those  which  come 
out  of  his  heart,  detile  him,  and  so  the  question  as  to  the 
baptism  of  the  uncircumcised  could  have  arisen  only 
among  men  who  loved  their  teacher,  dimly  felt  His  great- 
ness, but  still  very  obscurely  comprehended  the  teaching 
itself.     And  so  it  was. 

In  proportion  as  the  members  of  the  assembly  did  not 
understand  the  teaching,  they  needed  an  external  confirma- 
tion of  their  incomplete  understanding.  And  so,  to  solve 
the  question,  the  very  putting  of  which  shows  the  failure 
to  comprehend  the  teaching,  the  strange  words,  "  It  has 
seemed  good  to  the  Holy  Ghost,  and  to  us,"  which  were  in 
an  external  manner  to  confirm  the  justice  of  certain  estab- 
lishments, and  which  have  caused  so  much  evil,  were,  as 
described  in  the  Book  of  Acts,  for  the  first  time  pronounced 
at  this  meeting,  that  is,  it  was  asserted  that  the  justice  of 
what  they  decreed  was  testified  to  by  the  miraculous  par- 
ticipation of  the  Holy  Ghost,  that  is,  of  God,  in  this  solu- 
tion. But  the  assertion  that  the  Holy  Ghost,  that  is,  God, 
spoke  through  the  apostles,  had  again  to  be  proved.  And  for 
this  it  was  necessary  to  assert  that  on  the  day  of  Pentecost 
the  Holy  Ghost  came  down  in  the  shape  of  tongues  of  fire 
on  those  who  asserted  this.  (In  the  description  the  de- 
scent of  the  Holy  Ghost  precedes  the  assembly,  but  the 
Acts  were  written  down  much  later  than  either.)  But 
the  descent  of  the  Holy  Ghost  had  to  be  confirmed  for 
those  who  had  not  seen  the  tongues  of  fire  (though  it  is 
incomprehensible  why  a  tongue  of  fire  burning  above  a 
man's  head  should  prove  that  what  a  man  says  is  an  indis- 
putable truth),  and  there  were  needed  new  miracles,  cures, 
resurrections,  putting  to  death,  and  all  those  offensive 
miracles,  with  which  the  Acts  are  filled,  and  which  not 


60        THE    KINGDOM    OF    GOD    IS    WITHIN    YOU 

only  can  never  convince  a  man  of  the  truth  of  the  Christian 
teaching,  but  can  only  repel  him  from  it.  The  consequence 
of  such  a  method  of  confirmation  was  this,  that  the  more 
these  confirmations  of  the  truth  by  means  of  stories  of 
miracles  heaped  up  upon  one  another,  the  more  did  the 
teaching  itself  depart  from  its  original  meaning,  and 
the  less  comprehensible  did  it  become. 

Thus  it  has  been  since  the  earliest  times,  and  it  has 
been  increasingly  so  all  the  time,  until  it  logically  reached 
in  our  time  the  dogmas  of  the  tran substantiation  and  of 
the  infallibility  of  the  Pope,  or  of  the  bishops,  or  of  the 
writings,  that  is,  something  absolutely  incomprehensible, 
which  has  reached  the  point  of  absurdity  and  the  demand 
for  a  bhnd  faith,  not  in  God,  not  in  Christ,  not  even  in 
the  teaching,  but  in  a  person,  as  is  the  case  in  Catholi- 
cism, or  in  several  persons,  as  in  Orthodoxy,  or  in  a  book, 
as  in  Protestantism.  The  more  Christianity  became  dif- 
fused, and  the  greater  was  the  crowd  of  unprepared 
men  which  it  embraced,  the  less  it  was  understood,  the 
more  definitely  was  the  infallibility  of  the  comprehen- 
sion asserted,  and  the  less  did  it  become  possible  to 
understand  the  true  meaning  of  the  teaching.  As  early 
as  the  time  of  Constantino  the  whole  comprehension  of 
the  teaching  was  reduced  to  a  rt^sum^  confirmed  by  the 
worldly  power,  —  a  r^sum^  of  disputes  which  took  place 
in  a  council,  —  to  a  symbol  of  faith,  in  which  it  says,  I 
believe  in  so  and  so,  and  so  and  so,  and  finally,  in  the  one, 
holy,  cathohc,  and  apostolic  church,  that  is,  in  the  infalli- 
bility of  those  persons  who  call  themselves  the  church, 
so  that  everything  was  reduced  to  this,  that  a  man  no 
longer  believes  in  God,  nor  in  Christ,  as  they  have  been 
revealed  to  him,  Ijut  in  what  the  church  commands  him 
to  believe. 

But  the  church  is  holy,  —  the  church  was  founded  by 
Christ.  God  could  not  have  left  it  to  men  to  give  an 
arbitrary  interpretation    to  His  teaching,  —  and    so   He 


THE    KINGDOM    OF    GOD    IS    WITHIN    YOU        61 

established  the  church.  All  these  expositions  are  to  such 
an  extent  unjust  aud  bold  that  one  feels  some  compunc- 
tion in  overthrowing  them. 

There  is  nothing  but  the  assertion  of  the  churches  to 
show  that  God  or  Christ  founded  anything  resembling 
what  the  churchmen  understand  by  church. 

In  the  Gospel  there  is  an  indication  against  the  church, 
as  an  external  authority,  and  this  indication  is  most 
obvious  and  clear  in  that  place  where  it  says  that  Christ's 
disciples  should  not  call  any  one  teachers  and  fathers. 
But  nowhere  is  there  anything  said  about  the  establish- 
ment of  what  the  churchmen  call  a  church. 

In  the  gospels  the  word  "  church "  is  used  twice,  — 
once,  in  the  sense  of  an  assembly  of  men  deciding  a  dis- 
pute ;  the  other '  time,  in  connection  with  the  obscure 
words  about  the  rock,  Peter,  and  the  gates  of  hell.  From 
these  two  mentions  of  the  word  "  church,"  which  has  the 
meaning  of  nothing  but  an  assembly,  they  deduce  what  we 
now  understand  by  the  word  "  church." 

But  Christ  could  certainly  not  have  founded  a  church, 
that  is,  what  we  now  understand  by  the  word,  because 
neither  in  Christ's  words,  nor  in  the  conceptions  of  the  men 
of  that  time,  was  there  anything  resembling  the  concept  of 
a  church,  as  we  know  it  now,  with  its  sacraments,  its 
hierarchy,  and,  above  all,  its  assertion  of  infallibility. 

The  fact  that  men  named  what  was  formed  later  by 
the  same  word  which  Christ  had  used  in  respect  to  some- 
thing else,  does  in  no  way  give  them  the  right  to  assert 
that  Christ  established  the  one,  true  church. 

Besides,  if  Christ  had  really  founded  such  an  institu- 
tion as  the  church,  on  which  the  whole  doctrine  and  the 
whole  faith  are  based.  He  would  most  likely  have  ex- 
pressed this  establishment  in  such  definite  and  clear 
words,  and  would  have  given  the  one,  true  church,  out- 
side of  the  stories  about  the  miracles,  which  are  used  in 
connection  with  every  superstition,  such  signs  as  to  leave 


62        THE    KINGDOM    OF    GOD   IS    WITHIN    YOU 

no  doubts  concerning  its  authenticity ;  there  is  nothing 
of  the  kind,  but  there  are  now,  as  there  have  been,  all 
kinds  of  institutions  which,  each  of  them,  call  themselves 
the  one,  true  church. 

The  Cathohc  catechism  says  :  "  L'eglise  est  la  societS  de 
fideles  etahlie  par  notre  Seigneur  Jesus-Christ,  repandue 
sur  toute  la  terre  et  soumise  d,  I'autorite  des  pasteurs  legi- 
times, principalement  notre  Saint  Pere  —  le  Fape"  mean- 
ing by  "pasteurs  legitimes"  a  human  institution,  which 
has  the  Pope  at  its  head  and  which  is  composed  of  cer- 
tain persons  who  are  connected  among  themselves  by  a 
certain  organization. 

The  Orthodox  catechism  says :  "  The  church  is  a 
society,  established  by  Jesus  Christ  upon  earth,  united 
among  themselves  into  one  whole  by  the  one,  divine 
teaching  and  the  sacraments,  under  the  guidance  and 
management  of  the  God-established  hierarchy,"  meaning 
by  "  God-established  hierarchy "  the  Greek  hierarchy, 
which  is  composed  of  such  and  such  persons,  who  are 
to  be  found  in  such  and  such  places. 

The  Lutheran  catechism  says :  "The  church  is  holy 
Christianity,  or  an  assembly  of  all  believers,  under  Christ, 
their  chief,  in  which  the  Holy  Ghost  through  the  Gospel 
and  the  sacraments  offers,  communicates,  and  secures 
divine  salvation,"  meaning,  by  this,  that  the  Catholic 
Church  has  gone  astray  and  has  fallen  away,  and  that 
the  true  tradition  is  preserved  in  Lutheranism. 

For  the  Catholics  the  divine  church  coincides  with  the 
Roman  hierarchy  and  the  Pope.  For  the  Greek  Ortho- 
dox the  divine  church  coincides  with  the  establishment  of 
the  Eastern  and  the  Russian  Church.^    For  the  Lutherans 

1  Khomyak6v's  definition  of  tlie  church,  which  has  some  currency 
among  Russians,  does  not  mend  matters,  if  we  recognize  with  Khom- 
yakdv  that  the  Orthodox  is  the  one  true  church.  Ivhomyak6v  asserts 
tliat  the  cliureh  is  an  assembly  of  men  (of  all,  both  the  clergy  and  the 
congregation)  united  in  love,  and  that  the  truth  is  revealed  only 
to  those  who  are  united  in  love  (Let  us  love  one  another,  so  that  iu 


THE    KINGDOM    OF    GOD    IS    WITIIUST    YOU        63 

the  divine  church  coincides  with  the  assemhly  of  men 
who  recognize  the  Bible  and  Luther's  catechism. 

Speaking  of  the  origin  of  Christianity,  men  who  belong 
to  one  or  the  other  of  the  existing  churches  generally  use 
the  word  "  church "  in  the  singular,  as  though  there  has 
been  but  one  church.  But  this  is  quite  untrue.  The 
church,  as  an  institution  which  asserts  of  itself  that  it  is 
in  possession  of  the  unquestionable  truth,  appeared  oidy 
when  it  was  not  alone,  but  there  were  at  least  two  of 
them. 

So  long  as  the  believers  agreed  among  themselves,  and 
the  assembly  was  one,  it  had  no  need  of  asserting  that  it 
was  the  church.  Only  when  the  believers  divided  into 
opposite  parties,  which  denied  one  another,  did  there 
appear  the  necessity  for  each  side  to  assert  its  authentic- 
ity, ascribing  infallibility  to  itself.  The  concept  of  the 
one  church  arose  only  from  this,  that,  when  two  sides  dis- 
agreed and  quarrelled,  each  of  them,  calling  the  other  a 
heresy,  recognized  only  its  own  as  the  infallible  church. 

If  we  know  that  there  was  a  church,  which  in  the 
year  51  decided  to  receive  the  uu circumcised,  this 
church  made  its  appearance  only  because  there  was  an- 

agreement  of  thought,  and  so  forth),  and  that  such  a  church  is  the 
one  which,  in  the  first  place,  recognizes  the  Nicene  symbol,  and,  in 
the  second,  after  the  division  of  the  churches,  does  not  recognize  the 
I'ope  and  the  new  dogmas.  But  with  such  a  definition  of  the  church 
there  appears  a  still  greater  difficulty  in  harmonizing,  as  Khomyak6v 
wants  to,  the  church  which  is  united  in  love  with  the  church  which 
recognizes  the  Nicene  symbol  and  the  justice  of  Photius.  Thus 
Klininyak6v's  assertion  that  this  church,  which  is  united  in  love  and 
so  is  holy,  is  the  clnu'ch  as  professed  by  the  Greek  hierarchy,  is  still 
more  arbitrary  than  the  assertions  of  the  (^atholics  and  of  the  ancient 
Orthodox.  If  we  admit  the  concept  of  the  church  in  the  sense 
which  Khomyak6v  gives  to  it,  that  is,  as  an  assembly  of  men  united 
\n  love  and  in  truth,  then  everything  a  man  can  say  in  relation  to 
this  asseml)Iy  is,  that  it  is  very  desirable  to  be  a  member  of  such  an 
assemblj',  if  sucli  exists,  that  is,  to  be  in  love  aTid  truth  ;  but  there 
are  no  external  signs  by  which  it  would  be  possible  to  count  oneself  or 
another  in  with  this  holy  assembly,  or  to  exclude  oneself  from  it,  as  no 
external  institution  can  corre.spoud  to  this  concept.  —  Author^ s  Note. 


64        THE    KINGDOM    OF    GOD    IS    WITHIN   YOU 

other  church,  that  of  the  Judaizing,  which  had  decided 
not  to  receive  the  un circumcised. 

If  there  uow  is  a  Cathohc  Church,  which  asserts  its 
infalhbility,  it  does  this  only  because  there  are  the  Grseco- 
Russian,  Orthodox,  Lutheran  Churches,  each  of  which 
asserts  its  own  infalhbiHty,  and  thus  rejects  all  the 
other  churches.  Thus  the  one  church  is  only  a  fantastic 
conception,  which  has  not  the  slightest  sign  of  reality. 

As  an  actual,  historical  phenomenon  there  have  existed 
only  many  assemblies  of  men,  each  of  which  has  asserted 
that  it  is  the  one  church,  established  by  Christ,  and  that 
all  the  others,  which  call  themselves  churches,  are  here- 
sies and  schisms. 

The  catechisms  of  the  most  widely  diffused  churches, 
the  Catholic,  the  Orthodox,  and  the  Lutheran,  say  so  out- 
right. 

In  the  Catholic  catechism  it  says :  "  Quels  sont  ceux, 
qui  sont  hors  de  I'eglise  ?  Les  infideles,  les  heretiques,  les 
schismatiqucs."  As  schismatics  are  regarded  the  so-called 
Orthodox.  The  Lutherans  are  considered  to  be  heretics ; 
thus,  according  to  the  Catholic  catechism,  the  Catholics 
alone  are  in  the  church. 

In  the  so-called  Orthodox  catechism  it  says :  "  By  the 
one  church  of  Christ  is  meant  nothing  but  the  Orthodox, 
which  remains  in  complete  agreement  with  the  oecumeni- 
cal church.  But  as  to  the  Roman  Church  and  the  other 
confessions  "  (the  church  does  not  even  mention  the  Lu- 
therans and  others),  "  they  cannot  be  referred  to  the  one, 
true  church,  since  they  have  themselves  separated  from 
it." 

According  to  this  definition  the  Catholics  and  Luther- 
ans are  outside  the  church,  and  in  the  church  are  only 
the  Orthodox. 

But  the  Lutheran  catechism  runs  as  follows :  "  Die 
ivahrc  Kirclie  wird  daran  erkannt,  dass  in  ihr  das  Wort 
Gottes  lauter  und  rein  ohne  Menschenzusiitze  gelehrt  vnd 


THE    KINGDOM    OF    GOD    IS    WITHIN    YOU        65 

die  Sacramente  treu  nach  Christi  Einsetzung  yewahrt 
iverden" 

According  to  this  definition,  all  those  who  have  added 
anything  to  the  teaching  of  Christ  and  the  apostles,  as  the 
Catholic  and  Greek  Churches  have  done,  are  outside  the 
church.     And  in  the  church  are  only  the  Protestants. 

The  Catholics  assert  that  the  Holy  Ghost  has  unin- 
terruptedly operated  in  their  hierarchy ;  the  Orthodox 
assert  that  the  same  Holy  Ghost  has  operated  in  their 
hierarchy ;  the  Arians  asserted  that  the  Holy  Ghost 
operated  in  their  hierarchy  (this  they  asserted  with  as 
much  right  as  the  now  ruling  churches  assert  it) ;  the 
Protestants  of  every  description,  Lutherans,  Reformers, 
Presbyterians,  Methodists,  Swedenborgians,  Mormons,  as- 
sert that  the  Holy  Ghost  operates  only  in  their  assem- 
blies. 

If  the  Catholics  assert  that  the  Holy  Ghost  during  the 
division  of  the  Arian  and  of  the  Greek  Churches  left 
the  apostatizing  churches  and  remained  only  in  the  one, 
true  church,  the  Protestants  of  every  denomination  can 
with  the  same  right  assert  that  during  the  separation  of 
their  church  from  the  Catholic  the  Holy  Ghost  left  the 
Catholic  Church  and  passed  over  to  the  one  which  they 
recognize.     And  so  they  do. 

Every  church  deduces  its  profession  through  an  uninter- 
rupted tradition  from  Christ  and  the  apostles.  And, 
indeed,  every  Christian  confession,  arising  from  Christ, 
must  have  inevitably  reached  the  present  generation 
through  a  certain  tradition.  But  this  does  not  prove  that 
any  one  of  these  traditions,  excluding  all  the  others,  is 
indubitably  the  correct  one. 

Every  twig  on  the  tree  goes  uninterruptedly  back  to 
the  root ;  but  the  fact  that  every  twig  comes  from  the 
same  root  does  in  no  way  prove  that  there  is  but  one 
twig.  The  same  is  true  of  the  churches.  Every  church 
offers  precisely  the  same  proofs  of  its  succession  and  even 


66        THE    KINGDOM    OF    GOD   IS    WITHIN    YOU 

of  the  miracles  in  favour  of  its  own  authenticity ;  thus 
there  is  but  one  strict  and  precise  definition  of  what  the 
church  is  (not  as  something  fantastic,  which  we  should 
like  it  to  be,  but  as  something  which  in  reahty  exists), 
and  this  is :  the  church  is  an  assembly  of  men,  who 
assert  that  they,  and  they  only,  are  in  the  full  posses- 
sion of  the  truth. 

It  was  these  assemblies,  which  later  on,  with  the  aid  of 
the  support  of  the  temporal  power,  passed  into  mighty 
institutions,  that  were  the  chief  impediments  in  the 
dissemination  of  the  true  comprehension  of  Christ's 
teaching. 

Nor  could  it  be  otherwise :  the  chief  peculiarity  of 
Christ's  teaching,  as  distinguished  from  all  the  former 
teacliings,  consisted  in  this,  that  the  men  who  accepted  it 
tried  more  and  more  to  understand  and  fulfil  the  teaching, 
whereas  the  church  doctrine  asserted  the  full  and  final 
comprehension  and  fulfilment  of  this  teaching. 

However  strange  it  may  seem  to  us  people  educated  in 
the  false  doctrine  about  the  church  as  a  Christian  institu- 
tion, and  in  the  contempt  for  heresy,  it  was  only  in  what 
is  called  heresy  that  there  was  true  motion,  that  is,  true 
Christianity,  and  it  ceased  to  be  such  when  it  stopped  its 
motion  in  these  heresies  and  became  itself  arrested  in  the 
immovable  forms  of  the  church. 

Indeed,  what  is  a  heresy  ?  Eead  all  the  theological 
works  which  treat  about  heresies,  a  subject  which  is  the 
first  to  present  itself  for  definition,  since  every  theology 
speaks  of  the  true  teaching  amidst  the  surrounding  false 
teachings,  that  is,  heresies,  and  you  will  nowhere  find 
anything  resembling  a  definition  of  heresy. 

As  a  specimen  of  that  complete  absence  of  any  sem- 
blance of  a  definition  of  what  is  understood  by  the  word 
"  heresy "  may  serve  the  opinion  on  this  subject  ex- 
pressed by  the  learned  historian  of  Christianity,  E.  de 
Pressens^  in  his  Histoirc  du  Dogme,  with  the  epigraph, 


THE    KINGDOM    OF    GOD    IS    WITHIN    YOU        67  ' 

«  UU  Christus,  ihi  Ecclesia"  (Paris,  1869).  This  is  what 
he  says  in  his  introduction :  "  Je  sais  que  Von  nous  con- 
teste  le  droit  de  califier  ainsi,"  that  is,  to  call  heresies  "  les 
tendances  quifurent  si  vivement  combattues  par  les  premiers 
Feres.  La  designation  mtnie  dlieresie  semble  une  atteinte 
portee  ci  la  libcrte  dc  conscience  et  de  pensee.  Nous  ne 
pouvons  partager  ces  scrupides,  car  Us  n'iraient  (i  rien 
mains  qu'di  enlever  au  christianisme  tout  caractere  dis- 
tinctifr 

And  after  saying  that  after  Constantine  the  church 
actually  misused  its  power  in  detiuiug  the  dissenters  as 
heretics  and  persecuting  them,  he  passes  judgment  on  the 
early  times  and  says  : 

"  Leglise  est  une  lihre  association ;  il  y  a  tout  profit  h 
se  sSparer  d'elle.  La  poUmique  contre  Verreur  na  d'autres 
resources  que  la  pensee  et  Ic  sentiment.  Vn  type  doctrinal 
uniforme  na  pas  encore  etc  elabore ;  les  divergences  secon- 
daires  se  p)roduisent  en  Orient  et  en  Occident  avcc  une  entiere 
liberie,  la  theologie  n'est  'point  liee  ci  d'invariables  formules. 
Si  au  sein  de  cette  diver  site  apparait  un  fond  commun  de 
croyances,  n'cst-on  pas  en  droit  d'y  voir  nan  ^9«s  un 
systeme  formule  et  compose  par  les  representants  d'une 
autoritc  d'ecole,  mais  let  foi  elle  meme,  dans  son  instinct  le 
plus  silr  et  sa  manifestation  la  plus  spontanee  ?  Si  cette 
meme  unanimitc  qui  se  revele  dans  les  croyances  essen- 
ticlles,  se  rctrouve  pour  repousser  telles  ou  telles  tendances, 
ne  seront-nous  pas  en  droit  dc  conclure  que  ces  tendances 
etaient  en  disaccord  flagrant  avec  les  principcs  fon- 
damentaux  du  christianisme  ?  Cette  presomption  ne  se 
transformer a-t-elle  pas  en  certitude  si  nous  reconnaissons 
dans  la  doctrine  universellement  repoussee  par  I'cglise  les 
traits  earacteristiques  de  I'une  des  religions  du  jpasse  ? 
Pour  dire  qtie  le  gnosticisme  ou  V ebionitisvie  sont  les 
formes  Ugitimes  dc  let  pensee  chretienne,  il  faut  dire 
hardiment  qiCil  rCy  a  pas  de  pensee  chretienne,  ni  de  carac- 
tere specifque  qui  la  fasse  reconnaitre.     Sous  pr6texte  de 


68        THE    KINGDOM    OF    GOD    IS    WITHIN    YOU 

Velargir  on  la  dissent.  Personne,  au  temps  de  Platon, 
n'eut  ose  de  couvrir  de  son  nam  une  doctrine  qui  n'eut  pas 
fait  place  k  la  theorie  des  idees,  et  Von  eut  excite  les  justes 
moqueries  de  la  Grece,  en  voulant  faire  d' Epicure  ou  de 
Zenon  un  disciple  de  V Acadcmie.  Beconnaissons  done  que 
s'il  existe  une  religion  et  U7ie  doctrine  qui  sappelle  le 
christianisme  elle  peut  avoir  ses  heresies." 

The  whole  discussion  of  the  author  reduces  itself  to 
this,  that  every  opinion  which  is  not  in  agreement  with  a 
code  of  dogmas  professed  by  us  at  a  given  time  is  a  heresy  ; 
but  at  a  given  time  and  in  a  given  place  people  profess 
something,  and  this  profession  of  something  in  some  place 
cannot  be  a  criterion  of  the  truth. 

Everything  reduces  itself  to  this,  that  "  Ubi  Christus, 
ibi  Ecclesia ;  "  but  Christ  is  where  we  are.  Every  so- 
called  heresy,  by  recognizing  as  the  truth  what  it  pro- 
fesses, can  in  a  similar  manner  find  in  the  history  of  the 
churches  a  consistent  explanation  of  what  it  professes, 
using  for  itself  all  the  arguments  of  De  Pressens^  and 
calling  only  its  own  confession  truly  Christian,  precisely 
what  all  the  heresies  have  been  doing. 

The  only  definition  of  heresy  (the  word  aipea-i^  means 
part)  is  the  name  given  by  an  assembly  of  men  to  every 
judgment  which  rejects  part  of  the  teaching,  as  professed 
by  the  assembly.  A  more  particular  meaning,  which 
more  frequently  than  any  other  is  ascribed  to  heresy,  is 
that  of  an  opinion  which  rejects  the  church  doctrine,  as 
established  and  supported  by  the  worldly  power. 

There  is  a  remarkable,  little  known,  very  large  work 
(^Unptartheyisclie  Kirchcn  und  Kctzcr-Historia,  1729),  by 
Gottfried  Arnold,  which  treats  directly  on  this  subject 
and  which  shows  all  the  illegality,  arbitrariness,  senseless- 
ness, and  cruelty  of  using  the  word  "  heresy  "  in  the  sense  of 
rejection.  This  book  is  an  attempt  at  describing  the  history 
of  Christianity  in  the  form  of  a  history  of  the  heresies. 

In  the  introduction  the  author  puts  a  number  of  ques- 


THE  kingdo:m  of  god  is  within  tou      69 

tions :  (1)  regarding  those  who  make  heretics  (von  den 
Ketzermachern  selbst) ;  (2)  concerning  those  who  were 
made  heretics ;  (3)  concerning  the  subjects  of  heresy ; 
(4)  concerning  the  method  of  making  heretics,  and  (5) 
concerning  the  aims  and  consequences  of  making  heretics. 

In  connection  with  each  of  these  points  he  puts  dozens 
of  questions,  answers  to  which  he  later  gives  from  the 
works  of  well-known  theologians,  but  he  chiefly  leaves  it 
to  the  reader  himself  to  make  the  deduction  from  the  ex- 
position of  the  whole  book.  I  shall  quote  the  following 
as  samples  of  these  questions,  which  partly  contain  the 
answers.  In  reference  to  the  fourth  point,  as  to  how 
heretics  are  made,  he  says  in  one  of  his  questions  (the 
seventh) :  "  Does  not  all  history  show  that  the  greatest 
makers  of  heretics  and  the  masters  of  this  work  were 
those  same  wise  men  from  whom  the  Father  has  hidden 
His  secrets,  that  is,  the  hypocrites,  Pharisees,  and  lawyers, 
or  entirely  godless  and  corrupt  people?"  Questions  20 
and  21:"  And  did  not,  in  the  most  corrupt  times  of 
Christianity,  the  hypocrites  and  envious  people  reject 
those  very  men  who  were  particularly  endowed  by  God 
with  great  gifts,  and  who  in  the  time  of  pure  Christianity 
would  have  been  highly  esteemed?  And,  on  the  con- 
trary, would  not  these  men,  who  during  the  decadence 
of  Christianity  elevated  themselves  above  everything  and 
recognized  themselves  to  be  the  teachers  of  the  purest 
Christianity,  have  been  recognized,  in  apostolic  times,  as 
the  basest  heretics  and  antichristiaus  ?  " 

Expressing  in  these  questions  this  thought,  among 
others,  that  the  verbal  expression  of  the  essence  of  faith, 
which  was  demanded  by  the  church,  and  a  departure  from 
which  was  considered  a  heresy,  could  never  completely 
cover  the  world-conception  of  tlie  believer,  and  tliat, 
therefore,  the  demand  for  an  expression  of  faith  by  means 
of  i^artiiiular  words  was  the  cause  of  heresy,  he  says,  in 
Questions  21  and  33 : 


70        THE    KINGDOM    OF    GOD    IS    WITHIN    TOU 

"  And  if  the  divine  acts  and  thoughts  present  them- 
selves to  a  man  as  so  great  and  profound  that  he  does  not 
find  corresponding  words  in  which  to  express  them,  must 
he  be  recognized  as  a  heretic,  if  he  is  not  able  precisely  to 
express  his  ideas  ?  And  is  not  this  true,  that  in  the  early 
times  there  was  no  heresy,  because  the  Christians  did  not 
judge  one  another  according  to  verbal  expressions,  but 
according  to  the  heart  and  acts,  in  connection  with  a 
complete  Hberty  of  expression,  without  fear  of  being  rec- 
ognized as  a  heretic  ?  Was  it  not  a  very  common  and 
easy  method  with  the  church,"  he  says  in  Question  21, 
"  when  the  clergy  wanted  to  get  rid  of  a  person  or  ruin 
him,  to  make  him  suspected  as  regards  his  doctrine  and 
to  throw  over  him  the  cloak  of  heresy,  and  thus  to  con- 
demn and  remove  him  ? 

"  Though  it  is  true  that  amidst  the  so-called  heretics 
there  were  errors  and  sins,  yet  it  is  not  less  true  and  obvi- 
ous from  the  numberless  examples  here  adduced  "  (that  is, 
in  the  history  of  the  church  and  of  heresy),  he  says  far- 
ther on,  "that  there  has  not  been  a  single  sincere  and 
conscientious  man  with  some  standing  who  has  not  been 
ruined  by  the  churchmen  out  of  envy  or  for  other  causes." 

Thus,  nearly  two  hundred  years  ago,  was  the  signifi- 
cance of  heresy  understood,  and  yet  this  conception  con- 
tinues to  exist  until  the  present  time.  Nor  can  it  fail  to 
exist,  so  long  as  there  is  a  concept  of  the  church.  Heresy 
is  the  reverse  of  the  church.  AVhere  there  is  the  church, 
there  is  also  heresy.  The  church  is  an  assembly  of  men 
asserting  that  they  are  in  possession  of  the  indisputable 
truth.  Heresy  is  the  opinion  of  people  who  do  not  recog- 
nize the  indisputableness  of  the  church  truth. 

Heresy  is  a  manifestation  of  motion  in  the  church,  an 
attempt  at  destroying  the  ossified  assertion  of  the  church, 
an  attempt  at  a  living  comprehension  of  the  teaching. 
Every  step  of  moving  forward,  of  comprehending  and  ful- 
filling the  teaching  has  been  accomplished  by  the  heretics : 


THE    KINGDOM    OF    GOD    IS    WITHIJT    YOU        71 

such  heretics  were  Tertullian,  and  Origen,  and  Augustine, 
and  Luther,  and  Huss,  and  Savonarola,  and  Chelcick)^,  and 
others.     Nor  could  it  be  otherwise. 

A  disciple  of  Christ,  whose  teaching  con-sists  in  an 
eternally  greater  and  greater  comprehension  of  the  teach- 
ing and  in  a  greater  and  greater  fulfilment  of  it,  in  a 
motion  toward  perfection,  cannot,  for  the  very  reason  that 
he  is  a  disciple  of  Christ,  assert  concerning  himself  or 
concerning  any  one  else,  that  he  fully  understands  Christ's 
teaching  and  fulfils  it;  still  less  can  he  assert  this  con- 
cerning any  assembly. 

No  matter  at  what  stage  of  comprehension  and  perfec- 
tion a  disciple  of  Christ  may  be,  he  always  feels  the 
insufficiency  of  his  comprehension  and  of  his  fulfilment, 
and  always  strives  after  a  greater  comprehension  and  ful- 
filment. And  so  the  assertion  about  myself  or  about  an 
assembly,  that  I,  or  we,  possess  the  complete  comprehen- 
sion of  Christ's  teaching,  and  completely  fulfil  it,  is  a 
renunciation  of  the  spirit  of  Christ's  teaching. 

No  matter  how  strange  this  may  seem,  the  churches,  as 
churches,  have  always  been,  and  cannot  help  but  be,  insti- 
tutions that  are  not  only  foreign,  but  even  directly  hostile, 
to  Christ's  teaching.  With  good  reason  Voltaire  called 
the  church  "  Vinfdmc ; "  with  good  reason  all,  or  nearly 
all,  the  Christian  so-called  sects  have  recognized  the 
cliurch  to  be  that  whore  of  whom  Eevelation  prophesies ; 
witli  good  reason  the  history  of  the  church  is  the  history 
of  the  greatest  cruelties  and  horrors. 

The  churches,  as  churches,  are  not  certain  institutions 
which  have  at  their  base  the  Christian  principle,  though 
slightly  deviated  from  the  straight  path,  as  some  think  ; 
the  churches,  as  churches,  as  assemlilies,  which  assert 
their  infallil)ility,  are  antichristian  institutions.  Between 
the  churches,  as  churches,  and  Christianity  there  is  not 
only  nothing  in  common  but  the  name,  but  they  are  two 
absolutely  divergent  and  mutually  hostile  principles.     One 


72        THE    KINGDOM    OF    GOD    IS    WITHIN   YOU 

is  pride,  violence,  self-assertion,  inamobility,  and  death ; 
the  other  is  meekness,  repentance,  humihty,  motion,  and 
life. 

It  is  impossible  at  the  same  time  to  serve  both  masters, 
—  one  or  the  other  has  to  be  chosen. 

The  servants  of  the  churches  of  all  denominations 
have  tried,  especially,  of  late,  to  appear  as  advocates  of 
motion  in  (Christianity  ;  they  make  concessions,  wish  to 
mend  the  abuses  which  have  stolen  into  the  church,  and 
say  that  for  the  sake  of  the  abuses  we  ouglit  not  to  deny 
the  principle  of  the  Christian  church  itself,  which  alone 
can  unite  all  men  and  be  a  mediator  between  men  and 
God.  But  all  tbis  is  not  true.  The  churches  have  not 
only  never  united,  but  have  always  been  one  of  the  chief 
causes  of  the  disunion  of  men,  of  the  hatred  of  one 
another,  of  wars,  slaughters,  inquisitions,  nights  of  St. 
Bartholomew,  and  so  forth,  and  the  churches  never  serve 
as  mediators  between  men  and  God,  which  is,  indeed, 
unnecessary  and  is  directly  forbidden  by  Christ,  who  has 
revealed  the  teaching  directly  to  every  man,  and  they  put 
up  dead  forms  in  the  place  of  God,  and  not  only  fail  to 
reveal  God  to  man,  but  even  conceal  Him  from  them. 
Churches  which  have  arisen  from  the  failure  to  compre- 
hend, and  which  maintain  this  lack  of  comprehension  by 
their  immobility,  cannot  help  persecuting  and  oppressing 
every  comprehension  of  the  teaching.  They  try  to  con- 
ceal this,  but  this  is  impossible,  because  every  motion 
forward  along  the  path  indicated  by  Christ  destroys  their 
existence. 

As  one  hears  and  reads  the  articles  and  sermons,  in 
which  the  church  writers  of  modern  times  of  all  denomi- 
nations speak  of  Christian  truths  and  virtues,  as  one  hears 
and  reads  these  clever  discussions,  admonitions,  confes- 
sions, which  have  been  worked  out  by  the  ages,  and  which 
sometimes  look  very  much  as  though  they  were  sincere, 
one   is  prepared  to  doubt   that  the   churches   could  be 


THE    KINGDOM    OF    GOD    IS    WITHIN   YOU        73 

hostile  to  Christianity  :  "  It  certainly  cannot  be  that  these 
people,  who  have  produced  such  men  as  Chrysostom, 
F^nelon,  Butler,  and  other  preachers  of  Christianity, 
should  be  hostile  to  it."  One  feels  like  saying :  "  The 
churches  may  have  deviated  from  Christianity,  may  be  in 
error,  but  cannot  be  hostile  to  it."  But  as  one  looks  at 
the  fruits,  in  order  to  judge  the  tree,  as  Christ  has 
taught  us  to  do,  and  sees  that  their  fruits  have  been  evil, 
that  the  consequence  of  their  activity  has  been  the  dis- 
tortion of  Christianity,  one  cannot  help  but  feel  that,  no 
matter  how  good  the  men  have  been,  the  cause  of  the 
churches  in  which  they  have  taken  part  has  not  been 
Christian.  The  goodness  and  the  deserts  of  all  these 
men,  who  served  the  churches,  were  the  goodness  and  the 
deserts  of  men,  but  not  of  the  cause  which  they  served. 
All  these  good  men  —  like  Francis  d'Assisi  and  Francis 
de  Lobes,  our  Tikhon  Zaddnski,  Thomas  k  Kempis,  and 
others  —  were  good  men,  in  spite  of  their  having  served 
a  cause  which  is  hostile  to  Christianity,  and  they  would 
have  been  better  and  more  deserving  still,  if  they  had  not 
succumbed  to  the  error  which  they  served. 

But  why  speak  of  the  past,  judge  of  the  past,  which 
may  have  been  falsely  represented  to  us  ?  The  churches 
with  their  foundations  and  with  their  activity  are  not  a 
work  of  the  past :  the  churches  are  now  before  us,  and 
we  can  judge  of  them  directly,  by  their  activity,  their 
influence  upon  men. 

In  what  does  the  activity  of  the  churches  now  consist  ? 
How  do  they  act  upon  men  ?  What  do  the  churches  do 
in  our  country,  among  the  Catholics,  among  the  Protestants 
of  every  denomination  ?  In  what  does  their  activity 
consist,  and  what  are  the  consequences  of  their  activity  ? 

The  activity  of  our  Russian,  so-called  Orthodox,  Church 
is  in  full  sight.  It  is  a  vast  fact,  which  cannot  be  con- 
cealed, and  about  which  there  can  be  no  dispute. 

In  what  consists  the  activity  of  tliis  Russian  Church, 


74        THE    KINGDOM    OF    GOD    IS    WITHIN    YOU 

this  enormous,  tensely  active  institution,  which  consists 
of  an  army  of  half  a  million,  costing  the  nation  tens  of 
milhons  ? 

The  activity  of  this  church  consists  in  using  every 
possible  means  for  the  purpose  of  instilling  in  the  one 
hundred  millions  of  the  Russian  population  those  obsolete, 
backward  faiths,  which  now  have  no  justification  whatso- 
ever, and  which  sometime  in  the  past  were  professed  by 
people  that  are  alien  to  our  nation,  and  in  which  hardly 
any  one  now  believes,  frequently  even  not  those  whose 
duty  it  is  to  disseminate  these  false  doctrines. 

The  inculcation  of  these  ahen,  obsolete  formulas  of  the 
Byzantine  clergy,  which  no  longer  have  any  meaning  for 
the  men  of  our  time,  about  the  Trinity,  the  Holy  Virgin, 
the  sacraments,  grace,  and  so  forth,  forms  one  part  of  the 
activity  of  the  Eussian  Church  ;  another  part  of  its  activity 
consists  in  the  activity  of  maintaining  idolatry  in  the  direct 
sense  of  the  word,  —  worshipping  holy  relics  and  images, 
bringing  sacrifices  to  them,  and  expecting  from  them  the 
fulfilment  of  their  wishes.  I  shall  not  speak  of  what  is 
spoken  and  written  by  the  clergy  with  a  shade  of  learning 
and  hberalism  in  the  clerical  periodicals,  but  of  what 
actually  is  done  by  the  clergy  over  the  breadth  of  the 
Eussian  land  among  a  population  of  one  hundred  million 
people.  What  do  they  carefully,  persistently,  tensely, 
everywhere  without  exception,  teach  the  people  ?  What 
is  demanded  of  them  on  the  strength  of  the  so-called 
Christian  faith  ? 

I  will  begin  with  the  beginning,  with  the  birth  of  a 
child :  at  the  birth  of  a  child,  the  clergy  teaches  that 
a  prayer  has  to  be  read  over  the  mother  and  the  child,  in 
order  to  purify  them,  since  without  this  prayer  the  mother 
who  has  given  birth  to  a  child  is  accursed.  For  this 
purpose  the  priest  takes  the  child  in  his  hands  in  front 
of  the  representations  of  the  saints,  which  the  masses 
simply  call  gods,  and  pronounces  exorcising  words,  and 


,ai 


( 


THE    KINGDOM    OF    GOD    IS    WITHIN    YOU         75 

thus  purifies  the  mother.  Then  it  is  impressed  on  the 
parents,  and  even  demanded  of  them  under  threat  of 
punishment  in  case  of  non-fulfilment,  that  the  child  shall 
be  baptized,  that  is,  dipped  three  times  in  water  by  the 
priest,  in  connection  with  which  incomprehensible  words 
are  pronounced  and  even  less  comprehensible  acts  per- 
formed, —  the  smearing  of  various  parts  of  the  body  with 
oil,  the  shearing  of  the  hair,  and  the  blowing  and  spitting 
of  the  sponsors  on  the  imaginary  devil.  All  this  is 
supposed  to  cleanse  the  child  and  make  him  a  Christian. 
Then  the  parents  are  impressed  with  the  necessity  of 
giving  the  holy  sacrament  to  the  child,  that  is,  of  giving 
him  under  the  form  of  bread  and  wine  a  particle  of  Christ's 
body  to  eat,  in  consequence  of  which  the  child  will  receive 
the  grace  of  Christ,  and  so  forth.  Then  it  is  demanded 
that  this  child,  according  to  his  age,  shall  learn  to  pray. 
To  pray  means  to  stand  straight  in  front  of  the  boards 
on  which  the  faces  of  Christ,  the  Virgin,  the  saints,  are 
represented,  and  incline  his  head  and  his  whole  body, 
and  with  his  right  hand,  with  fingers  put  together  in  a 
certain  form,  to  touch  his  brow,  shoulders,  and  stomach, 
and  pronounce  Church-Slavic  words,  of  which  all  the 
children  are  particularly  enjoined  to  repeat,  "  Mother 
of  God,  Virgin,  rejoice ! "  etc.  Then  the  pupil  is  im- 
pressed with  the  necessity  of  doing  the  same,  that  is, 
crossing  himself,  in  presence  of  any  church  or  image ; 
then  he  is  told  that  on  holidays  (holidays  are  days  on 
which  Christ  was  born,  though  no  one  knows  when  that 
was,  and  circumcised,  on  which  the  Mother  of  God  died, 
the  cross  was  brought,  the  image  was  carried  in,  a 
saintly  fool  saw  a  vision,  etc.,)  he  must  put  on  his  laest 
clothes  and  go  to  church,  buy  tapers  there  and  place  them 
in  front  of  images  of  saints,  liand  in  little  notes  and 
commemorations  and  loaves,  that  triangles  may  be  cut  in 
them,  and  tlien  pray  many  times  for  the  health  and 
welfare   of   tlie   Tsar  and  the  bishops,   and   for  himself 


76        THE    KINGDOM    OF    GOD    IS    WITHIN    YOU 

and  his  acts,  and  then  kiss  the  cross  and  the  priest's 
hand. 

Besides  this  prayer  he  is  enjoined  to  prepare  himself 
at  least  once  a  year  for  the  holy  sacrament.  To  prepare 
himself  for  the  holy  sacrament  means  to  go  to  church 
and  tell  the  priest  his  sins,  on  the  supposition  that  his 
imparting  his  sins  to  a  stranger  will  completely  cleanse 
him  of  his  sins,  and  then  to  eat  from  a  spoon  a  bit  of 
bread  with  wine,  which  purifies  him  even  more.  Then 
it  is  impressed  upon  a  man  and  a  woman,  who  want  their 
carnal  intercourse  to  be  sacred,  that  they  must  come  to 
church,  put  on  metallic  crowns,  drink  potions,  to  the 
sound  of  singing  walk  three  times  around  a  table,  and 
that  then  their  carnal  intercourse  will  become  sacred 
and  quite  distinct  from  any  other  carnal  intercourse. 

In  life  people  are  impressed  with  the  necessity  of  ob- 
serving the  following  rules :  not  to  eat  meat  or  milk  food 
on  certain  days,  on  other  certain  days  to  celebrate  masses 
for  the  dead,  on  hohdays  to  receive  the  priest  and  give 
him  money,  and  several  times  a  year  to  take  the  boards 
with  the  representations  out  of  the  church  and  carry  them 
on  sashes  over  fields  and  through  houses.  Before  death 
a  man  is  enjoined  to  eat  from  a  spoon  bread  with  wine, 
and  still  better,  if  he  has  time,  to  have  himself  smeared 
with  oil.  This  secures  for  Mm  happiness  in  the  next 
world.  After  a  man's  death,  his  relatives  are  enjoined, 
for  the  purpose  of  saving  the  soul  of  the  defunct,  to  put 
into  his  hands  a  printed  sheet  with  a  prayer ;  it  is  also 
useful  to  have  a  certain  book  read  over  the  dead  body  and 
the  name  of  the  dead  man  pronounced  several  times  in 
church. 

All  this  is  considered  an  obligatory  faith  for  everybody. 

But  if  one  wants  to  care  for  his  soul,  he  is  taught,  ac- 
cording to  this  faith,  that  the  greatest  amount  of  blessed- 
ness is  secured  for  the  soul  in  the  world  to  come  by 
contributing  money  for  churches  and  monasteries,  by  put- 


THE    KINGDOM    OF    GOD    IS    WITHIN    T3U        77 

ting  holy  men  thus  uoder  obligation  to  pray  for  him. 
Other  soul-saving  measures,  according  to  this  faith,  are 
the  visiting  of  monasteries  and  the  kissing  of  miracle- 
working  images  and  relics. 

According  to  this  faith,  miracle-working  images  and 
relics  concentrate  in  themselves  particular  holiness, 
strength,  and  grace,  and  nearness  to  these  objects  — 
touching,  kissing  them,  placing  tapers  before  them,  crawl- 
ing up  to  them  —  contributes  very  much  to  a  man's  sal- 
vation, and  so  do  masses,  which  are  ordered  before  these 
sacred  objects. 

It  is  this  faith,  and  no  other,  which  is  called  Orthodox, 
that  is,  the  right  faith,  and  which  has,  under  the  guise  of 
Christianity,  been  impressed  upon  the  people  for  many 
centuries  by  the  exercise  of  all  kinds  of  force,  and  is  now 
being  impressed  with  particular  etf ort. 

And  let  it  not  be  said  that  the  Orthodox  teachers  place 
the  essence  of  the  teaching  in  something  else,  and  that 
these  are  only  ancient  forms  which  it  is  not  considered 
right  to  destroy.  That  is  not  true :  throughout  all  of 
Kussia,  nothing  but  this  faith  has  of  late  been  impressed 
upon  the  people  with  particular  effort.  There  is  nothing 
else.  Of  something  else  they  talk  and  write  in  the  capi- 
tals, but  only  this  is  being  impressed  on  one  hundred 
milhon  of  people,  and  nothing  else.  The  churchmen  talk 
of  other  things,  but  they  enjoin  only  this  with  every 
means  at  their  command. 

All  this,  and  the  worship  of  persons  and  images,  is  in- 
troduced into  theologies,  into  catechisms ;  the  masses  are 
carefully  taught  this  theoretically,  and,  being  hypnotized 
practically,  with  every  means  of  solemnity,  splendour, 
authority,  and  violence,  are  made  to  believe  in  this,  and 
are  jealously  guarded  against  every  endeavour  to  be  freed 
from  these  savage  superstitions. 

In  my  very  presence,  as  I  said  in  reference  to  my  book, 
Christ's    teaching   and   his  own  words  concerning    non- 


78        THE    KINGDOM    OF    GOD    IS    WITHIN    YOU 

resistance  to  evil  were  a  subject  of  ridicule  and  circus 
jokes,  and  the  churchmen  not  only  did  not  oppose  this, 
but  even  encouraged  the  blasphemy ;  but  allow  yourself 
to  say  a  disrespectful  word  concerning  the  monstrous  idol, 
which  is  blasphemously  carried  about  in  Moscow  by 
drunken  persons  under  the  name  of  the  Iberian  Virgin, 
and  a  groan  of  indignation  will  be  raised  by  these  same 
churchmen.  All  that  is  preached  is  the  external  cult  of 
idolatry.  Let  no  one  say  that  one  thing  does  not  interfere 
with  the  other,  that  "  these  ought  ye  to  have  done,  and 
not  to  have  left  the  other  undone,"  that  "  all,  therefore, 
whatsoever  they  bid  you  observe,  that  observe  and  do ; 
but  do  not  ye  after  their  works :  for  they  say,  and  do 
not "  (Matt,  xxiii.  23,  3).  This  is  said  of  the  Pharisees, 
who  fulfilled  all  the  external  injunctions  of  the  law,  and 
so  the  words,  "  whatsoever  they  bid  you  observe,  that  ob- 
serve," refer  to  works  of  charity  and  of  goodness,  and  the 
words,  "  but  do  ye  not  after  their  works,  for  they  say,  and 
do  not,"  refer  to  the  execution  of  ceremonies  and  to  the 
omission  of  good  works,  and  have  precisely  the  opposite 
meaning  to  what  the  churchmen  want  to  ascribe  to  this 
passage,  when  they  interpret  it  as  meaning  that  ceremo- 
nies are  to  be  observed.  An  external  cult  and  serving 
charity  and  truth  are  hard  to  harmonize ;  for  the  most 
part  one  thing  excludes  the  other.  Thus  it  was  with 
the  Pharisees,  and  thus  it  is  now  with  the  church  Chris- 
tians. 

If  a  man  can  save  himself  through  redemption,  sacra- 
ments, prayer,  he  no  longer  needs  any  good  deeds. 

The  Sermon  on  the  Mount,  or  the  symbol  of  faith :  it 
is  impossible  to  believe  in  both.  And  the  churchmen 
have  chosen  the  latter  :  the  symbol  of  faith  is  taught  and 
read  as  a  prayer  in  the  churches ;  and  the  Sermon  on  the 
Mount  is  excluded  even  from  the  Gospel  teachings  in  the 
churches,  so  that  in  the  churches  the  parishioners  never 
hear  it,  except  on  the  days  when  the  whole  Gospel  is 


THE    KINGDOM    OF    GOD    IS    WITHIN    YOU         79 

read.  Nor  can  it  be  otherwise :  men  who  believe  in  a 
bad  and  senseless  God,  who  has  cursed  the  human  race 
and  who  has  doomed  His  son  to  be  a  victim,  and  has 
doomed  a  part  of  humanity  to  everlasting  torment,  can- 
not believe  in  a  God  of  love.  A  man  who  believes  in 
God-Christ,  who  will  come  again  in  glory  to  judge  and 
punish  the  living  and  the  dead,  cannot  believe  in  Christ, 
who  commands  a  man  to  offer  his  cheek  to  the  offender, 
not  to  judge,  but  to  forgive,  and  to  love  our  enemies.  A 
man  who  believes  in  the  divine  inspiration  of  the  Old 
Testament  and  the  holiness  of  David,  who  on  his  death- 
bed orders  the  kilHng  of  an  old  man -who  has  offended 
him  and  whom  he  could  not  kill  himself,  because  he  was 
bound  by  an  oath  (Book  of  Kings,  ii.  3),  and  similar 
abominations,  of  which  the  Old  Testament  is  full,  cannot 
believe  in  Christ's  moral  law ;  a  man  who  believes  in  the 
doctrine  and  the  preaching  of  the  church  about  the  com- 
patibility of  executions  and  wars  with  Christianity,  cannot 
believe  in  the  brotherhood  of  men. 

Above  all  else,  a  man  who  believes  in  the  salvation  of 
men  through  faith,  in  redemption,  or  in  the  sacraments, 
can  no  longer  employ  all  his  strength  in  the  fulfilment  in 
life  of  the  moral  teaching  of  Christ. 

A  man  who  is  taught  by  the  church  the  blasphemous 
doctrine  about  his  not  being  able  to  be  saved  by  his  own 
efforts,  but  that  there  is  another  means,  will  inevitably 
have  recourse  to  tliis  means,  and  not  to  his  efforts,  on 
which  he  is  assured  it  is  a  sin  to  depend.  The  church 
doctrine,  any  church  doctrine,  with  its  redemption  and  its 
sacraments,  excludes  Christ's  teaching,  and  the  Orthodox 
doctrine,  with  its  idolatry,  does  so  especially. 

"  But  the  masses  have  always  believed  so  themselves, 
and  believe  so  now,"  people  will  say  to  this.  "  The  whole 
history  of  the  Russian  masses  proves  this.  It  is  not  right 
to  deprive  the  masses  of  their  tradition."  In  this  does 
the  deception  consist.     The  masses  at  one  time,  indeed, 


80        THE    KINGDOM    OF    GOD    IS    WITHIN    YOU 

professed  something  like  what  the  church  professes  now, 
though  it  was  far  from  being  the  same  (among  the  masses, 
there  has  existed,  not  only  this  superstition  of  the 
images,  house  spirits,  relics,  and  the  seventh  Thursday 
after  Easter,  with  its  wreaths  and  birches,  but  also  a  deep 
moral,  vital  comprehension  of  Christianity,  which  has 
never  existed  in  the  whole  church,  and  was  met  with 
only  in  its  best  representatives) ;  but  the  masses,  in  spite 
of  all  the  obstacles,  which  the  government  and  the  church 
have  opposed  to  them,  have  long  ago  in  their  best  repre- 
sentatives outlived  this  coarse  stage  of  comprehension, 
which  is  proved  by  the  spontaneous  birth  of  rationalistic 
sects,  with  which  one  meets  everywhere,  with  which 
Russia  swarms  at  the  present  time,  and  with  which  the 
churchmen  struggle  in  vain.  The  masses  move  on  in 
the  consciousness  of  the  moral,  vital  side  of  Christianity. 
And  it  is  here  that  the  church  appears  with  its  failure 
to  support,  and  with  its  intensified  inculcation  of  an  obso- 
lete paganism  in  its  ossified  form,  with  its  tendency  to 
push  the  masses  back  into  that  darkness,  from  which 
they  are  struggling  with  so  much  effort  to  get  out. 

"  We  do  not  teach  the  masses  anything  new,  but  only 
what  they  believe  in,  and  that  in  a  more  perfect  form," 
say  the  churchmen. 

This  is  the  same  as  tying  up  a  growing  chick  and  push- 
ing it  back  into  the  shell  from  which  it  has  come. 

I  have  often  been  struck  by  this  observation,  which 
would  be  comical,  if  its  consequences  were  not  so  terrible, 
that  men,  taking  hold  of  each  other  in  a  circle,  deceive 
one  another,  without  being  able  to  get  out  of  the  en- 
chanted circle. 

The  first  question,  the  first  doubt  of  a  Russian  who  is 
beginning  to  think,  is  the  question  about  the  miracle- 
working  images  and,  above  all,  the  relics :  "  Is  it  true  that 
they  are  imperishable,  and  that  they  work  miracles?" 
Hundreds  and  thousands  of  men  put  these  questions  to 


THE    KINGDOM    OF    GOD    IS    WITHIN    YOU        81 

themselves  and  are  troubled  about  their  solution,  espe- 
cially because  the  bishops,  metropolitans,  and  all  the  dig- 
nitaries kiss  the  relics  and  the  miracle-working  images. 
Ask  the  bishops  and  the  dignitaries  why  they  do  so,  and 
they  will  tell  you  that  they  do  so  for  the  sake  of  the 
masses,  and  the  masses  worship  the  images  and  relics, 
because  the  bishops  and  dignitaries  do  so. 

The  activity  of  the  Eussian  Church,  in  spite  of  its 
external  veneer  of  modernuess,  learning,  spirituality, 
which  its  members  are  beginning  to  assume  in  their 
writings,  articles,  clerical  periodicals,  and  sermons,  con- 
sists not  only  in  keeping  the  masses  in  that  consciousness 
of  rude  and  savage  idolatry,  in  which  they  are,  but  also  in 
intensifying  and  disseminating  superstition  and  religious 
ignorance,  by  pushing  out  of  the  masses  the  vital  compre- 
hension of  Christianity,  which  has  been  living  in  them  by 
the  side  of  the  idolatry. 

I  remember,  I  was  once  present  in  the  monastery  book- 
store of  Optin  Cloister,  when  an  old  peasant  was  choosing 
some  religious  books  for  his  grandson,  who  could  read. 
The  monk  kept  pushing  the  description  of  relics,  holidays, 
miraculous  images,  psalters,  etc.,  into  his  hands.  I  asked 
the  old  man  if  he  had  the  Gospel.  "No."  "Give  him 
the  Eussian  Gospel,"  I  said  to  the  monk.  "  That  is  not 
proper  for  him,"  said  the  monk. 

This  is  in  compressed  form  the  activity  of  our  church. 

"  But  this  is  only  true  in  barbarous  Eussia,"  a  Euro- 
pean or  American  reader  will  say.  And  such  an  opinion 
will  be  correct,  but  only  in  the  measure  in  which  it  refers 
to  the  government  which  aids  the  church  in  accomplish- 
ing its  stultifying  and  corrupting  influence  in  Eussia. 

It  is  true  that  nowhere  in  Europe  is  there  such  a 
despotic  government  and  one  to  such  a  degree  in  accord 
with  the  ruling  church,  and  so  the  participation  of  the 
power  in  the  corruption  of  the  masses  in  Eussia  is  very 
strong ;  but  it  is  not  true  that  the  Eussian  Church  in  its 


82        THE    KINGDOM    OF    GOD    IS    WITHIN   YOU 

influence  upon  the  masses  in  any  way  differs  from  any 
other  church. 

The  churches  are  everything  the  same,  and  if  the 
Catholic,  the  Anghcan,  and  the  Lutheran  Churches  have 
not  in  hand  such  an  obedient  government  as  is  the 
Eussian,  this  is  not  due  to  the  absence  of  any  desire  to 
make  use  of  the  same. 

The  church,  as  a  church,  no  matter  what  it  may 
be,  Catholic,  Anglican,  Lutheran,  Presbyterian,  —  every 
church,  insomuch  as  it  is  a  church,  cannot  help  but  tend 
toward  the  same  as  the  Eussian  Church,  —  toward  con- 
cealing the  true  meaning  of  Christ's  teaching  and  substi- 
tuting in  its  place  its  own  doctrine,  which  does  not  put 
a  person  under  any  obligations,  excludes  the  possibility  of 
understanding  the  true  activity  of  Christ's  teaching,  and, 
above  all  else,  justifies  the  existence  of  priests  who  are 
living  at  the  expense  of  the  nation. 

Has  Catholicism  been  doing  anything  else  with  its  pro- 
hibition of  the  reading  of  the  Gospel,  and  with  its  demand 
for  unreasoning  obedience  to  the  ecclesiastic  guides  and 
the  infallible  Pope  ?  Does  Catholicism  preach  anything 
different  from  what  the  Eussian  Church  preaches  ?  We 
have  here  the  same  external  cult,  the  same  relics,  miracles, 
and  statues,  the  miracle-working  Notre-Dames,  and  pro- 
cessions. The  same  elatedly  misty  judgments  concerning 
Christianity  in  books  and  sermons,  and,  when  it  comes  to 
facts,  the  same  maintenance  of  a  coarse  idolatry. 

And  is  not  the  same  being  done  in  Anglicanism,  Luther- 
anism,  and  in  every  Protestantism  which  has  formed  itself 
into  a  church  ?  The  same  demands  from  the  congrega- 
tion for  a  belief  in  dogmas  which  were  expressed  in  the 
fourth  century  and  have  lost  all  meaning  for  the  men  of 
our  time,  and  the  same  demand  for  idolatry,  if  not  before 
relics  and  images,  at  least  before  the  Sabbath  and  the 
letter  of  the  Bible,  It  is  still  the  same  activity,  which  is 
directed  upon  concealing  the  real  demands  of  Christianity 


THE    KINGDOM    OF    GOD    IS    WITHIN   YOU        83 

and  substituting  for  them  externals,  which  do  not  put 
a  man  under  any  obligations,  and  "  cant,"  as  the  English 
beautifully  define  the  occupation  to  which  they  are  par- 
ticularly subject.  Among  the  Protestants  this  activity  is 
particularly  noticeable,  since  they  do  not  even  have  the 
excuse  of  antiquity.  And  does  not  the  same  take  place 
in  the  modern  Eevivalism,  —  the  renovated  Calvinism, 
Evangelism,  —  out  of  which  has  grown  up  the  Salvation 
Army  ?  Just  as  the  condition  of  all  the  church  doctrines 
is  the  same  in  reference  to  Christ's  teaching,  so  are  also 
their  methods. 

Their  condition  is  such  that  they  cannot  help  but  strain 
all  their  efforts,  in  order  to  conceal  the,  teaching  of  Christ, 
whose  name  they  use. 

The  incompatibility  of  all  the  church  confessions  with 
Christ's  teaching  is  such  that  it  takes  especial  efforts  to 
conceal  this  incompatibility  from  men.  Indeed,  we  need 
but  stop  and  think  of  the  condition  of  any  adult,  not  only 
cultured,  but  even  simple,  man  of  our  time,  who  has  filled 
himself  with  conceptions,  which  are  in  the  air,  from  the 
fields  of  geology,  physics,  chemistry,  cosmography,  history, 
when  he  for  the  first  time  looks  consciously  at  the  beliefs, 
instilled  in  him  in  childhood  and  supported  by  the 
churches,  that  God  created  the  world  in  six  days ;  that 
there  was  light  before  the  sun ;  that  Noah  stuck  all  the 
animals  into  his  ark,  and  so  forth  ;  that  Jesus  is  the  same 
God,  the  son,  who  created  everything  before  this ;  that 
this  God  descended  upon  earth  for  Adam's  sin ;  that  He 
rose  from  the  dead,  ascended  to  heaven,  and  sits  on  the 
right  of  the  Father,  and  will  come  in  the  clouds  to  judge 
the  world,  and  so  forth. 

All  these  propositions,  which  were  worked  out  by  the 
men  of  the  fourth  century  and  had  a  certain  meaning  for 
the  men  of  that  time,  have  no  meaning  for  the  men  of  the 
present.  The  men  of  our  tinip  may  repeat  these  words 
with  their  lips,  but  they  cannot  believe,  because  these 


84        THE    KINGDOM    OF    GOD    IS    WITHIN    YOU 

words,  like  the  statements  that  God  lives  in  heaven,  that 
the  heavens  opened  and  a  voice  said  something  from  there, 
that  Christ  rose  from  the  dead  and  flew  somewhere  to 
heaven  and  will  again  come  from  somewhere  in  the  clouds, 
and  so  forth,  have  no  meaning  for  us. 

It  was  possible  for  a  man,  who  regarded  the  heaven  as 
a  finite,  firm  vault,  to  believe,  or  not,  that  God  created  the 
heaven,  that  heaven  was  opened,  that  Christ  flew  to 
heaven ;  but  for  us  these  words  have  no  meaning  whatso- 
ever. Men  of  our  time  can  only  believe  that  they  must 
believe  so ;  but  they  cannot  beheve  in  what  has  no  mean- 
ing for  them. 

But  if  all  these  expressions  are  to  have  a  figurative 
meaning  and  are  emblems,  we  know  that,  in  the  first 
place,  not  all  churchmen  agree  in  this,  but  that,  on  the 
contrary,  the  majority  insist  on  understanding  Holy  Scrip- 
ture in  a  direct  sense,  and,  secondly,  that  these  interpreta- 
tions are  varied  and  not  confirmed  by  anything, 

But  even  if  a  man  wishes  to  make  himself  believe  in 
the  doctrine  of  the  churches,  as  it  is  imparted,  —  the 
general  diffusion  of  knowledge  and  of  the  Gospels,  and 
the  intercourse  of  men  of  various  denominations  among 
themselves,  form  for  this  another,  even  more  insuperable 
obstacle. 

A  man  of  our  time  need  but  buy  himself  a  Gospel  for 
three  kopeks  and  read  Christ's  clear  words  to  the  woman 
of  Samaria,  which  are  not  subject  to  any  other  interpreta- 
tion, about  the  Father  needing  no  worsliippers  in  Jeru- 
salem, neither  in  this  mountain,  nor  in  that,  worshippers 
in  spirit  and  in  truth,  or  the  words  about  a  Christian's 
being  obliged  to  pray,  not  in  temples,  as  the  pagans  do, 
and  in  the  sight  of  all,  but  in  secret,  that  is,  in  his  closet, 
or  that  a  disciple  of  Christ  must  not  call  any  one  father 
or  teacher,  —  a  man  needs  but  read  these  words,  to  be- 
come convinced  that  nc  ecclesiastic  pastors,  who  call 
themselves   teachers  in   opposition   to   Christ's    teaching, 


THE    KINGDOM    OF    GOD    IS    WITHIN    TOU        85 

and  who  quarrel  among  themselves,  form  an  authority, 
and  that  that  which  the  churchmen  teach  us  is  not  Chris- 
tianity. But  more  than  that :  if  a  man  of  our  time  con- 
tinues to  believe  in  miracles  and  does  not  read  the  Gospel, 
his  mere  intercourse  with  men  of  other  denominations  and 
faiths,  which  has  become  so  easy  in  our  time,  will  make 
him  doubt  in  the  authenticity  of  his  faith.  It  was  all 
very  well  for  a  man  who  never  saw  any  men  of  another 
faith  than  his  own  to  believe  that  his  own  faith  was  the 
correct  one ;  but  a  thinking  man  need  only  come  in  con- 
tact, as  he  now  does  all  the  time,  with  equally  good  and 
equally  bad  men  of  various  denominations,  which  condemn 
the  doctrines  of  one  another,  in  order  to  lose  faith  in  the 
truth  of  the  religion  wliich  he  professes.  In  our  time 
only  a  very  ignorant  man  or  one  who  is  quite  indifferent 
to  the  questions  of  life,  which  are  sanctified  by  religion, 
can  stay  in  the  church  faith. 

What  cunning  and  what  effort  must  be  exerted  by  the 
churches,  if,  in  spite  of  all  these  conditions  which  are  sub- 
versive of  faith,  they  are  to  continue  building  churches, 
celebrating  masses,  preaching,  teaching,  converting,  and, 
above  all,  receiving  for  it  a  fat  income,  hke  all  these 
priests,  pastors,  intendants,  superintendents,  abbots,  arch- 
deacons, bishops,  and  archbishops. 

Especial,  supernatural  efforts  are  needed.  And  such 
efforts,  which  are  strained  more  and  more,  are  used  by 
the  churches.  With  us,  in  Russia,  they  use  (in  addition 
to  all  other  means)  the  simple,  coarse  violence  of  the  civil 
power,  which  is  obedient  to  the  church.  Persons  who 
depart  from  the  external  expression  of  faith  and  who  give 
expression  to  it  are  either  directly  punished  or  deprived 
of  their  rights  ;  while  persons  who  strictly  adhere  to  the 
external  forms  of  faith  are  rewarded  and  sfiven  rij^hts. 

Thus  do  the  Orthodox ;  but  even  all  other  churches, 
without  exception,  use  for  this  all  such  means,  of  which 
the  chief  is  what  now  is  called  hypnotization. 


86        THE    KINGDOM    OF    GOD    IS    WITHIN    YOU 

All  the  arts,  from  architecture  to  poetry,  are  put  into 
action,  to  affect  the  souls  of  men  and  to  stultify  them, 
and  this  action  takes  place  without  interruption.  Par- 
ticularly evident  is  this  necessity  of  the  hypnotizing 
action  upon  men,  in  order  to  bring  them  to  a  state  of 
stupefaction,  in  the  activity  of  the  Salvation  Army,  which 
uses  new,  unfamiliar  methods  of  horns,  drums,  songs, 
banners,  uniforms,  processions,  dances,  tears,  and  dramatic 
attitudes. 

But  we  are  startled  by  them  only  because  they  are  new 
methods.  Are  not  the  old  methods  of  the  temples,  with 
especial  illumination,  with  gold,  splendour,  candles,  choirs, 
organs,  bells,  vestments,  lackadaisical  sermons,  and  so 
forth,  the  same  ? 

But,  no  matter  how  strong  this  action  of  hypnotization 
may  be,  the  chief  and  most  deleterious  activity  of  the 
churches  does  not  lie  in  this.  The  chief,  most  pernicious 
activity  of  the  church  is  the  one  which  is  directed  to  the 
deception  of  the  children,  those  very  children  of  whom 
Christ  said  that  it  will  be  woe  to  him  who  shall  offend 
one  of  these  little  ones.  With  the  very  first  awakening  of 
the  child,  they  begin  to  deceive  him  and  to  impress  upon 
him  with  solemnity  what  those  who  impress  do  not  believe 
in  themselves,  and  they  continue  to  impress  him,  until  the 
deception,  becoming  a  habit,  is  engrafted  on  the  child's 
nature.  The  child  is  methodically  deceived  in  the  most 
important  matter  of  life,  and  when  the  deception  has 
so  grown  up  with  his  life  that  it  is  difficult  to  tear  it 
away,  there  is  revealed  to  him  the  whole  world  of  science 
and  of  reality,  which  can  in  no  way  harmonize  with  the 
beliefs  instilled  in  him,  and  he  is  left  to  make  the  best  he 
can  out  of  these  contradictions. 

If  we  should  set  ourselves  the  task  of  entangling  a  man 
in  such  a  way  that  he  should  not  be  able  with  his  sound 
reason  to  get  away  from  the  two  opposite  world-concep- 
tions, which  have  been  instilled  in  him  since  his  child- 


THE    KINGDOM    OF    GOD    IS    WITHIN    YOU         87 

hood,  we  could  not  invent  anything  more  powerful  than 
what  is  accomplished  in  the  case  of  every  young  man  who 
is  educated  in  our  so-called  Christian  society. 

What  the  churches  do  to  people  is  terrible,  but  if  we 
reflect  on  their  condition,  we  shall  find  that  those  men 
who  form  the  institution  of  the  churches  cannot  act  other- 
wise. The  churches  are  confronted  with  a  dilemma, — 
the  Sermon  on  the  Mount,  or  the  Nicene  Creed,  —  one 
excludes  the  other :  if  a  man  sincerely  believes  in  the 
Sermon  on  the  Mount,  the  Nicene  Creed,  and  with  it 
the  church  and  its  representatives,  inevitably  lose  all  mean- 
ing and  significance  for  him  ;  but  if  a  man  believes  in  the 
Nicene  Creed,  that  is,  in  the  church,  that  is,  in  those 
who  call  themselves  its  repi-esentatives,  the  Sermon  on 
the  Mount  will  become  superfluous  to  him.  And  so  the 
churches  cannot  help  but  use  every  possible  effort  to  obscure 
the  meaning  of  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount  and  to  attract 
people  toward  itself.  Only  thanks  to  the  tense  activity 
of  the  churches  in  this  direction  has  the  influence,  of 
the  churches  held  itself  until  now.  Let  a  church  for 
the  shortest  time  arrest  this  action  upon  the  masses  by 
means  of  hypnotizing  them  and  deceiving  the  children, 
and  people  will  understand  Christ's  teaching.  But  tJie 
comprehension  of  the  teaching  destroys  the  churches  and 
their  significance.  And  so  the  churches  do  not  for  a 
moment  interrupt  the  tense  activity  anil  hypnotization  of 
the  adults  and  the  deception  of  the  children.  And  it  is  this 
activity  of  the  churches,  which  instils  a  false  comprehen- 
sion of  Christ's  teaching  in  men,  and  serves  as  an  obstacle 
in  its  comprehension  for  the  majority  of  so-called  be- 
lievers. 


IV. 

Now  I  will  speak  of  another  putative  comprehension 
of  Christianity,  which  interferes  with  the  correct  compre- 
hension of  it,  —  the  scientific  comprehension. 

The  churchmen  regard  as  Christianity  that  conception 
of  it  which  they  have  formed,  and  this  comprehension  of 
Christianity  they  regard  as  the  one  indubitably  true  one. 

The  men  of  science  regard  as  Christianity  only  what 
the  different  churches  have  been  professing,  and,  assum- 
ing that  these  professions  exhaust  the  whole  significance 
of  Christianity,  they  recognize  it  as  a  religious  teaching 
which  has  outlived  its  time. 

To  have  it  made  clear  how  impossible  it  is  with  such  a 
view  to  understand  the  Christian  teaching,  we  must  form 
an  idea  of  the  place  which  the  religions  in  general  and 
Christianity  in  particular  have  in  reahty  occupied  in  the 
life  of  humanity,  and  of  the  significance  which  is  ascribed 
to  religion  by  science. 

As  an  individual  man  cannot  live  without  having  a 
definite  idea  of  the  meaning  of  his  life,  and  always,  though 
often  unconsciously,  conforms  his  acts  to  this  meaning 
which  he  ascribes  to  his  life,  even  so  aggregates  of  men 
living  under  the  same  conditions,  —  nations  cannot  help 
but  have  a  conception  about  the  meaning  of  their  collect- 
ive life  and  the  activity  resulting  therefrom.  And  as  an 
individual,  entering  into  a  new  age,  invariably  changes 
his  comprehension  of  life,  and  a  grown  man  sees  its 
meaning  in  something  else  than  in  what  a  child  sees  it, 
so  an  aggregate  of  people,  a  nation,  inevitably,  according 

88 


THE    KINGDOM    OF    GOD    IS    WITHIN    YOU         89 

to  its  age,  changes  its  comprehension  of  life  and  the 
activity  wliich  results  from  it. 

The  difference  between  the  individual  and  the  whole 
of  humanity  in  this  respect  consists  in  this,  that  while 
the  individual  in  the  determination  of  the  comprehension 
of  life,  proper  to  the  new  stage  of  life  into  which  he 
enters,  and  in  the  activity  which  arises  from  it,  makes  use  of 
the  indications  of  men  who  have  lived  before  him  and  who 
have  already  passed  through  the  period  of  life  upon  which 
he  is  entering,  humanity  cannot  have  these  indications, 
because  it  all  moves  along  an  untrodden  path,  and  there 
is  no  one  who  can  tell  how  life  is  to  be  understood,  and 
how  one  is  to  act  under  the  new  cotxlitions  into  which  it 
is  entering,  and  in  which  no  one  has  lived  before. 

And  yet,  as  a  married  man  with  children  cannot  continue 
to  understand  life  as  he  understood  it  when  he  was  a 
child,  so  humanity  cannot  in  connection  with  all  the 
various  changes  which  have  taken  place,  —  the  density 
of  the  population,  and  the  established  intercourse  between 
the  nations,  and  the  improvement  of  the  means  for  strug- 
gling against  Nature,  and  the  accumulation  of  science,  — ■ 
continue  to  understand  life  as  before,  but  must  establish 
a  new  concept  of  life,  from  which  should  result  the  activ- 
ity which  corresponds  to  that  new  condition  into  which 
it  has  entered  or  is  about  to  enter. 

To  this  demand  responds  the  peculiar  ability  of  human- 
ity to  segregate  certain  people  who  give  a  new  meaning 
to  the  whole  of  human  life,  —  a  meaning  from  which 
results  the  whole  new  activity  which  is  different  from 
the  preceding  one.  The  establishment  of  the  new  life- 
ccnception,  which  is  proper  for  humanity  under  tlie  new 
conditions  into  which  it  is  entering,  and  of  the  activity 
resulting  from  it,  is  what  is  called  religion. 

And  so  religion,  in  the  first  place,  is  not,  as  science 
thinks,  a  phenomenon  which  at  one  time  accompanied 
the  evolution  of  humanity,  and  later  became  obsolete,  but 


90         THE    KINGDOM    OF    GOD    IS    WITHIN    YOU 

is  a  phenomenon  always  inherent  in  the  life  of  humanity, 
and  is  in  our  time  as  inevitably  inherent  in  humanity  as 
at  any  other  time.  In  the  second  place,  religion  is  always 
a  determination  of  the  activity  of  the  future,  and  not  of 
the  past,  and  so  it  is  obvious  that  the  investigation  of 
past  phenomena  can  in  no  way  include  the  essence  of  re- 
hgion. 

The  essence  of  every  religious  teaching  does  not  consist 
in  the  desire  to  express  the  forces  of  Nature  symbolically, 
or  in  the  fear  of  them,  or  in  the  demand  for  the  miracu- 
lous, or  in  the  external  forms  of  its  manifestation,  as  the 
men  of  science  imagine.  The  essence  of  religion  lies  in 
the  property  of  men  prophetically  to  foresee  and  point 
out  the  path  of  life,  over  which  humanity  must  travel,  in 
a  new  definition  of  the  meaning  of  life,  from  which  also 
results  a  new,  the  whole  future  activity  of  humanity. 

This  property  of  foreseeing  the  path  on  which  human- 
ity must  travel  is  in  a  greater  or  lesser  degree  common 
to  all  men,  but  there  have  always,  at  all  times,  been  men, 
in  whom  this  quality  has  been  manifested  with  particular 
force,  and  these  men  expressed  clearly  and  precisely  what 
was  dimly  felt  by  all  men,  and  established  a  new  com- 
prehension of  life,  from  which  resulted  an  entirely  new 
activity,  for  hundreds  and  thousands  of  years. 

We  know  three  such  conceptions  of  life :  two  of  them 
humanity  has  already  outlived,  and  the  third  is  the  one 
through  which  we  are  now  passing  in  Christianity.  There 
are  three,  and  only  three,  such  conceptions,  not  because 
we  have  arbitrarily  united  all  kinds  of  life-conceptions 
into  these  three,  but  because  the  acts  of  men  always  have 
for  their  base  one  of  these  three  life-conceptions,  because 
we  cannot  understand  life  in  any  other  way  than  by  one 
of  these  three  means. 

The  three  life-conceptions  are  these :  the  first  —  the 
personal,  or  animal ;  the  second  —  the  social,  or  the 
pagan  ;  and  the  third  —  the  universal,  or  the  divine. 


THE    KINGDOM    OF    GOD    IS    WITHIN    YOU        91 

According  to  the  first  life-conception,  man's  life  is  con- 
tained in  nothing  but  his  personality ;  the  aim  of  his  life 
is  the  gratification  of  the  will  of  this  personality.  Accord- 
ing to  the  second  life-conception,  man's  hfe  is  not  con- 
tained in  his  personahty  alone,  but  in  the  aggregate  and 
sequence  of  personalities,  —  in  the  tribe,  the  family,  the 
race,  the  state  ;  the  aim  of  life  consists  in  the  gratification 
of  the  will  of  this  aggregate  of  personalities.  According 
to  the  third  life-conception,  man's  life  is  contained  neither 
in  his  personality,  nor  in  the  aggregate  and  sequence  of 
personalities,  but  in  the  beginning  and  source  of  hfe,  in 
God. 

These  three  life-conceptions  serve  .as  the  foundation  of 
all  past  and  present  religions. 

The  savage  recognizes  life  only  in  himself,  in  his  per- 
sonal desires.  The  good  of  his  life  is  centred  in  himself 
alone.  The  highest  good  for  him  is  the  greatest  gratifica- 
tion of  his  lust.  The  prime  mover  of  his  life  is  his  per- 
sonal enjoyment.  His  religion  consists  in  appeasing  the 
divinity  in  his  favour,  and  in  the  worship  of  imaginary 
personalities  of  gods,  who  live  only  for  personal  ends. 

A  pagan,  a  social  man,  no  longer  recognizes  hfe  in  him- 
self alone,  but  in  the  aggregate  of  personahties,  —  in  the 
tribe,  the  family,  the  race,  the  state,  —  and  sacrifices  his 
personal  good  for  these  aggregates.  The  prime  mover  of 
his  life  is  glory.  His  religion  consists  in  the  glorification 
of  the  heads  of  unions,  —  of  eponyms,  ancestors,  kings, 
and  in  the  worship  of  gods,  the  exclusive  protectors  of  his 
family,  his  race,  his  nation,  his  state.^ 

^The  unity  of  this  life-conception  is  not  impaired  by  the  fact  that 
so  many  various  forms  of  life,  as  that  of  the  tribe,  the  family,  the 
race,  the  state,  and  even  the  life  of  humanity,  accordinij  to  the  theo- 
retical speculations  of  the  positivists,  are  based  on  this  social,  or 
pagan,  life-conception.  All  these  various  forms  of  life  are  baaed  on 
the  same  concept  that  the  life  of  the  personality  is  not  a  sufficient  aim 
of  life  and  that  the  meaning  of  life  can  be  found  only  in  the  aggre- 
gate of  persoualities.  — Author'' a  Note. 


92        THE    KINGDOM    OF    GOD    IS    WITHIN    YOU 

The  man  with  the  divine  life-conception  no  longer  rec- 
ognizes life  to  consist  in  his  personality,  or  in  the  aggregate 
of  personalities  (in  the  family,  the  race,  the  people,  the 
country,  or  the  state),  but  in  the  source  of  the  everlasting, 
immortal  life,  in  God ;  and  to  do  God's  will  he  sacrifices 
his  personal  and  domestic  and  social  good.  The  prime 
mover  of  his  religion  is  love.  And  his  religion  is  the 
worship  in  deed  and  in  truth  of  the  beginning  of  every- 
thing, of  God. 

The  whole  historical  life  of  humanity  is  nothing  but  a 
gradual  transition  from  the  personal,  the  animal  life-con- 
ception, to  the  social,  and  from  the  social  to  the  divine. 
The  whole  history  of  the  ancient  nations,  which  lasted  for 
thousands  of  years  and  which  came  to  a  conclusion  with 
the  history  of  Rome,  is  the  history  of  the  substitution 
of  the  social  and  the  political  life-conception  for  the  ani- 
mal, the  personal.  The  whole  history  since  the  time  of 
imperial  Eome  and  the  appearance  of  Christianity  has 
been  the  history  of  the  substitution  of  the  divine  life-con- 
ception for  the  political,  and  we  are  passing  through  it 
even  now. 

It  is  this  last  life-conception,  and  the  Christian  teach- 
ing which  is  based  upon  it  and  which  governs  our  whole 
life  and  lies  at  the  foundation  of  our  whole  activity,  both 
the  practical  and  the  theoretical,  that  the  men  of  so-called 
science,  considering  it  in  reference  to  its  external  signs 
only,  recognize  as  something  obsolete  and  meaningless  for 
us. 

This  teaching,  which,  according  to  the  men  of  science, 
is  contained  only  in  its  dogmatic  part,  —  in  the  doctrine 
of  the  Trinity,  the  redemption,  the  miracles,  the  church, 
the  sacraments,  and  so  forth,  —  is  only  one  out  of  a  vast 
number  of  religions  which  have  arisen  in  humanity,  and 
now,  having  played  its  part  in  history,  is  outliving  its 
usefulness,  melting  in  the  hght  of  science  and  true  culture. 

What  is  taking  place  is  what  in  the  majority  of  cases 


1 


THE    KINGDOM    OF    GOD    IS    WITHIN    YOU        93 

serves  as  a  source  of  the  coarsest  human  errors,  —  men 
who  are  standing  on  a  lower  level  of  comprehension,  com- 
ing in  contact  with  phenomena  of  a  higher  order,  instead 
of  making  ell'orts  to  understand  them,  instead  of  rising  to 
the  point  of  view  from  which  they  ought  to  look  upon 
a  subject,  judge  it  from  their  lower  point  of  view,  and 
that,  too,  with  greater  daring  and  determination  the  less 
they  understand  what  they  are  talking  about. 

For  the  majority  of  scientific  men,  who  view  Christ's 
vital,  moral  teaching  from  the  lower  point  of  the  social 
conception  of  hfe,  this  teaching  is  only  a  very  indefinite, 
clumsy  combination  of  Hindoo  asceticism.  Stoical  and  Neo- 
platonic  teachings,  and  Utopian  antisocial  reveries,  which 
have  no  serious  significance  for  our  time,  and  its  whole 
meaning  is  centred  in  its  external  manifestations,  —  in 
Catholicism,  Protestantism,  the  dogmas,  the  struggle  with 
the  worldly  power.  In  defining  the  significance  of  Chris- 
tianity according  to  these  phenomena,  they  are  like  deaf 
persons  who  should  judge  of  the  meaning  and  the  worth 
of  music  according  to  the  appearance  of  the  motions  which 
the  musicians  make. 

The  result  of  it  is  this,  that  all  these  men,  beginning 
with  Comte,  Strauss,  Spencer,  and  Eenan,  who  do  not  un- 
derstand the  meaning  of  Christ's  sermons,  who  do  not 
understand  why  they  are  uttered  and  for  what  purpose, 
who  do  not  even  understand  the  question  to  which  they 
serve  as  an  answer,  who  do  not  even  take  the  trouble  to 
grasp  their  meaning,  if  they  are  inimically  inclined,  deny 
outright  the  rationality  of  the  teaching ;  but  if  they  wish 
to  be  condescending  to  it,  they  correct  it  from  the  height, 
of  their  grandeur,  assuming  that  Christ  wanted  to  say  pre- 
cisely what  they  have  in  mind,  but  did  not  know  how  to 
say  it.  They  treat  his  teaching  as,  in  correcting  the  words 
of  an  interlocutor,  self-confident  men  generally  speak  to 
one  whom  they  regard  as  standing  below  them,  "  Yes, 
what  you  mean  to  say  is  this."     This  correction  is  always 


94        THE    KINGDOM    OF    GOD    IS    WITHIN    YOU 

made  in  the  sense  of  reduciug  the  higher,  divine  life-con- 
ception to  the  lower,  social  conception. 

People  generally  say  that  the  moral  teaching  of  Chris- 
tianity is  good,  but  exaggerated,  —  that,  in  order  that  it 
should  be  absolutely  good,  we  must  reject  from  it  what 
is  superfluous,  what  does  not  fit  in  with  our  structure  of 
life.  "  For  otherwise  the  teaching,  which  demands  too 
much,  which  cannot  be  carried  out,  is  worse  than  one 
which  demands  from  men  what  is  possible  and  in  con- 
formity with  their  strength,"  think  and  assert  the  wise 
interpreters  of  Christianity,  repeating  what  was  long  ago 
affirmed  and  still  is  affirmed,  and  could  not  help  but  be 
affirmed,  in  relation  to  the  Christian  teaching,  by  those 
who,  having  failed  to  comprehend  the  teacher  of  it,  cruci- 
fied Him,  —  by  the  Jews. 

It  turns  out  that  before  the  judgment  of  the  learned  of 
our  time,  the  Jewish  law,  A  tooth  for  a  tooth,  and  an  eye 
for  an  eye,  —  the  law  of  just  retaliation,  which  was  known 
to  humanity  five  thousand  years  ago,  —  is  more  useful  than 
the  law  of  love  which  eighteen  hundred  years  ago  was 
preached  by  Christ  in  place  of  this  very  law  of  justice. 

It  turns  out  that  everything  which  has  been  done  by 
the  men  who  comprehended  Christ's  teaching  in  a  direct 
manner  and  lived  in  conformity  with  such  a  comprehen- 
sion, everything  which  all  true  Christians,  all  Christian 
champions,  have  done,  everything  which  now  transforms 
the  world  under  the  guise  of  socialism  and  communism, 
—  is  exaggeration,  of  which  it  is  not  worth  while  to 
speak. 

Men  who  have  been  educated  in  Christianity  for  eight- 
een centuries  have  convinced  themselves  in  the  persons 
of  their  foremost  men,  the  scholars,  that  the  Christian 
teaching  is  a  teaching  of  dogmas,  that  the  vital  teaching 
is  a  misconception,  an  exaggeration,  which  violates  the 
true  legitimate  demands  of  morality,  which  correspond  to 
man's   nature^  and   that   the  doctrine  of   justice,  which 


THE    KINGDOM    OF    GOD    IS    WITHIN    TOU        95 

Christ  rejected  and  in  the  place  of  which  he  put  his  own 
teaching,  is  much  more  profitable  for  us. 

The  learned  consider  the  commandment  of  non-resist- 
ance to  evil  an  exaggeration  and  even  madness.  If  it  be 
rejected,  it  would  be  much  better,  they  think,  without 
observing  that  they  are  not  talking  of  Christ's  teaching  at 
all,  but  of  what  presents  itself  to  them  as  such. 

They  do  not  notice  that  to  say  that  Christ's  command- 
ment about  non-resistance  to  evil  is  an  exaggeration  is  the 
same  as  saying  that  in  the  theory  of  the  circle  the  state- 
ment about  the  equality  of  the  radii  of  a  circle  is  an 
exaggeration.  And  those  who  say  so  do  precisely  what 
a  man,  who  did  not  have  any  conception  as  to  what  a 
circle  is,  would  do  if  he  asserted  that  the  demand  that  nil 
the  points  on  the  circumference  should  be  equally  distant 
from  the  centre  is  an  exaggeration.  To  advise  that 
the  statement  concerning  the  equality  of  the  radii  in  a 
circle  be  rejected  or  moderated  is  the  same  as  not  under- 
standing what  a  circle  is.  To  advise  that  the  command- 
ment  about  non-resistance  to  evil  in  the  vital  teaching  of 
Christ  be  rejected  or  moderated  means  not  to  understand 
the  teaching. 

And  those  who  do  so  actually  do  not  understand  it  at 
all.  They  do  not  understand  that  this  teaching  is  the 
establishment  of  a  new  comprehension  of  life,  which  cor- 
responds to  the  new  condition  into  which  men  have  been 
entering  for  these  eighteen  hundred  years,  and  the  deter- 
mination of  the  new  activity  which  results  from  it.  They 
do  not  believe  that  Christ  wanted  to  say  what  he  did  ;  or 
it  seems  to  them  that  what  he  said  in  the  Sermon  on  the 
Mount  and  in  other  passages  He  said  from  infatuation, 
from  lack  of  comprehension,  from  insufficient  develop- 
ment.^ 

^  Here,  for  example,  is  a  characteristic  judgment  of  the  kind  in  an 
article  of  an  American  periodical,  Arena,  October,  1890.  The  article 
is  entitled  "A  New  Basis  of  Church  Life."     In  discussing  the  sig- 


96        THE    KINGDOM    OF    GOD    IS    WITHIN    YOU 

Therefore  I  say  unto  you,  Take  no  thought  for  your 
life,  what  ye  shall  eat,  or  what  ye  shall  drink ;  nor  yet- 
for  your  body,  what  ye  shall  put  on.  Is  not  the  life 
more  than  meat,  and  the  body  than  raiment?  Behold 
the  fowls  of  the  air :  for  they  sow  not,  neither  do  they 
reap,  nor  gather  into  baa-ns ;  yet  your  heavenly  Father 
feedeth  them.  Are  ye  not  much  better  than  they  ? 
Which  of  you  by  taking  thought  can  add  one  cubit  unto 
his  stature  ?  And  why  take  ye  thought  for  raiment  ? 
Consider  the  lilies  of  the  field,  how  they  grow ;  they  toil 
not,  neither  do  they  spin :  and  yet  I  say  unto  you,  That 
even  Solomon  in  all  his  glory  was  not  arrayed  like  one  of 
these.  Wherefore,  if  God  so  clothe  the  grass  of  the  field, 
which  to-day  is,  and  to-morrow  is  cast  into  the  oven,  shall 
He  not  much  more  clothe  you,  O  ye  of  little  faith  ? 
Therefore  take  no  thought,  saying.  What  shall  we  eat  ? 
or,  What  shall  we  drink,  or.  Wherewithal  shall  we  be 
clothed  ?  (For  after  all  these  things  do  the  Gentiles 
seek : )  for  your  heavenly  Father  knoweth  that  ye  have 
need  of  all  these  things.     But  seek  ye  first  the  kingdom 

nificance  of  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount,  and  especially  its  non-resist- 
ance to  evil,  the  author,  who  is  not  obliged,  like  the  ecclesiastic 
writers,  to  conceal  its  meaning,  says:  "Christ  actually  preached 
complete  communism  and  anarchy  ;  but  we  must  know  how  to  look 
upon  Christ  in  His  historical  and  psychologic  significance."  [This sen- 
tence is  not  in  the  English  article.  —  Tr.]  "Devout  common  sense 
must  gradually  come  to  look  upon  Christ  as  a  philanthropic  teacher 
who,  like  every  entimsiast  who  ever  taught,  went  to  an  Utopian  ex- 
treme of  His  own  philosophy.  Every  great  agitation  for  the  better- 
ment of  the  world  has  been  led  by  men  who  beheld  their  own 
mission  with  such  absorbing  intensity  that  they  could  see  little  else. 
It  is  no  reproach  to  Christ  to  say  that  He  had  the  typical  reformer's 
temperament  ;  that  His  precepts  cannot  be  literally  accepted  as  a 
complete  philosophy  of  life  ;  and  that  men  are  to  analyze  them  rever- 
ently, but,  at  the  same  time,  in  the  spirit  of  ordinary,  truth-seeking 
criticism,"  and  so  forth.  Christ  would  have  liked  to  speak  well, 
but  He  did  not  know  how  to  express  Himself  as  precisely  and  clearly 
as  we,  in  the  spirit  of  criticism,  and  so  we  will  correct  him.  Every- 
thing He  said  about  meekness,  sacrifice,  poverty,  the  thoughtless- 
ness for  the  morrow,  He  said  by  chance,  having  been  uuable  to 
express  himself  scientifically.  —  Author'' s  Note. 


THE    KINGDOM    OF    GOD    IS    WITHIN   YOU        97 

of  God,  and  His  righteousness ;  and  all  these  things  shall 
be  added  unto  you.  Take  therefore  no  thought  for  the 
morrow  :  for  the  morrow  shall  take  thought  for  the  things 
of  itself.  Sufficient  unto  the  day  is  the  evil  thereof 
(Matt.  vi.  25-34). 

Sell  that  ye  have,  aud  give  alms ;  provide  yourselves 
bags  which  wax  not  old,  a  treasure  in  the  heavens  that 
faileth  not,  where  no  thief  approacheth,  neither  moth  cor- 
rupteth.  For  where  your  treasure  is  there  will  your  heart 
be  also  (Luke  xii.  33-34). 

Go  and  sell  that  thou  hast,  and  follow  me,  and  who 
hath  not  forsaken  father  or  mother,  or  children,  or  breth- 
ren, or  fields,  or  house,  cannot  be  my  disciple. 

Turn  away  from  thyself,  take  thy  cross  for  every  day, 
and  come  after  me.  My  meat  is  to  do  the  will  of  Him 
that  sent  me,  and  to  do  His  work.  Not  my  will  be  done, 
but  Thine ;  not  what  I  want,  but  what  Thou  wantest,  and 
not  as  I  want,  but  as  Thou  wantest.  The  life  is  in  this, 
not  to  do  one's  will,  but  the  will  of  God. 

All  these  propositions  seem  to  men  who  are  standing 
on  a  lower  life-conception  to  be  an  expression  of  an 
ecstatic  transport,  which  has  no  direct  applicability  to 
life.  And  yet  these  propositions  just  as  strictly  result 
from  the  Christian  conception  of  life  as  the  tenet  about 
giving  up  one's  labour  for  the  common  good,  about  sacri- 
ficing oue's  life  in  the  defence  of  one's  country,  results 
from  the  social  conception. 

Just  as  a  man  of  the  social  life-conception  says  to  a 
savage,  "  Come  to  your  senses,  bethink  yourself !  The  life 
of  your  personality  cannot  be  the  true  life,  because  it  is 
wretched  aud  transitory.  Only  the  life  of  the  aggregate 
and  of  the  sequence  of  personalities,  of  the  tribe,  the 
family,  the  race,  the  state,  is  continued  aud  lives,  and 
so  a  man  must  sacrifice  his  personality  for  the  life  of  the 
family,  the  state."  Precisely  the  same  the  Christian 
teaching  says  to  a  man  of  the  aggregate,  of   the  social 


98        THE   KINGDOM    OF   GOD   IS    WITHIN   YOU 

conception  of  life.  "  Repent,  fieTavoelre,  that  is,  bethink 
yourselves,  or  else  you  will  perish.  Remember  that  this 
carnal,  personal  life,  which  originated  to-day  and  will  be 
destroyed  to-morrow,  cannot  be  made  secure  in  any  way, 
that  no  external  measures,  no  arrangement  of  it,  can  add 
firmness  and  rationality  to  it.  Bethink  yourselves  and 
understand  that  the  life  which  you  live  is  not  the  true 
life :  the  hfe  of  the  family,  the  life  of  society,  the  life  of 
the  state  will  not  save  you  from  ruin."  The  true,  rational 
life  is  possible  for  man  only  in  proportion  as  he  can  be  a 
participant,  not  in  the  family  or  the  state,  but  in  the 
source  of  life,  the  Father  ;  in  proportion  as  he  can  blend 
his  life  with  the  life  of  the  Father.  Such  indubitably  is 
the  Christian  life-comprehension,  which  may  be  seen  in 
every  utterance  of  the  Gospel. 

It  is  possible  not  to  share  this  hfe-conception  ;  it  is  pos- 
sible to  reject  it ;  it  is  possible  to  prove  its  inexactness 
and  irregularity  ;  but  it  is  impossible  to  judge  of  the  teach- 
ing, without  having  first  grasped  the  life-conception  from 
which  it  results ;  still  less  possible  is  it  to  judge  about  a 
subject  of  a  higher  order  from  a  lower  point  of  view,  to 
judge  of  the  tower  by  looking  at  the  foundation.  But 
it  is  precisely  this  that  the  learned  men  of  our  time  are 
doing.  They  do  so  because  they  abide  in  an  error,  which 
is  like  the  one  of  the  churchmen,  the  belief  that  they  are 
in  possession  of  such  methods  of  the  study  of  the  subject 
that,  as  soon  as  these  methods,  called  scientific,  are  used, 
there  can  be  no  longer  any  doubt  as  to  the  correctness  of 
the  comprehension  of  the  subject  under  advisement. 

It  is  this  possession  of  an  instrument  of  cognition, 
which  they  deem  infallible,  that  serves  as  the  chief 
obstacle  in  the  comprehension  of  the  Christian  teaching 
by  unbelievers  and  so-called  scientific  men,  by  whose 
opinion  the  vast  majority  of  unbelievers,  the  so-called 
cultured  men,  are  guided.  From  this  imaginary  compre- 
hension of  theirs  arise  all  the  errors  of  the  scientific  men 


THE    KINGDOM    OF    GOD    IS    WITHIN    YOU         99 

in  respect  to  the  Christian  teaching,  and  especially  two 
strange  misconceptions  which  more  than  any  other  im- 
pede the  correct  comprehension  of  it. 

One  of  these  misconceptions  is  this,  that  the  Christian 
vital  teaching  is  impracticable,  and  so  is  either  entirely 
uuobligatory,  that  is,  need  not  be  taken  for  a  guide,  or 
else  must  be  modified  and  moderated  to  such  an  extent 
as  to  make  it  practicable  in  our  society.  Another  mis- 
understanding is  tliis,  that  the  Christian  teaching  of  love 
of  God,  and  so  tlie  service  of  Him,  is  an  obscure,  mystical 
demand,  which  lias  no  definite  object  of  love,  and  so  must 
give  way  to  a  more  precise  and  comprehensible  teaching 
about  loving  men  and  serving  humanity. 

The  first  misconception  about  the  impracticableness 
of  the  teaching  consists  in  this,  that  the  men  of  the 
social  comprehension  of  life,  being  unable  to  comprehend 
the  method  by  means  of  which  the  Christian  teaching 
guides  men,  and  taking  the  Christian  indications  of  per- 
fection to  be  rules  which  determine  life,  think  and  say 
that  it  is  impossible  to  follow  Christ's  teaching,  because  a 
complete  fultilnient  of  this  teaching  destroys  life. 

"  If  a  man  fulfilled  what  was  preached  by  Christ,  he 
would  destroy  his  life ;  and  if  all  men  should  fulfil  it,  the 
whole  human  race  would  come  to  an  end,"  they  say. 

"  If  we  care  not  for  the  morrow,  for  what  we  shall  eat 
and  drink  and  be  clothed  in ;  if  we  do  not  defend  our 
lives ;  if  we  do  not  resist  evil  with  force ;  if  we  give 
our  lives  for  our  friends,  and  observe  absolute  chastity, 
no  man,  nor  the  whole  human  race,  can  exist,"  they  think 
and  say. 

And  they  are  quite  correct,  if  we  take  the  indications 
of  perfection,  as  given  by  Christ,  for  rules,  which  every 
man  is  obliged  to  carry  out,  just  as  in  the  social  teaching 
everybody  is  obliged  to  carry  out  the  rule  about  paying 
the  taxes,  about  taking  part  in  court,  etc. 

The  misconception  consists  in  this,  that  Christ's  teach- 


100      THE    KINGDOM    OF    GOD    IS    WITHIN    YOU 

ing  guides  men  in  a  different  way  from  the  way  those 
teachings  guide  which  are  based  on  a  lower  life-conception. 
The  teachings  of  the  social  life-conception  guide  only  by 
demanding  a  precise  execution  of  the  rules  or  laws.  Christ's 
teaching  guides  men  by  indicating  to  them  that  infinite 
perfection  of  the  Father  in  heaven,  toward  which  it  is 
proper  for  each  man  to  strive  voluntarily,  no  matter  at 
what  stage  of  perfection  he  may  be. 

The  misconception  of  people  who  judge  about  the 
Christian  teaching  from  the  social  point  of  view  consists 
in  this,  that  they,  assuming  that  the  perfection  pointed 
out  by  Christ  may  be  attained  completely,  ask  themselves 
(even  as  they  question  themselves,  assuming  that  the  social 
laws  will  be  fulfilled)  what  will  happen  when  all  this  shall 
be  fulfilled.  This  assumption  is  false,  because  the  perfection 
pointed  out  by  Christ  is  infinite  and  can  never  be  attained  ; 
and  Christ  gives  His  teaching  with  this  in  view,  that  com- 
plete perfection  will  never  be  attained,  but  that  the  striving 
toward  complete,  infinite  perfection  will  constantly  increase 
the  good  of  men,  and  that  this  good  can,  therefore,  be  in- 
creased infinitely. 

Christ  does  not  teach  angels,  but  men,  who  live  an 
animal  life,  who  are  moved  by  it.  And  it  is  to  this  animal 
force  of  motion  that  Christ  seems  to  apply  a  new,  a  different 
force  of  the  consciousness  of  divine  perfection,  and  with 
this  He  directs  the  motion  of  life  along  the  resultant  of 
two  forces. 

To  assume  that  human  life  will  go  in  the  direction  indi- 
cated by  Christ  is  the  same  as  assuming  that  a  boatman,  in 
crossing  a  rapid  river  and  directing  his  boat  almost  against 
the  current,  will  move  in  that  direction. 

Christ  recognizes  the  existence  of  both  sides  of  the  paral- 
lelogram, of  both  the  eternal,  indestructible  forces,  of  which 
man's  life  is  composed,  —  the  force  of  the  animal  nature 
and  the  force  of  the  consciousness  of  a  filial  relation  to 
God.    Without  saying  anything  of  the  animal  force,  which, 


THE    KINGDOM    OF    GOD    IS    WITHIN    YOU      101 

asserting  itself,  always  remains  equal  to  itself  and  exists 
outside  of  man's  power,  Christ  speaks  only  of  the  divine 
force,  calling  man  to  recognize  it  in  the  highest  degree,  to 
free  it  as  much  as  possible  from  what  is  retarding  it,  and 
to  bring  it  to  the  highest  degree  of  tension. 

In  this  liberation  and  increase  of  the  force  does  man's 
true  life,  according  to  Christ's  teacliing,  consist.  The  true 
life,  according  to  the  previous  conditions,  consisted  in  the 
execution  of  rules,  of  the  law  ;  according  to  Christ's  teach- 
ing, it  consists  in  the  greatest  approach  to  the  divine  per- 
fection, as  pointed  out  to  every  man  and  inwardly  felt  by 
him,  in  a  greater  and  ever  greater  approach  toward  blend- 
ing our  will  with  the  will  of  G6d,  a  blending  toward 
which  a  man  strives,  and  which  would  be  a  destruction 
of  life  as  we  know  it. 

Divine  perfection  is  the  asymptote  of  the  human  life, 
toward  which  it  always  tends  and  approaches,  and  which 
can  be  attained  by  it  only  at  infinity. 

The  Christian  teaching  seems  to  exclude  the  possibility 
of  life  only  when  men  take  the  indication  of  the  ideal  to 
be  a  rule.  It  is  only  then  that  the  demands  put  forth  by 
Christ's  teaching  appear  to  be  destructive  of  life.  Witliout 
these  demands  the  true  life  would  be  impossible. 

"  Too  much  should  not  be  demanded,"  people  generally 
say,  in  discussing  the  demands  of  the  Christian  teaching. 
"  It  is  impossible  to  demand  that  we  should  not  care  for 
the  future,  as  it  says  in  the  Gospel ;  all  that  we  should  do 
is  not  to  care  too  much.  It  is  impossible  to  give  every- 
thing to  the  poor ;  but  we  should  give  a  certain,  definite 
part  to  them.  It  is  not  necessary  to  strive  after  chastity ; 
but  debauchery  sliould  be  avoided.  We  must  not  leave 
our  wives  and  children ;  l)ut  we  should  not  be  too  much 
attached  to  them,"  and  so  forth. 

But  to  speak  in  this  manner  is  the  same  as  telHng  a 
man  who  is  crossing  a  rapid  river,  and  who  is  directing 
his  course  against  the  current,  that  it  is  impossible  to  cross 


102     THE    KINGDOM    OF    GOD    IS    WITHIN   YOU 

the  river  by  going  against  the  current,  but  that  to  cross  it 
he  should  row  in  the  direction  he  wishes  to  go. 

Christ's  teaching  differs  from  previous  teachings  in  that 
it  guides  men,  not  by  external  rules,  but  by  the  internal 
consciousness  of  the  possibility  of  attaining  divine  per- 
fection. And  in  man's  soul  there  are  not  moderated  rules 
of  justice  and  of  philanthropy,  but  the  ideal  of  the  complete, 
infinite,  divine  perfection.  Only  the  striving  after  this  per- 
fection deflects  the  direction  of  man's  life  from  the  animal 
condition  toward  the  divine,  to  the  extent  to  which  this  is 
possible  in  this  life. 

In  order  to  land  where  you  wish,  you  must  direct  your 
course  much  higher  up. 

To  lower  the  demands  of  the  ideal  means  not  only  to 
diminish  the  possibility  of  perfection,  but  to  destroy  the 
ideal  itself.  The  ideal  which  operates  upon  people  is  not 
an  invented  one,  but  one  which  is  borne  in  the  soul  of 
every  man.  Only  this  ideal  of  the  complete,  infinite 
perfection  acts  upon  people  and  moves  them  to  activity. 
A  moderated  perfection  loses  its  power  to  act  upon  men's 
souls. 

Christ's  teaching' only  then  has  force,  when  it  demands 
full  perfection,  that  is,  the  blending  of  God's  essence, 
which  abides  in  the  soul  of  every  man,  with  the  will  of 
God,  —  the  union  of  the  son  and  the  Father.  Only  this 
liberation  of  the  son  of  God,  who  hves  in  every  man,  from 
the  animal,  and  his  approximation  to  the  Father  form  life 
according  to  Christ's  teaching. 

The  existence  of  the  animal  in  man,  of  nothing  but  the 
animal,  is  not  the  human  life.  Life  according  to  the  will 
of  God  alone  is  also  not  the  human  life.  The  human  life 
is  the  resultant  from  the  animal  and  the  divine  lives,  and 
the  more  this  resultant  approaches  the  divine  life,  the 
more  there  is  of  life. 

Life,  according  to  the  Christian  teaching,  is  a  motion 
toward  divine  perfection.     No  condition,  according  to  this 


THE    KINGDOM    OF    GOD   IS    WITHIN    YOU      lOo 

teaching,  can  be  higher  or  lower  than  another.  Every 
condition,  according  to  this  teaching,  is  only  a  certain  step, 
indifferent  in  itself,  toward  the  unattainable  perfection,  and 
so  in  itself  forms  neither  a  greater  nor  a  lesser  degree  of 
life.  The  increase  of  life,  according  to  this  teaching,  is 
only  an  acceleration  of  motion  toward  perfection,  and  so 
the  motion  toward  perfection  of  the  publican  Zaccha'us, 
of  the  harlot,  of  the  robber  on  the  cross,  forms  a  higher 
degree  of  life  than  the  immovable  righteousness  of  the 
Pharisee.  And  so  there  can  be  no  obligatory  rules  for 
this  teaching.  A  man  who  stands  on  a  lower  step,  in 
moving  toward  perfection,  lives  more  morally  and  better, 
and  better  performs  the  teaching,  than  a  man  who  stands 
on  a  much  higher  stage  of  morality,  but  who  does  not 
move  toward  perfection. 

In  this  sense  the  lost  sheep  is  dearer  to  the  Father 
than  one  which  is  not  lost.  The  prodigal  son,  the  lost 
coin  which  is  found  again,  are  dearer  than  those  which 
were  not  lost. 

The  fulfilment  of  the  teaching  consists  in  the  motion 
from  oneself  toward  God.  It  is  evident  that  for  such  a 
fulfilment  of  the  teaching  there  can  be  no  definite  laws 
and  rules.  All  degrees  of  perfection  and  all  degrees  of 
imperfection  are  equal  before  this  teaching  ;  no  fulfilment 
of  the  laws  constitutes  a  fulfilment  of  the  teaching ;  and 
so,  for  this  teaching  there  are,  and  there  can  be,  no  rules 
and  no  laws. 

From  this  radical  distinction  of  Christ's  teaching  as 
compared  with  previous  teachings,  which  are  based  on 
the  social  conception  of  life,  there  results  the  difference 
between  the  social  and  the  Christian  commandments. 
The  social  commandments  are  for  the  most  part  positive, 
prescribing  certain  acts,  justifying  men,  giving  them 
righteousness.  But  the  Christian  commandments  (the 
commandment  of  love  is  not  a  commandment  in  the 
strict  sense  of  the  word,  but  an  expression  of  the  very 


104      THE    KINGDOM    OF    GOD    IS    WITHIN    YOU 

essence  of  the  teaching)  —  the  five  commandments  of  the 
Sermon  on  the  Mount  —  are  all  negative,  and  they  all 
show  only  what  men  may  not  do  at  a  certain  stage  of 
human  development.  These  commandments  are,  as  it 
were,  signals  on  the  infinite  road  to  perfection,  toward 
which  humanity  walks,  signals  of  that  stage  of  perfection 
which  is  possible  at  a  given  period  of  the  development  of 
humanity. 

In  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount  Christ  has  expressed  the 
eternal  ideal  toward  which  it  is  proper  for  men  to  tend, 
and  that  degree  of  its  attainment  which  can  be  reached 
even  in  our  time. 

The  ideal  consists  in  having  no  ill-will  against  any  one, 
in  calling  forth  no  ill-will,  in  loving  all ;  but  the  com- 
mandment, below  which,  in  the  attainment  of  this  ideal, 
it  is  absolutely  possible  not  to  descend,  consists  in  not 
offending  any  one  with  a  word.  And  this  forms  the  first 
commandment. 

The  ideal  is  complete  chastity,  even  in  thought ;  the 
commandment  which  points  out  the  degree  of  attainment, 
below  which,  in  the  attainment  of  this  ideal,  it  is  abso- 
lutely possible  not  to  descend,  is  the  purity  of  the  marital 
life,  the  abstaining  from  fornication.  And  this  forms  the 
second  commandment. 

The  ideal  is  not  to  care  for  the  future,  to  live  only  in 
the  present ;  the  commandment  which  points  out  the 
degree  of  the  attainment,  below  which  it  is  absolutely 
possible  not  to  descend  is  not  to  swear,  not  to  promise 
anything  to  men.     And  this  is  the  third  commandment. 

The  ideal  is  never,  under  any  condition,  to  make  use  of 
violence ;  the  commandment  which  points  out  the  degree 
below  which  it  is  absolutely  possible  not  to  descend  is 
not  to  repay  evil  with  evil,  but  to  suffer  insult,  to  give 
up  one's  cloak.     And  this  is  the  fourth  commandment. 

The  ideal  is  to  love  our  enemies,  who  hate  us ;  the 
commandment  which  points  out  the  degree  of  the  attain- 


THE    KINGDOM    OF    GOD    IS    WITHIN    YOU      105 

ment,  below  which  it  is  possible  not  to  descend,  is  to  do 
no  evil  to  our  enemies,  to  speak  well  of  them,  to  make  no 
distinction  between  them  and  our  fellow  citizens. 

All  these  commandments  are  indications  of  what  we 
are  fully  able  not  to  do  on  the  path  of  striving  after  per- 
fection, of  what  we  ought  to  work  over  now,  of  what  we 
must  by  degrees  transfer  into  the  sphere  of  habit,  into  the 
sphere  of  the  unconscious.  But  these  commandments 
fail  to  form  a  teaching,  and  do  not  exhaust  it,  and  form 
only  one  of  the  endless  steps  in  the  approximation  toward 
perfection. 

After  these  commandments  there  must  and  will  follow 
higher  and  higher  ones  on  the  path  to  perfection,  which 
is  indicated  by  the  teaching. 

And  so  it  is  the  peculiarity  of  the  Christian  teaching 
that  it  makes  higher  demands  than  those  which  are  ex- 
pressed in  these  commandments,  but  under  no  condition 
minimizes  the  demands,  either  of  the  ideal  itself,  or  of 
these  commandments,  as  is  done  by  people  who  judge  the 
teaching  of  Christianity  free  from  the  standpoint  of  the 
social  conception  of  life. 

Such  is  one  misconception  of  the  scientific  men  con- 
cerning the  meaning  and  significance  of  Christ's  teaching  ; 
the  other,  which  flows  from  the  same  source,  consists  in 
the  substitution  of  the  love  and  service  of  men,  of  human- 
ity, for  the  Christian  demand  for  loving  God  and  serving 
Him. 

The  Christian  teaching  of  loving  God  and  serving  Him, 
and  (only  in  consequence  of  this  love  and  this  service) 
of  the  love  and  service  of  our  neighbour,  appears  obscure, 
mystical,  and  arbitrary  to  the  men  of  science,  and  they 
completely  exclude  the  demand  of  love  of  God  and  of 
serving  Him,  assuming  that  the  teaching  about  this  love 
of  men,  of  humanity,  is  much  more  intelligible  and  firm 
and  better  grounded. 

The  men  of  science  teach  theoretically  that  the  good 


lOG      THE   KINGDOM    OF    GOD    IS    WITHIN    YOU 

and  sensible  life  is  only  the  life  of  serving  the  whole  of 
humanity,  and  in  this  alone  do  they  see  the  meaning 
of  the  Christian  teaching ;  to  this  teaching  do  they 
reduce  the  Christian  teaching ;  for  this  their  teaching 
do  they  seek  a  confirmation  in  the  Christian  teaching,  as- 
suming that  their  teaching  and  the  Christian  teaching  are 
one  and  the  same. 

This  opinion  is  quite  faulty.  The  Christian  teaching, 
and  that  of  the  positivists,  communists,  and  all  the 
preachers  of  a  universal  brotherhood  of  men^  which  is 
based  on  the  profitableness  of  such  a  brotherhood,  have 
nothing  in  common  among  themselves,  and  differ  from  one 
another  more  especially  in  this,  that  the  Christian  teach- 
ing has  firm,  clear  foundations  in  the  human  soul,  while 
the  teaching  of  the  love  of  humanity  is  only  a  theoretical 
deduction  from  analogy. 

The  teaching  of  the  love  of  humanity  alone  has  for  its 
basis  the  social  conception  of  life. 

The  essence  of  the  social  conception  of  life  consists  in 
the  transference  of  the  meaning  of  our  personal  hves 
into  the  life  of  the  aggregate  of  personalities,  —  the  tribe, 
the  family,  the  race,  the  state.  This  transference  has 
taken  place  easily  and  naturally  in  its  first  forms,  in  the 
transference  of  the  meaning  of  life  from  the  personality 
to  the  tribe,  the  family.  But  the  transference  to  the  race 
or  nation  is  more  difiicult  and  demands  a  special  educa- 
tion for  it ;  and  the  transference  of  the  consciousness  to 
the  state  forms  the  limit  of  such  a  transference. 

It  is  natural  for  any  one  to  love  himself,  and  every 
person  loves  himself  without  any  special  incitement ;  to 
love  my  tribe,  which  supports  and  defends  me,  to  love  my 
wife,  the  joy  and  helpmate  of  my  life,  my  children,  the 
pleasure  and  hope  of  my  life,  and  my  parents,  who  have 
given  me  life  and  an  education,  is  natural :  and  this  kind  of 
love,  though  far  from  being  as  strong  as  the  love  of  self, 
is  met  mth  quite  frequently. 


THE    KINGDOM    OF    GOD    IS    WITHIN    YOU      107 

To  love  one's  race,  one's  nation,  for  the  sake  of  oneself, 
of  one's  pride,  though  not  so  natural,  is  still  to  be  met 
with.  The  love  of  one's  nation,  which  is  of  the  same  race, 
tongue,  and  faith  with  one,  is  still  possible,  though  this 
sentiment  is  far  from  being  as  strong  as  the  love  of  self, 
or  even  of  family  and  race ;  but  the  love  of  a  country, 
like  Turkey,  Germany,  England,  Austria,  Russia,  is  almost 
an  impossible  thing,  and,  in  spite  of  the  intensified  educa- 
tion in  this  direction,  is  only  assumed  and  does  not  exist 
in  reahty.  With  this  aggregate  there  ends  for  man  the 
possibility  of  transferring  his  consciousness  and  of  expe- 
riencing in  this  fiction  any  immediate  sensation.  But  the 
positivists  and  all  the  preachers  of  a  scientific  brotherhood, 
who  do  not  take  into  consideration  the  weakening  of  the 
sentiment  in  proportion  as  tlie  subject  is  widened,  continue 
the  discussion  theoretically  along  the  same  direction  : 
"  If,"  they  say, "  it  was  more  advantageous  for  the  person- 
ality to  transfer  its  consciousness  to  the  tribe,  the  family, 
and  then  to  the  nation,  the  state,  it  will  be  still  more 
advantageous  to  transfer  the  consciousness  to  the  whole 
aggregate  of  humanity,  and  for  all  to  live  for  humanity, 
just  as  individuals  live  for  the  family,  the  state." 

Theoretically  it  really  comes  out  that  way. 

Since  tlie  consciousness  and  the  love  of  personality  are 
transferred  to  the  family,  from  the  family  to  the  race,  the 
nation,  the  state,  it  would  be  quite  logical  for  men,  to 
save  themselves  from  struggle  and  calamities,  which  are 
due  to  the  division  of  humanity  into  nations  and  states, 
most  naturally  to  transfer  their  love  to  humanity.  This 
would  seem  to  be  the  most  logical  thing,  and  this  is  theo- 
retically advocated  by  men,  who  do  not  observe  that  love 
is  a  sentiment  which  one  may  have,  but  cannot  preach, 
and  that,  besides,  for  love  there  must  be  an  object, 
whereas  humanity  is  not  an  object,  but  only  a  fiction. 

The  tribe,  the  family,  even  the  state,  are  not  invented 
by  men,  but  were  formed  naturally  like  a  swarm  of  bees  or 


108      THE    KINGDOM    OF    GOD    IS    WITHIN    YOU 

ants,  and  actually  exist.  A  man  who  loves  his  family 
for  the  sake  of  his  animal  personality,  knows  whom  he 
loves :  Anna,  Mary,  John,  Peter,  and  so  forth.  A  man 
who  loves  a  race  and  is  proud  of  it,  knows  that  he  loves 
the  whole  race  of  the  Guelphs,  or  all  the  Ghibellines ;  he 
who  loves  the  state  knows  that  he  loves  France  as  far  as 
the  Rhine  and  the  Pyrenees,  and  its  capital,  Paris,  and  its 
history,  and  so  forth.  But  what  does  a  man  love,  when 
he  loves  humanity  ?  There  is  the  state,  the  nation  ;  there 
is  the  abstract  conception  —  man ;  but  there  is  not,  and 
there  cannot  be,  a  real  conception  of  humanity. 

Humanity  ?  Where  is  the  limit  of  humanity  ?  Where 
does  it  end  and  where  does  it  begin  ?  Does  humanity 
stop  short  of  a  savage,  an  idiot,  an  alcohohc,  an  insane 
person  ?  If  we  are  going  to  draw  a  line  of  demarcation 
for  humanity,  so  as  to  exclude  the  lower  representatives 
of  the  human  race,  where  are  we  going  to  draw  it  ?  Are 
we  going  to  exclude  the  negroes,  as  the  Americans  do, 
and  the  Hindoos,  as  some  English  do,  and  the  Jews,  as 
some  do  ?  But  if  we  are  going  to  include  all  men  with- 
out exception,  why  include  men  only,  and  not  the  higher 
animals,  many  of  whom  stand  higher  than  the  lower 
representatives  of  the  human  race  ? 

We  do  not  know  humanity  as  an  external  object, — 
we  do  not  know  its  limits.  Humanity  is  a  fiction,  and  it 
cannot  be  loved.  It  would  indeed  be  very  convenient, 
if  men  could  love  humanity  just  as  they  love  the  family  ; 
it  would  be  very  convenient,  as  the  communists  talk  of 
doing,  to  substitute  the  communal  for  the  competitive 
tendency  of  human  activity,  and  the  universal  for  the 
individual,  so  that  every  man  may  be  for  all,  and  all  for 
every  man,  only  there  are  no  motives  whatever  for  it. 
The  positivists,  the  communists,  and  all  the  preachers  of 
the  scientific  brotherhood  preach  the  widening  of  that 
love  which  men  have  for  themselves  and  for  their  families 
and  for  the  state,  so  as  to  embrace  all  humanity,  forget- 


THE    KINGDOM    OF    GOD    IS    WITHIN    YOU      109 

ting  that  the  love  which  they  advocate  is  the  personal 
love,  which,  by  spreading  out  thinner,  could  extend  to  the 
family  ;  wliich,  by  spreading  out  still  thinner,  could  extend 
to  the  natural  country  of  Ijirth,  wbich  completely  vanishes 
as  soon  as  it  reaches  an  artificial  state,  as  Austria,  Turkey, 
England,  and  wliich  we  are  not  even  able  to  imagine, 
when  we  come  to  humanity,  an  entirely  mystical  subject. 

"  Man  loves  himself  (his  animal  life),  loves  his  family, 
loves  even  his  country.  Why  should  he  not  love  also 
humanity  ?  How  nice  that  would  be  !  By  the  way, 
this  is  precisely  what  Christianity  teaches." 

Thus  think  the  preacliers  of  the  positivist,  communistic, 
socialistic  brotherhoods.  It  would  indeed  be  very  nice, 
but  it  cannot  be,  because  love  which  is  based  on  the  per- 
sonal and  the  social  conception  of  life  cannot  go  beyond 
the  state. 

The  error  of  judgment  consists  in  this,  that  the  social 
life-conception,  on  which  is  based  the  love  of  family  and 
of  country,  is  built  on  the  love  of  personality,  and  that 
this  love,  being  transferred  from  the  personality  to  the 
family,  the  race,  the  nationality,  the  state,  keeps  growing 
weaker  and  weaker,  and  in  the  state  reaches  its  extreme 
hmit,  beyond  which  it  cannot  go. 

The  necessity  for  widening  the  sphere  of  love  is  incon- 
testable ;  but  at  the  same  time  this  very  necessity  for 
its  widening  in  reahty  destroys  the  possibility  of  love 
and  proves  the  insufiiciency  of  the  personal,  the  human 
love. 

And  here  the  preachers  of  the  positivist,  communistic, 
socialistic  brotherhoods,  to  succour  the  human  love,  which 
has  proved  insufficient,  propose  the  Christian  love, — 
in  its  consequences  alone,  and  not  in  its  foundations : 
they  propose  the  love  of  humanity  alone,  without  the  love 
of  God. 

But  there  can  be  no  such  love.  There  exists  no  mo- 
tive for  it.    Christian  love  results  only  from  the  Christian 


110     THE    KINGDOM    OF    GOD    IS    WITHIN   YOU 

conception  of  life,  according  to  which  the  meaning  of  life 
consists  in  the  love  of  God  and  in  serving  Him. 

By  a  natural  progression,  from  the  love  of  self  to  the 
love  of  family,  of  the  race,  of  the  nation,  of  the  state, 
the  social  conception  of  life  has  brought  men  to  the  con- 
sciousness of  the  necessity  for  a  love  of  humanity,  which 
has  no  hmits  and  blends  with  everything  in  existence, — 
to  something  which  evokes  no  sensations  in  man ;  it  has 
brought  them  to  a  contradiction,  which  cannot  be  solved 
by  the  social  conception  of  life. 

Only  the  Christian  teaching  in  all  its  significance,  by 
giving  a  new  meaning  to  life,  solves  it.  Christianity  recog- 
nizes the  love  of  self,  and  of  the  family,  and  of  the  nation, 
and  of  humanity,  —  not  only  of  humanity,  but  of  every- 
thing living,  of  everything  in  existence  ;  it  recognizes  the 
necessity  for  an  endless  widening  of  the  sphere  of  love ; 
but  the  object  of  this'love  it  does  not  find  outside  of  self, 
or  in  the  aggregate  of  personalities,  —  in  the  family,  the 
race,  the  state,  humanity,  in  the  whole  external  world,  but 
in  oneself,  in  one's  personality,  —  which,  however,  is  a 
divine  personality,  the  essence  of  which  is  the  same  love, 
to  the  necessity  of  widening  which  the  animal  personahty 
"was  brought,  in  saving  itself  from  the  consciousness  of 
its  perdition. 

The  difi'erence  between  the  Christian  teaching  and  what 
preceded  it  is  this,  that  the  preceding  social  teaching 
said :  "  Live  contrary  to  your  nature  (meaning  only  the 
animal  nature),  subordinate  it  to  the  external  law  of  the 
family,  the  society,  the  state ; "  but  Christianity  says : 
"  Live  in  accordance  with  your  nature  (meaning  the 
divine  nature),  subordinating  it  to  nothing,  —  neither  to 
your  own,  nor  to  anybody  else's  animal  nature,  —  and  you 
will  attain  what  you  are  striving  after  by  subordinating 
your  external  nature  to  external  laws." 

The  Christian  teaching  takes  man  back  to  the  primi- 
tive consciousness  of  self,  not  of  self  —  the  animal,  but 


THE    KINGDOM    OF    GOD    IS    WITHIN    YOU      111 

of  self  —  God,  the  divine  spark,  of  self  —  the  son  of  God,  of 
just  such  a  God  as  the  Father  himself,  but  included  in  an 
animal  integument.  And  the  recognition  of  self  as  this 
sou  of  God,  whose  chief  quality  is  love,  satisfies  also  all 
those  demands  for  the  widening  of  the  sphere  of  love,  to 
which  the  man  of  the  social  conception  of  life  was  brought. 
There,  with  a  greater  and  ever  greater  widening  of  the 
sphere  of  love  for  the  salvation  of  the  personality,  love 
was  a  necessity  and  was  applied  to  certain  objects,  —  self, 
the  family,  society,  humanity  ;  with  the  Christian. concep- 
tion of  life,  love  is  not  a  necessity  and  is  not  adapted  to 
anything,  but  is  an  essential  quality  of  man's  soul.  Man 
does  not  love  because  it  is  advantageous  for  him  to  love 
this  man  or  these  men,  but  because  love  is  the  essence  cf 
his  soul,  —  because  he  cannot  help  loving. 

The  Christian  teaching  consists  in  pointing  out  to  man 
that  the  essence  of  his  soul  is  love,  that  his  good  is 
derived  not  from  the  fact  that  he  will  love  this  or  that 
man,  but  from  the  fact  that  he  will  love  the  beginning 
of  everything,  God,  whom  he  recognizes  in  himself  through 
love,  and  so  will  love  everybody  and  everything. 

In  this  does  the  fundamental  difference  between  the 
Christian  teaching  and  the  teaching  of  the  positivists  and 
of  all  the  theorists  of  the  non-Christian  universal  brother- 
hood consist. 

Such  are  the  two  chief  misconceptions  concerning  the 
Christian  teaching,  from  whicli  originate  the  majority  of 
the  false  opinions  in  regard  to  it.  One  is,  that,  like  the 
preceding  teachings,  Christ's  teaching  inculcates  rules, 
which  men  are  obliged  to  follow,  and  that  these  rules  are 
impracticable ;  the  other  is,  that  the  whole  significance 
of  Christianity  consists  in  the  teaching  about  the  advanta- 
geous cohal)itation  of  humanity,  as  one  family,  for  which, 
without  mentioning  the  love  of  God,  it  is  necessary  only 
to  follow  the  rule  of  love  toward  humanity. 

The  false  opinion  of  the  scieutitic  men,  that  the  teach- 


112      THE    KINGDOM    OP    GOD   IS    WITHIN    YOU 

ing  of  the  supernatural  forms  the  essence  of  the  Christian 
teaching,  and  that  Christ's  vital  teaching  is  impracticable, 
together  with  the  misconception  which  arises  from  this 
false  opinion,  forms  the  second  cause  why  Christianity  is 
not  understood  by  the  men  of  our  time. 


There  are  many  causes  for  the  failure  to  comprehend 
Christ's  teaching.  One  cause  lies  in  this,  that  men 
assume  that  they  understand  the  teaching,  when  they 
decide,  as  the  churchmen  do,  that  it  was  transmitted  to 
us  in  a  supernatural  manner  ;  or,  as  the  scientific  men  do, 
that  they  understand  it,  when  they  have  studied  a  part 
of  those  external  phenomena  in  which  it  is  expressed. 
Another  cause  of  a  failure  to  comprehend  lies  in  the  mis- 
conceptions as  to  the  impracticability  of  the  teaching  and 
as  to  this,  that  it  ought  to  give  way  to  the  teaching  about 
the  love  of  humanity  ;  but  the  chief  cause  which  has 
engendered  all  these  misconceptions  is  this,  that  Christ's 
teaching  is  considered  to  be  such  as  can  be  accepted,  or 
not,  without  changing  one's  life. 

The  men  who  are  accustomed  to  the  existing  order  of 
things,  who  love  it  and  are  afraid  to  change  it,  try  to 
comprehend  the  teaching  as  a  collection  of  revelations 
and  rules,  which  may  be  accepted,  without  changing  their 
Uves,  whereas  Christ's  teaching  is  not  merely  a  teaching 
about  rules  which  a  man  may  follow,  but  the  elucidation 
of  a  new  meaning  of  life,  which  determines  the  whole, 
entirely  new  activity  of  humanity  for  the  period  upon 
which  it  is  entering. 

Human  life  moves,  passes,  like  the  life  of  the  individ- 
ual, and  every  age  has  its  corresponding  life-conception, 
and  this  life-conception  is  inevitably  accepted  by  men. 
Those  men  who  do  not  consciously  accept  the  life-con- 
ception proper  for  their  age  are  brought  to  it  unconsciously. 

113 


114     THE   KINGDOM    OF    GOD   IS   WITHIN   TOU 

What  takes  place  with  the  change  of  views  on  life  in  the 
case  of  individuals,  takes  place  also  with  the  change  of 
the  views  on  life  in  the  case  of  nations  and  of  all 
humanity.  If  a  man  with  a  family  continues  to  he 
guided  in  his  activity  by  a  childish  comprehension  of 
life,  his  life  will  become  so  hard  for  him  that  he 
will  involuntarily  seek  another  comprehension  of  life, 
and  will  gladly  accept  the  one  which  is  proper  for  his 
age. 

The  same  is  now  taking  place  in  our  humanity  in  the 
transition  from  the  pagan  conception  of  life  to  the  Chris- 
tian, which  is  now  going  on.  The  social  man  of  our  time 
is  brought  by  life  itself  to  the  necessity  of  renouncing  the 
pagan  conception  of  life,  which  is  no  longer  proper  for 
the  present  age  of  humanity,  and  of  submitting  to  the  de- 
mands of  the  Christian  teaching,  the  truths  of  which,  no 
matter  how  distorted  and  misinterpreted  they  may  be,  are 
still  known  to  him  and  alone  furnish  a  solution  to  those 
contradictions  in  which  he  is  losing  himself. 

If  the  demands  of  the  Christian  teaching  seem  strange 
and  even  perilous  to  the  man  of  the  social  life-conception, 
the  demands  of  the  social  teaching  anciently  seemed  just 
as  incomprehensible  and  perilous  to  a  savage,  when  he 
did 'not  yet  fully  comprehend  them  and  was  unable  to 
foresee  their  consequences. 

"  It  is  irrational  for  me  to  sacrifice  my  peace  or  even 
my  life,"  says  the  savage,  "  in  order  to  defend  something 
incomprehensible,  intangible,  conventional,  —  the  family, 
the  race,  the  country,  and,  above  all  else,  it  is  dangerous 
to  give  myself  over  to  the  disposition  of  "a  foreign 
power." 

But  the  time  came  when  the  savage,  on  the  one  hand, 
comprehended,  however  dimly,  the  significance  of  the 
social  life,  the  significance  of  its  prime  mover,  —  the  pub- 
lic approval  or  condemnation,  —  glory ;  on  the  other 
hand,  when  the   sufferings  of  his  personal  life  became  so 


THE    KINGDOM    OF    GOD    IS    WITHIN    YOU      115 

great  that  he  no  longer  continued  to  believe  in  the  truth 
of  his  former  conception  of  life,  and  accepted  the  social, 
the  political  teaching  and  submitted  to  it. 

The  same  now  takes  place  with  the  social,  the  political 
man. 

"  It  is  irrational  for  me,"  says  the  social  man,  *'  to  sacri- 
fice my  good,  the  good  of  my  family,  my  country,  for  the 
fulfilment  of  the  conditions  of  some  higher  law,  which  de- 
mauds  from  me  the  renunciation  of  the  most  natural  and 
the  best  sentiments  of  love  for  myself,  my  family,  my 
country,  and,  above  all,  it  is  dangerous  to  reject  the  secu- 
rity of  life,  which  is  given  by  the  political  structure." 

But  the  time  comes  when,  on  the  one  hand,  the  dim 
consciousness  in  his  soul  of  a  higher  law  of  love  for  C4od 
and  for  his  neighbour,  and,  on  the  other,  the  sufferings 
which  arise  from  the  contradictions  of  life,  compel  him  to 
reject  the  social  life-conception  and  to  accept  the  new, 
Christian  conception  of  life,  w^hich  is  offered  to  him,  and 
which  solves  all  the  contradictious  aud  removes  the  suf- 
ferings of  his  life.     And  this  time  has  now  come. 

To  us,  who  thousands  of  years  ago  experienced  the 
transition  from  the  animal,  personal  life-conception  to 
the  social  one,  it  seems  that  that  transition  was  necessary 
and  natural,  and  this,  the  one  through  which  we  have 
been  passing  these  eighteen  hundred  years,  is  arbitrary, 
unnatural,  and  terrible.  But  tliat  only  seems  so  to  us, 
because  the  other  transition  is  already  accomplished,  and 
its  activity  has  already  passed  into  the  subconscious,  while 
the  present  transition  is  not  yet  accomplished,  aud  we 
have  to  accomphsh  it  consciously. 

The  social  life-conception  entered  into  the  conscious- 
ness of  men  through  centuries  and  millenniums,  passed 
through  several  fornis,  and  has  now  passed  for  humanity 
into  the  sphere  of  the  subconscious,  which  is  transmitted 
through  heredity,  education,  and  habit,  and  so  it  seems 
natural  to  us.     But  five  thousand  years  ago  it  seemed  to 


116     THE    KINGDOM    OF    GOD    IS    WITHIN    YOU 

men  just  as  unnatural  and  terrible  as  now  the  Christian 
teaching  seems  to  us  in  its  true  meaning. 

It  now  seems  to  us  that  the  demands  of  the  Christian 
teaching  for  a  universal  brotherhood,  abolition  of  nation- 
alities, absence  of  property,  the  apparently  so  strange  non- 
resistance  to  evil,  are  impossible  demands.  But  just  so 
strange,  thousands  of  years  ago,  seemed  the  demands,  not 
only  of  the  state,  but  also  of  the  family,  as,  for  example, 
the  demand  that  the  parents  should  support  their  chil- 
dren, and  the  young  —  the  old,  and  that  husband  and 
wife  should  he  true  to  one  another.  Still  more  strange, 
even  senseless,  seemed  the  political  demands,  —  that  the 
citizens  should  submit  to  the  powers  that  be,  pay  taxes,  go 
to  war  in  the  defence  of  their  country,  and  so  forth.  It 
now  seems  to  us  that  all  such  demands  are  simple,  in- 
telligible, natural,  and  have  nothing  mystical  or  even 
strange  about  them ;  but  five  or  three  thousand  years 
ago,  these  demands  seemed  impossible. 

The  social  life-conception  served  as  a  basis  for  religions 
for  the  very  reason  that,  when  it  manifested  itself  to  men, 
it  seemed  to  them  quite  unintelligible,  mystical,  and  su- 
pernatural. Now,  since  we  have  outlived  this  phase  of 
the  life  of  humanity,  we  understand  the  rational  causes 
of  the  union  of  men  in  families,  communes,  states  ;  but  in 
antiquity  the  demands  for  such  a  uuion  were  manifested 
in  the  name  of  the  supernatural,  and  were  confirmed 
by  it.  ^ 

The  patriarchal  religion  deified  the  families,  races, 
nations :  the  political  religions  deified  kings  and  states. 
Even  now  the  majority  of  the  men  of  little  culture,  such 
as  our  peasants,  who  call  the  Tsar  an  earthly  God,  submit 
to  the  social  laws,  not  from  a  rational  consciousness  of 
their  necessity,  not  because  they  have  a  conception  of  the 
idea  of  the  state,  but  from  a  religious  sentiment. 

Even  so  now  the  Christian  teaching  represents  itself  to 
the  men  of  the  social,  or  pagan,  world-conception  in  the 


THE    KINGDOM    OF    GOD    IS    WITHIN    YOU      117 

form  of  a  supernatural  religion,  whereas  in  reality  there  is 
in  it  nothing  mysterious,  or  mystical,  or  supernatural ;  it 
is  nothing  but  the  teaching  about  life,  which  corresponds 
to  that  stage  of  the  material  development,  to  that  age,  in 
which  humanity  is,  and  which  must  therefore  inevitably 
be  accepted  by  it. 

The  time  will  come,  and  is  already  at  hand,  when  the 
Christian  foundations  of  life,  equality,  brotherhood  of 
men,  community  of  possession,  non-resistance  to  evil,  will 
become  as  natural  and  as  simple  as  the  foundations  of  the 
family,  the  social,  and  the  political  life  now  appear  to  us. 

Neither  man  nor  humanity  can  in  their .  motion  turn 
back.  The  social,  family,  and  political  life- conceptions 
have  been  outlived  by  men,  and  it  is  necessary  to  go 
ahead  and  accept  the  liigher  life-conception,  which  indeed 
is  being  done  now. 

Tiiis  motion  takes  place  from  two  sides,  consciously, 
in  consequence  of  spiritual  causes,  and  unconsciously,  in 
consequence  of  material  causes. 

Just  as  the  individual  seldom  changes  his  life  merely 
in  accordance  with  the  indications  of  reason,  but  as  a  rule, 
in  spite  of  tlie  new  meaning  and  the  new  aims  indicated 
by  reason,  continues  to  live  his  former  life  and  changes  it 
only  when  his  life  becomes  entirely  contradictory  to  his 
consciousness,  and,  therefore,  agonizing,  so  also  humanity, 
having  come  tln-ough  its  rehgious  guides  to  know  the  new 
meaning  of  life,  the  new  aims,  toward  which  it  must  tend, 
even  after  this  knowledge  continues  for  a  long  time,  in 
the  case  of  the  majority  of  men,  to  live  the  previous  life, 
and  is  guided  to  the  acceptance  of  a  new  life-conception 
only  through  the  impossibihty  of  continuing  the  former 
hfe. 

In  spite  of  the  demands  for  the  change  of  life,  as  cog- 
nized and  expressed  by  the  religious  guides  and  accepted 
by  the  wisest  men,  the  majority  of  men,  in  spite  of  the 
religious  relation  to  these  guides,  that  is,  the  faith  in  their 


118      THE    KINGDOM    OF    GOD    IS    WITHIN    YOU 

teaching,  continue  in  the  more  complex  life  to  be  guided 
by  the  previous  teaching,  just  as  a  man  of  a  family  would 
act,  if,  knowing  how  he  ought  to  live  at  his  age,  he  should 
from  habit  and  frivolity  continue  to  live  a  child's  life. 

It  is  this  that  takes  place  in  the  matter  of  the  transition 
of  humanity  from  one  age  to  another,  such  as  is  now  go- 
ing on.  Humanity  has  outgrown  its  social,  political  age, 
and  has  entered  upon  a  new  one.  It  knows  the  teaching 
which  ought  to  be  put  at  the  foundation  of  the  life  of 
this  new  age,  but  from  inertia  continues  to  hold  on  to  the 
previous  forms  of  life.  From  this  lack  of  correspondence 
between  the  life-conception  and  the  practice  of  hfe  there 
arises  a  series  of  contradictions  and  sufferings,  which 
poison  our  life  and  demand  its  change. 

We  need  only  to  compare  the  practice  of  life  with  its 
theory,  in  order  that  we  may  be  frightened  at  the  crying 
contradiction  of  the  conditions  of  life  and  of  our  con- 
sciousness, in  which  we  live. 

Our  whole  life  is  one  solid  contradiction  to  everything 
we  know  and  consider  necessary  and  right.  This  contra- 
diction is  in  everything,  —  in  the  economic,  the  political, 
the  international  life.  As  though  forgetting  what  we 
know,  and  for  a  time  putting  aside  what  we  believe  in 
(we  cannot  help  but  believe,  because  this  constitutes  our 
only  foundations  of  hfe),  we  do  everything  contrary  to 
what  our  conscience  and  our  common  sense  demand  of  us. 

In  economic,  pohtical,  and  international  relations  we 
are  guided  by  those  foundations  which  were  useful  to 
men  three  and  five  thousand  years  ago,  and  which  directly 
contradict  our  present  consciousness  and  those  conditions 
of  life  in  which  we  now  are. 

It  was  well  enough  for  a  man  of  antiquity  to  live 
amidst  a  division  of  men  into  slaves  and  masters,  when 
he  believed  that  this  division  was  from  God,  and  that  it 
could  not  be  otherwise.  But  is  a  similar  division  possible 
in  our  day  ? 


THE    KINGDOM    OF    GOD    IS    WITHIN    YOU      119 

A  man  of  the  ancient  world  could  consider  himself  in 
the  right  to  use  the  benefits  of  this  world  to  the  disadvan- 
tage of  other  men,  causiug  them  to  suffer  for  generations, 
because  he  believed  that  men  are  born  of  various  breeds, 
noble  and  base,  of  the  generation  of  Japheth  and  of  Ham. 
Not  only  the  greatest  sages  of  the  world,  the  teachers  of 
humanity,  Plato,  Aristotle,  justified  the  existence  of  slaves 
and  proved  the  legality  of  it,  but  even  three  centuries 
aso  men  who  wrote  of  the  imaginarv  society  of  the  future, 
of  Utopia,  could  not  imagine  it  without  slaves. 

The  men  of  antiquity,  and  even  of  the  Middle  Ages,  be- 
lieved, believed  firmly,  that  men  are  not  equal,  that  only 
the  Persians,  only  the  Greeks,  ouly  the  Romans,  only  the 
French  were  real  men.  But  those  men  who  in  our  time 
champion  aristocratism  and  patriotism  do  not  believe,  can- 
not believe,  in  what  they  say. 

We  all  know,  and  we  cannot  help  but  know,  even  if 
we  have  never  heard  or  read  this  thought  clearly  ex- 
pressed and  have  never  expressed  it  ourselves,  we,  having 
imbibed  this  consciousness,  which  is  borne  in  the  Chris- 
tian atmosphere,  know  with  our  whole  lieart,  and  we  can- 
not help  but  know,  that  fundamental  truth  of  tlie  Christian 
teaching,  that  we  all  are  the  sons  of  one  Father,  all  of  us, 
no  matter  where  we  may  live  or  what  language  we  may 
speak,  —  that  we  are  all  brothers  and  are  subject  only  to 
the  law  of  love,  which  by  our  common  Father  is  implanted 
in  our  hearts. 

No  matter  what  the  manner  of  thought  and  degree  of 
culture  of  a  man  of  our  time  may  be,  be  he  a  cultured 
liberal  of  any  shade  whatever,  be  he  a  philosopher  of  any 
camp,  be  he  a  scientific  man,  an  economist,  of  any  school, 
be  he  an  uncultured,  even  a  religious  man  of  any  confes- 
sion of  faith,  —  every  man  of  our  time  knows  that  all 
men  have  the  same  right  to  life  and  to  the  benefits  of 
this  world,  that  no  man  is  better  or  worse  than  any  one 
else,  that  all  men  are  equal.     Everybody  knows  this  with 


120     THE    KINGDOM    OF    GOD    IS    WITHIN    YOU 

absolute  certainty  and  with  his  whole  being,  and  at  the 
same  time  not  only  sees  all  about  him  the  division  of 
men  into  two  castes :  one,  which  is  working,  is  oppressed, 
in  need,  in  suffering,  and  the  other,  idle,  oppressing,  and 
living  in  luxury  and  pleasure,  —  he  not  only  sees  this, 
but  involuntarily  from  one  side  or  another  takes  part  in 
this  division  of  men,  which  his  reason  rejects,  and  he 
cannot  help  but  suffer  from  the  consciousness  of  such 
a  contradiction  and  from  participation  in  it. 

Be  he  master  or  slave,  a  man  of  our  time  cannot  help 
but  experience  a  constant  agonizing  contradiction  between 
his  consciousness  and  reahty,  and  sufferings  which  arise 
from  it. 

The  working  masses,  the  great  majority  of  people, 
suffering  from  the  constant,  all-al3sorbing,  senseless,  dawn- 
less  labour  and  sufferings,  suffer  most  of  all  from  the 
consciousness  of  the  crying  contradiction  between  what 
exists  and  what  ought  to  be,  as  the  result  of  everything 
which  is  professed  by  them  and  by  those  who  have 
placed  them  in  this  position  and  maintain  them  in  it. 

They  know  that  they  are  in  slavery,  and  are  perishing 
in  want  and  darkness,  in  order  to  serve  the  lust  of  the 
minority,  which  keeps  them  in  slavery.  They  know  this 
and  give  expression  to  it.  And  this  consciousness  not 
only  increases  their  sufferings,  but  even  forms  the  essence 
of  their  sufferings. 

The  ancient  slave  knew  that  he  was  a  slave  by  nature, 
but  our  workman,  feeling  himself  to  be  a  slave,  knows 
that  he  should  not  be  a  slave,  and  so  experiences  the  tor- 
ments of  Tantalus,  eternally  wishing  for  and  not  receiving 
what  not  only  could,  but  even  should  be.  The  sufferings 
of  the  working  classes  which  result  from  the  contradic- 
tion between  what  is  and  what  ought  to  be,  are  increased 
tenfold  by  the  envy  and  hatred  which  result  from  them. 

A  workman  of  our  time,  even  though  his  work  may  be 
lighter  than  that  of  an  ancient  slave  and  he  may  have 


THE    KINGDOM    OF    GOD    IS    WITHIN    YOU      121 

attained  an  eight-hour  work-day  and  a  wage  of  three  dol- 
lars per  day,  will  not  cease  sufi'ering,  because,  in  manufac- 
turing articles  wdiich  he  will  not  make  use  of,  and  working, 
not  for  himself  and  at  his  pleasure,  but  from  necessity, 
for  whims  of  luxurious  and  idle  people  in  general  and  for 
the  enrichment  of  one  man,  the  rich  owner  of  the  factory 
or  plant,  in  particular,  he  knows  that  all  this  is  taking 
place  in  a  world  in  which  not  (mly  they  have  accepted 
the  scientific  proposition  that  only  work  is  wealtji,  that 
the  exploitation  of  other  men's  labour  is  unjust,  illegal, 
amenable  to  punishment  by  law,  but  also  they  profess 
Christ's  teaching,  according  to  which  all  are  brothers,  and 
a  man's  worth  and  merit  consists  only  in  serving  his 
neighbour,  and  not  in  making  use   of  him. 

He  knows  all  this,  and  he  cannot  help  but  suffer  tor- 
ments from  this  crying  contradiction  between  what  ought 
to  be  and  what  actually  exists.  "  From  all  the  data  and 
from  everything  which  I  know  all  men  profess,"  the 
labouring  man  says  to  liimself,  "  I  ought  to  be  free, 
equal  to  all  other  men,  and  loved ;  but  I  am  a  slave, 
—  I  am  humiliated  and  hated."  And  he  himself  hates 
and  seeks  for  means  to  save  himself  from  this  position,  to 
throw  off  his  foe,  who  is  pressing  dow^n  on  him,  and  him- 
self to  get  on  top  of  him.  They  say,  "  The  working  men 
are  not  right  in  their  desire  to  take  the  place  of  the  cap- 
italists, nor  the  poor  in  their  desire  to  take  the  place  of 
the  rich."  This  is  not  true  :  the  working  men  and  the 
poor  would  be  in  the  wrong,  if  they  wished  for  it  in  a 
world  in  which  slaves  and  masters,  the  rich  and  the  poor, 
are  established  by  God ;  but  they  wish  for  it  in  a  world 
in  which  is  professed  the  Gospel  teaching,  the  first  propo- 
sition of  which  is  the  filial  relation  of  men  to  God,  and  so 
the  brotherhood  and  equality  of  all  men.  And  no  matter 
how  much  men  may  try,  it  is  impossible  to  conceal  the 
fact  that  one  of  the  first  conditions  of  a  Christian  life  is 
love,  not  in  words,  but  in  work. 


122     THE    KINGDOM    OF    GOD    IS    WITHIN    YOU 

In  a  still  greater  contradiction  and  in  still  greater  suf- 
ferings lives  the  man  of  the  so-called  cultured  class.  Every 
such  man,  if  he  believes  in  anything,  believes,  if  not  in  the 
brotherhood  of  men,  at  least  in  humanitarianism ;  if  not 
in  humanitarianism,  at  least  in  justice ;  if  not  in  justice, 
at  least  in  science,  —  and  with  all  that  knows  that  his 
whole  life  is  built  on  conditions  which  are  quite  the 
reverse  of  all  that,  of  all  the  tenets  of  Christianity,  and 
humanity,  and  justice,  and  science. 

He  knows  that  all  the  habits  in  which  he  is  brought 
up,  and  the  deprivation  of  which  would  be  a  torment  for 
him,  can  be  gratified  only  by  the  painful,  often  perilous 
labour  of  oppressed  working  men,  that  is,  by  the  most  pal- 
pable, coarse  violation  of  those  principles  of  Christianity, 
humanitarianism,  justice,  and  even  science  (I  mean  the 
demands  of  political  economy),  which  he  professes.  He 
professes  the  principles  of  brotherhood,  humanitarianism, 
justice,  science,  and  yet  lives  in  such  a  way  that  he  needs 
that  oppression  of  the  labouring  men  which  he  denies, 
and  even  in  such  a  way  that  his  whole  life  is  an  exploita- 
tion of  this  oppression,  and  not  only  does  he  live  in  this 
way,  but  also  he  directs  his  activity  to  the  maintenance  of 
this  order  of  things,  which  is  directly  opposed  to  every- 
thing in  which  he  believes. 

We  are  all  brothers,  and  yet  every  morning  my  brother 
or  my  sister  carries  out  my  vessel.  We  are  all  brothers, 
and  I  need  every  morning  my  cigar,  sugar,  a  mirror,  and 
so  forth,  objects  in  the  manufacture  of  which  my  brothers 
and  my  sisters,  who  are  my  equals,  have  been  losing  their 
health,  and  I  employ  these  articles  and  even  demand 
them.  We  are  all  brothers,  and  I  live  by  working  in 
a  bank,  or  in  a  business  liouse,  or  a  shop,  in  order  to  make 
all  the  wares  which  my  brothers  need  more  expensive  for 
them.  We  are  all  brothers,  and  yet  I  live  by  receiving  a 
salary  for  arraigning,  judging,  and  punishing  a  thief  or 
a  prostitute,  whose  existence  is  conditioned  by  the  whole 


THE    KINGDOM    OF    GOD    IS    WITHIN    YOU      123 

composition  of  my  life,  and  who,  I  know  myself,  ought 
not  to  be  punished,  but  corrected.  We  are  all  brothers, 
and  I  live  by  receiving  a  salary  for  collecting  the  taxes 
from  poor  working  men,  to  be  used  for  the  luxury  of  the 
idle  and  the  rich.  We  are  all  brothers,  and  I  receive  a 
salary  for  preaching  to  people  what  is  supposed  to  be  the 
Christian  religion,  in  whicii  I  do  not  believe  myself,  and 
which  deprives  them  of  the  possibility  of  finding  out  the 
real  faith.  I  receive  a  salary  as  a  priest,  a  bishop,  for 
deceiving  people  in  what  is  the  most  important  matter 
for  them.  We  are  all  brothers,  but  I  give  to  the  poor  my 
pedagogical,  medical,  literary  labours  for  money  only. 
We  are  all  brothers,  but  I  receive  a  salary  for  preparing 
myself  to  commit  nuirder,  studying  how  to  kill,  or  making 
a  gun,  powder,  fortresses. 

The  whole  life  of  our  higher  classes  is  one  solid  contra- 
diction, wliich  is  the  more  agonizing,  the  more  sensitive 
man's  conscience  is. 

The  man  with  a  sensitive  conscience  cannot  help  but 
suffer,  if  he  lives  this  life.  There  is  one  means  by  which 
he  can  free  himself  from  this  suffering,  —  it  consists 
in  drowning  his  conscience  ;  but  even  if  such  men  suc- 
ceed in  drowning  their  conscience,  they  cannot  drown 
their  terror. 

Insensitive  people  of  the  higher,  the  oppressing  classes, 
and  those  who  have  drowned  their  consciences,  if  they 
do  not  suffer  from  their  consciences,  suffer  from  fear  and 
hatred.  Nor  can  they  help  but  suffer.  They  know  of 
that  hatred  against  them  which  exists,  and  cannot  help 
but  exist,  among  the  labouring  classes ;  and  they  know 
that  the  working  men  know  that  they  are  deceived  and 
outraged,  and  they  are  beginning  to  organize  for  the  pur- 
pose of  throwing  off  the  oppression  and  retaliating  upon 
the  oppressors.  The  higher  classes  see  the  unions,  strikes, 
the  First  of  May,  and  they  feel  the  calamity  which  is 
threatening  them,  and  this  terror  poisons  their  life.    They 


124     THE    KINGDOM    OF    GOD    IS    WITHIN    YOU 

feel  the  calamity  which  is  threatening  them,  and  the  terror 
which  they  experience  passes  into  a  feeling  of  self-defence 
and  hatred.  They  know  that  if  they  weaken  for  a  moment 
in  their  struggle  with  the  slaves  oppressed  by  them,  they 
will  themselves  perish,  because  the  slaves  are  enraged,  and 
this  rage  is  growing  with  every  day  of  the  oppression. 
The  oppressors  cannot  stop  oppressing,  even  if  they  should 
wish  to  do  so.  They  know  that  they  themselves  will 
perish,  the  moment  they  stop  or  even  weaken  in  their 
oppressions.  And  they  do  oppress,  in  spite  of  their  seem- 
ing concern  for  the  welfare  of  the  labouring  people,  for  an 
eight-hour  day,  for  the  prohibition  to  employ  children  and 
women,  for  pensions  and  rewards.  All  this  is  a  deception 
or  a  provision  for  eliciting  work  from  the  slave ;  but  the 
slave  remains  a  slave,  and  the  master,  who  could  not  live 
without  the  slave,  is  less  than  ever  prepared  to  free  him. 

The  ruling  classes  are,  in  relation  to  the  workingmen,  in 
the  position  of  a  man  who  is  astride  a  man  whom  he  holds 
down  and  does  not  let  go  of,  not  so  much  because  he  does 
not  want  to  let  go  of  him,  as  because  he  knows  that  he 
need  but  for  a  moment  let  go  of  the  subdued  man,  and  the 
subdued  man  will  cut  his  throat,  because  the  subdued  man 
is  enraged  and  has  a  knife  in  his  hand.  And  so,  whether 
they  be  sensitive  or  not,  our  wealthy  classes  cannot  enjoy 
the  good  things  which  they  have  taken  from  the  poor, 
as  the  ancients  did,  who  believed  in  their  right.  Their 
whole  life  and  all  their  pleasures  are  poisoned  by  rebukes 
of  conscience  or  by  terror. 

Such  is  the  economical  contradiction.  More  striking 
still  is  the  political  contradiction. 

All  men  are  above  all  else  educated  in  the  habits  of 
obedience  to  the  laws  of  the  state.  The  whole  life  of  the 
men  of  our  time  is  determined  by  the  law  of  the  state.  A 
man  marries  or  gets  a  divorce,  educates  his  children,  even 
professes  a  faith  (in  many  states)  in  accordance  with  the 
law.     What  is  this  law,  which  determines  the  whole  life 


THE    KINGDOM    OF    GOD    IS    WITHIN    YOU      125 

of  men  ?  Do  the  meu  believe  in  this  law  ?  Do  they  con- 
sider it  to  be  true  ?  Not  in  the  least.  In  the  majority  of 
cases,  the  men  of  our  time  do  not  believe  in  the  justice 
of  this  law,  despise  it,  and  yet  obey  it.  It  was  all  very 
well  for  the  men  of  antiquity  to  carry  out  their  laws. 
They  believed  firmly  that  their  law  (which  for  the  most 
part  was  also  religious)  was  the  one  true  law  which  all 
meu  must  obey.  But  we  ?  We  know,  and  we  cannot 
help  but  know,  that  the  law  of  our  state  is  not  only  not 
the  one  eterual  law,  but  that  it  is  only  one  of  many  laws 
of  various  countries,  equally  imperfect,  and  frequently  and 
palpably  false  and  unjust,  and  widely  discussed  in  tlie 
newspapers.  It  was  all  very  well  for  a  Jew  to  submit  to 
his  laws,  when  he  had  no  doubt  but  that  they  were  written 
by  God's  finger ;  or,  for  a  Eoman,  when  he  thought  that 
the  nymph  Egeria  had  written  his  laws ;  or  even  when 
they  believed  that  the  kings  who  gave  the  laws  were  the 
anointed  of  the  Lord,  or  even  that  the  legislative  bodies 
had  a  desire  to  find  the  best  laws,  and  were  able  to  do  so. 
But  we  know  how  laws  are  made  ;  we  have  all  been 
behind  the  scenes ;  we  all  know  that  laws  are  the  results 
of  greed,  deception,  the  struggle  of  parties,  —  that  in  them 
there  is  and  there  can  be  no  true  justice.  And  so  the  men 
of  our  time  cannot  believe  that  obedience  to  civil  or  politi- 
cal laws  would  satisfy  the  demands  of  the  rationality  of 
human  nature.  Men  have  known  for  a  long  time  tbat  it 
is  not  sensible  to  obey  a  law  of  the  correctness  of  whicli 
there  can  be  any  doubt,  and  so  they  cannot  help  but  suffer, 
if  they  obey  a  law  the  rationality  and  obligatoriness  of 
which  they  do  not  acknowledge. 

A  man  cannot  help  but  suffer,  when  his  whole  life  is 
determined  in  advance  l>y  laws  whicli  he  nmst  obey  under 
the  menace  of  punishment,  and  in  the  rationahty  and 
justice  of  whicli  he  does  not  believe,  and  tbe  unnatural- 
ness,  cruelty,  injustice  of  which  he  clearly  recognizes. 
We  recognize  the  uselessness  of  custom-houses  and  import 


126      THE    KINGDOM    OF    GOD    IS    WITHIN    YOU 

duties,  and  we  must  pay  the  duties ;  we  recognize  the 
uselessness  of  the  expenses  for  the  support  of  royal  courts 
and  many  governmental  offices ;  we  recognize  the  harmful- 
ness  of  the  church  propaganda,  and  we  must  contribute  to 
the  support  of  these  institutions  ;  we  recognize  the  cruelty 
and  unscrupulousness  of  the  penalties  imposed  by  courts 
of  justice,  and  we  must  take  part  in  them ;  we  recognize 
the  irregularity  and  harmfulness  of  the  distribution  of 
land-ownership,  and  we  must  submit  to  it ;  we  do  not 
recognize  the  indispensableness  of  armies  and  of  war,  and 
must  bear  terrible  burdens  for  the  maintenance  of  armies 
and  the  waging  of  wars,  and  so  forth. 

But  these  contradictions  are  as  nothing  in  comparison 
with  the  contradiction  which  has  now  arisen  among  men 
in  their  international  relations,  and  which,  under  threat  of 
ruining  both  human  reason  and  human  life,  demands  a 
solution.  This  is  the  contradiction  between  the  Christian 
conscience  and  war. 

We  are  all  Christian  nations,  who  live  the  same  spiritual 
life,  so  that  every  good,  fruitful  thought,  which  springs  up 
in  one  corner  of  the  earth,  is  at  once  communicated  to  the 
whole  Christian  world,  evoking  similar  sensations  of  joy 
and  pride,  independently  of  nationality  ;  we,  who  not  only 
love  the  thinkers,  benefactors,  poets,  scholars  of  other 
nations,  but  also  pride  ourselves  on  the  exploit  of  a  Da- 
mien,  as  though  it  were  our  own;  we,  who  just  love  the 
men  of  other  nationalities,  —  the  French,  the  Germans, 
the  Americans,  the  English ;  we,  who  not  only  respect 
their  qualities,  but  rejoice  when  we  meet  them,  who  give 
them  a  smile  of  recognition,  who  not  only  could  not  re- 
gard a  war  with  them  as  something  to  be  proud  of,  but 
who  could  not  even  think  without  horror  that  any  dis- 
agreement may  arise  between  these  men  and  us,  —  we  are 
all  called  to  take  part  in  murder,  which  must  inevitably 
take  place,  to-morrow,  if  not  to-day. 

It  was  all  very  well  for  a  Jew,  a  Greek,  a  Roman  not 


THE    KINGDOM    OF    GOD    IS    WITHIN    YOU      127 

only  to  defend  the  independence  of  his  nation  by  means 
of  murder,  but  by  the  means  of  murder  also  to  cause  other 
nations  to  submit  to  him,  for  he  believed  firmly  that  his 
nation  was  the  one  true,  good,  kind  nation,  which  was 
loved  by  God,  and  that  all  the  other  nations  were  Philis- 
tines, barbarians.  Even  the  men  of  the  Middle  Ages  and 
the  men  of  the  end  of  the  last  and  the  beginning  of  this 
century  could  have  believed  so.  But  we,  no  matter  how 
much  we  may  be  teased  to  do  so,  can  no  longer  believe  in 
this,  and  this  contradiction  is  so  terrible  for  the  men  of 
our  time  that  it  is  impossible  to  live,  if  we  do  not  destroy 
it. 

"  We  live  in  a  time  which  is  full  of  contradictions," 
Count  Komarovski,  professor  of  international  law,  writes 
in  his  learned  treatise.  "  In  the  press  of  all  countries 
there  is  constantly  shown  a  universal  tendency  toward 
peace,  toward  its  necessity  for  all  nations.  In  the  same 
sense  express  themselves  the  representatives  of  govern- 
ments, as  private  individuals  and  as  official  organs,  in 
parliamentary  debates,  in  diplomatic  exchanges  of  opinion, 
and  even  in  international  treaties.  At  the  same  time, 
however,  the  governments  annually  increase  the  military 
forces  of  their  countries,  impose  new  taxes,  make  loans, 
and  leave  to  future  generations,  as  a  legacy,  the  obligation 
to  bear  the  blunders  of  the  present  senseless  politics. 
What  a  crying  contradiction  between  words  and  deeds ! 

"  Of  course,  the  governments,  to  justify  these  measures, 
point  to  the  exclusively  defensive  character  of  all  these 
expenditures  and  armaments,  but  none  the  less  it  remains 
a  puzzle  for  every  unbiassed  man,  whence  we  are  to  ex- 
pect attacks,  since  all  the  great  powers  unanimously  in 
their  politics  pursue  the  one  aim  of  defence.  In  reality 
this  looks  as  though  each  of  these  powers  waited  every 
moment  to  be  attacked  by  another,  and  these  are  the  con- 
sequences, —  universal  distrust  and  a  preternatural  en- 
deavour of  one  power  to  surpass  the  force  of  the  others. 


128      THE    KINGDOM    OF    GOD    IS    WITHIN   TOU 

Such  an  emulation  in  itself  increases  the  danger  of  war : 
the  nations  cannot  for  any  length  of  time  stand  the 
intensified  arming,  and  sooner  or  later  will  prefer  war  to 
all  the  disadvantages  of  the  present  condition  and  con- 
stant menace.  Thus  the  most  insignificant  cause  will  be 
sufficient  to  make  the  fire  of  a  universal  war  flame  up 
in  the  whole  of  Europe.  It  is  incorrect  to  think  that 
such  a  crisis  can  cure  us  of  the  political  and  economical 
calamities  which  oppress  us.  Experience  from  the  wars 
which  have  been  waged  in  recent  years  teaches  us  that 
every  war  has  only  sharpened  the  hostility  of  the  nations, 
increased  the  burden  and  the  unendurableuess  of  the  pres- 
sure of  mihtarism,  and  made  the  politico-economic  condi- 
tion of  Europe  more  hopeless  and  complex." 

"  Modern  Europe  keeps  under  arms  an  active  army  of 
nine  millions  of  men,"  writes  Enrico  Ferri,  "  and  fifteen 
millions  of  reserves,  expending  on  them  four  milhards  of 
francs  per  year.  By  arming  itself  more  and  more,  it  para- 
lyzes the  sources  of  the  social  and  the  individual  welfare, 
and  may  easily  be  compared  to  a  man  who,  to  provide 
himself  with  a  gun,  condemns  himself  to  anaemia,  at  the 
same  time  wasting  all  his  strength  for  the  purpose  of  mak- 
ing use  of  the  very  gun  with  which  he  is  providing  him- 
self, and  under  the  burden  of  which  he  will  finally  fall." 

The  same  was  said  by  Charles  Butt,i  in  his  speech 
which  he  dehvered  in  London  before  the  Association  for 
the  Eeform  and  Codification  of  the  Law  of  Nations,  July 
26,  1887.  After  pointing  out  the  same  nine  millions  and 
over  of  the  active  armies  and  seventeen  millions  of  re- 
serves, and  the  enormous  expenses  of  the  governments  for 
the  support  of  these  armies  and  equipments,  he  says: 
"  But  this  forms  only  a  small  part  of  the  actual  cost,  for 
besides  the  figures  mentioned,  which  constitute  merely  the 
war  budgets  of  the  nations,  we  have  to  take  into  account 
tlie  enormous  loss  to  society  by  the  withdrawal  of  so 
1  Not  Charles  Butt,  but  Henry  Richard. 


THE    KINGDOM    OF    GOD    IS    WITHIN    YOU      129 

many  able-bodied  men  .  .  .  from  the  occupations  of  pro- 
ductive industry,  together  with  the  prodigious  capital 
invested  in  all  warlike  preparations  and  appliances,  and 
which  is  absolutely  unproductive.  .  .  .  One  necessary  re- 
sult of  the  expenditure  on  wars  and  preparations  for  war 
is  the  steady  growth  of  national  debts.  ,  .  .  The  aggregate 
national  debts  of  Europe,  by  far  the  larger  proportion  of 
which  has  been  contracted  for  war  purposes,  amount  at 
the  present  time  to  £4,680,000,000." 

The  same  Komarovski  says  in  another  place  :  "  We  are 
living  in  a  hard  time.  Everywhere  do  we  hear  com- 
plaints as  to  the  slackness  of  business  and  industry  and 
in  general  as  to  the  bad  economic  conditions:  people 
point  out  the  hard  conditions  of  the  life  of  the  labouring 
classes  and  the  universal  impoverishment  of  the  masses. 
But,  in  spite  of  it,  the  governments,  in  their  endeavour  to 
maintain  their  independence,  reach  the  extreme  limits  of 
madness.  Everywhere  they  invent  new  taxes  and  im- 
posts, and  the  financial  oppression  of  the  nations  knows 
no  limits.  If  we  look  at  the  budgets  of  the  European 
states  for  the  last  one  hundred  years,  we  shall  first  of 
all  be  struck  by  their  constantly  progressive  and  rapid 
growth.  How  can  we  explain  this  extraordinary  phenom- 
enon, which  sooner  or  later  threatens  us  with  inevitable 
bankruptcy  V 

"  This  is  incontestably  due  to  the  expenditures  caused 
by  the  maintenance  of  an  army,  which  swallow  one-third 
and  even  one-half  of  the  budgets  of  the  European  states. 
WTiat  is  most  lamentable  in  connection  wnth  it  is  this, 
that  no  end  can  be  foreseen  to  this  increase  of  the  budgets 
and  impoverishment  of  the  masses.  What  is  socialism,  if 
not  a  protest  against  this  abnormal  condition,  in  which 
the  greater  part  of  the  population  of  our  part  of  the  world 
finds  itself  ? " 

"  We  ruin  ourselves,"  says  Frederic  Passy,  in  a  note 
read  at  the  last  Congress  (1890)  of  Universal  Peace,  at 


130     THE   KINGDOM   OF   GOD   IS   WITHIN   YOU 

London,  "  in  preparing  the  means  for  taking  part  in  the 
mad  butcheries  of  the  future,  or  in  paying  the  interests  of 
debts  bequeathed  to  us  by  the  mad  and  culpable  butcheries 
of  the  past.  We  die  of  starvation,  in  order  to  be  able  to 
kill  one  another  off." 

Farther  on,  speaking  of  how  France  looks  upon  this 
subject,  he  says :  "  We  believe  that  one  hundred  years 
after  the  Declaration  of  the  rights  of  man  and  of  a  citizen 
it  is  time  to  recognize  the  rights  of  nations  and  to  re- 
nounce for  ever  all  these  enterprises  of  force  and  violence, 
which,  under  the  name  of  conquests,  are  real  crimes 
against  humanity,  and  which,  whatever  the  ambition  of 
the  sovereigns  or  the  pride  of  the  races  .  .  .  weaken 
even  those  who  seem  to  profit  from  them." 

"  I  am  always  very  much  surprised  at  the  way  religion 
is  carried  on  in  this  country, "  says  Sir  Wilfrid  Lawson, 
at  the  same  Congress.  "  You  send  a  boy  to  the  Sunday 
school,  and  you  tell  him,  '  My  dear  boy,  you  must  love 
your  enemies ;  if  any  boy  strikes  you,  don't  strike  him 
again ;  try  to  reform  him  by  loving  him.'  Well,  the  boy 
stays  in  the  Sunday  school  till  he  is  fourteen  or  fifteen 
years  of  age,  and  then  his  friends  say,  '  Put  him  in  the 
army.'  What  has  he  to  do  in  the  army  ?  Why,  not  to 
love  his  enemies,  but  whenever  he  sees  an  enemy  to  run 
him  through  the  body  with  a  bayonet.  That  is  the  na- 
ture of  all  rehgious  teaching  in  this  country.  I  do  not 
think  that  that  is  a  very  good  way  of  carrying  out  the 
precepts  of  religion.  I  think  if  it  is  a  good  thing  for  the 
boy  to  love  his  enemy,  it  is  a  good  thing  for  the  man  to 
love  his  enemy." 

And  farther :  "  The  nations  of  Europe  .  .  .  keep  some- 
where about  twenty-eight  millions  of  armed  men  to  settle 
quarrels  by  killing  one  another,  instead  of  by  arguing. 
That  is  what  the  Christian  nations  of  the  world  are  doing 
at  this  moment.  It  is  a  very  expensive  way  also ;  for 
this  publication  which  I  saw  made  out  that  since  the  year 


THE    KINGDOM    OF    GOD    IS    WITHIN   YOU      131 

1872  these  nations  had  spent  the  almost  incredible  amount 
of  £1,500,000,000  of  money  in  preparing,  and  settling 
their  quarrels  by  killing  one  another.  Now  it  seems  to 
me  that  with  that  state  of  things  one  of  two  positions 
must  be  accepted :  either  that  Christianity  is  a  failure  or, 
that  those  who  profess  to  expound  Christianity  have  failed 
in  expounding  it  properly." 

"  Until  our  ironclads  are  withdrawn,  and  our  army 
disbanded,  we  are  not  entitled  to  call  ourselves  a  Christian 
nation,"  says  Mr.  J.  Jowet  Wilson. 

In  a  discussion  which  arose  in  connection  with  the  ques- 
tion of  the  obligatoriness  of  Christian  pastors  to  preach 
against  war,  Mr.  6.  D.  Bartlett  said,  among  other  things : 
"  If  I  understand  the  Scriptures,  I  say  that  men  are  only 
playing  with  Christianity  when  they  ignore  this  question," 
that  is,  say  nothing  about  war.  "  I  have  lived  a  longish 
life,  I  have  heard  many  sermons,  and  I  can  say  without 
any  exaggeration  that  I  never  heard  universal  peace 
recommended  from  the  pulpit  half  a  dozen  times  in  my 
life.  .  .  .  Some  twenty  years  ago  I  happened  to  stand  in 
a  drawing-room  where  there  were  forty  or  fifty  people, 
and  I  dared  to  moot  the  proposition  that  war  was  incom- 
patible with  Christianity.  They  looked  upon  me  as  an 
arrant  fanatic.  The  idea  that  we  could  get  on  without 
war  was  regarded  as  unmitigated  weakness  and  folly." 

In  the  same  sense  spoke  the  Catholic  Abb(5  Defourny : 
"  One  of  the  first  precepts  of  this  eternal  law  which  burns 
in  the  consciences  of  men  is  the  one  which  forbids  takincc 
the  life  of  one's  like,  shedding  human  blood  without  just 
cause,  and  without  being  constrained  by  necessity.  It  is 
one  of  those  laws  which  are  most  indehbly  engraved  in 
the  human  heart.  .  .  .  But  if  it  is  a  question  of  war,  that 
is,  of  the  shedding  of  human  blood  in  torrents,  the  men 
of  the  present  do  not  trouble  themselves  about  a  just 
cause.  Those  who  take  part  in  it  do  not  think  of  asking 
themselves  whether  these  innumerable  murders  are  justi- 


132      THE    KINGDOM    OF    GOD    IS    WITHIN   YOU 

fied  or  not,  that  is,  if  the  wars,  or  what  goes  by  that 
name,  are  just  or  iniquitous,  legal  or  illegal,  permissible  or 
criminal  .  .  .  wliether  they  violate,  or  not,  the  primor- 
dial law  which  prohibits  homicide  and  murder  .  .  . 
without  just  cause.  But  their  conscience  is  mute  in  this 
matter. 

"  War  has  ceased  for  them  to  be  an  act  v^hich  has 
anything  to  do  with  morality.  They  have  no  other  joy, 
in  the  fatigue  and  perils  of  the  camp,  than  that  of  being 
victorious,  and  no  other  sadness  than  that  of  being  van- 
quished. ...  Do  not  tell  me  that  they  serve  their 
country.  A  long  time  ago  a  great  genius  told  you  these 
words,  which  have  become  proverbial,  '  Eeject  justice,  and 
what  are  the  empires  but  great  societies  of  brigands  ? ' 
And  are  not  a  band  of  brigands  themselves  small  empires  ? 
Brigands  themselves  have  certain  laws  or  conventions  by 
which  they  are  ruled.  There,  too,  they  fight  for  the  con- 
quest of  booty  and  for  the  honour  of  the  band.  .  .  . 
The  principle  of  the  institution "  (he  is  talking  of  the 
establishment  of  an  international  tribunal)  "  is  this,  that 
the  European  nations  should  stop  being  a  nation  of 
thieves,  and  the  armies  gangs  of  brigands  and  of  pirates, 
and,  I  must  add,  of  slaves.  Yes,  the  armies  are  gangs 
of  slaves,  slaves  of  one  or  two  rulers,  or  one  or  two  min- 
isters, who  dispose  of  them  tyrannically,  without  any 
other  guarantee,  we  know,  than  a  nominal  one. 

"  What  characterizes  the  slave  is  this,  that  he  is  in  the 
hands  of  his  master  like  a  chattel,  a  tool,  and  no  longer  a 
man.  Just  so  it  is  with  a  soldier,  an  officer,  a  general, 
who  march  to  murder  and  to  death  without  any  care  as 
to  justice,  by  the  arbitrary  will  of  ministers.  .  .  .  Thus 
military  slavery  exists,  and  it  is  the  worst  of  slaveries, 
particularly  now,  when  by  means  of  enforced  military 
service  it  puts  the  chain  about  the  necks  of  all  free  and 
strong  men  of  the  nations,  in  order  to  make  of  them  tools 
of  murder,  killers  by  profession,  butchers  of  human  flesh, 


THE    KINGDOM    OF    GOD    IS    WITHIN    YOU      133 

for  this  is  the  only  opus  servile  for  which  they  are  chaiued 
up  and  trained.  .  .  . 

"  Itulers,  to  the  number  of  two  or  three  .  .  .  united 
into  a  secret  cabinet,  dehberate  without  control  and  with- 
out minutes  which  are  intended  for  publicity  .  .  . 
consequently  without  any  guarantee  for  the  conscience  of 
those  whom  they  send  out  to  be  killed." 

"  The  protests  against  the  heavy  arming  do  not  date 
from  our  day,"  says  Signer  E.  T.  Moneta.  "  Listen  to 
what  Montesquieu  wrote  in  his  time. 

" '  France '  (you  may  substitute  the  word  '  Europe  ') '  will 
be  ruined  by  the  military.  A  new  malady  has  spread 
through  Europe  ;  it  has  infected  our  princes  and  has  made 
them  keep  a  disproportionate  number  of  troops.  It  has 
its  exacerbations,  and  it  necessarily  becomes  contagious, 
because,  as  soon  as  one  state  increases  what  it  calls  its 
troops,  the  others  suddenly  increase  theirs,  so  that  nothing 
is  gained  by  it  but  the  common  ruin. 

" '  Every  monarch  keeps  on  a  war  footing  all  the  troops 
which  he  might  need  in  case  his  people  were  in  danger  of 
being  exterminated,  and  this  state  of  tension,  of  all  against 
all,  is  called  peace.  As  a  result,  Europe  is  so  ruined  that 
if  private  individuals  were  in  the  condition  in  which  the 
powers  are  in  this  part  of  the  world,  the  richest  of  them 
would  not  have  anything  to  live  on.  We  are  poor  with 
the  riches  and  the  commerce  of  the  whole  universe.' 

"This  was  written  almost  150  years  ago;  the  picture 
seems  to  be  made  for  to-day.  One  single  thing  has 
changed, — -the  system  of  government.  In  the  time  of 
Montesquieu,  and  also  afterward,  they  used  to  say  that 
the  cause  for  the  uiainLenance  of  great  armies  lay  in  the 
absolute  kings,  who  waged  war  in  the  hope  of  finding  in 
the  conquests  the  means  for  enriching  their  private 
budgets  and  passing  down  to  history  in  the  aureole  of 
glory. 

"  Then  they  said,  '  Oh,  if  the  peoples  could  choose  them- 


134     THE   KINGDOM   OF    GOD   IS   WITHIN   YOU 

selves  those  who  have  the  right  to  refuse  the  governments 
soldiers  and  money,  for  then  the  politics  of  war  would 
come  to  an  end.' 

"  We  have  to-day  representative  governments  in  nearly 
all  of  Europe,  and  none  the  less  the  expenditures  for  war 
and  for  its  preparation  are  increased  in  a  frightful  propor- 
tion. 

"  Evidently  the  folly  of  the  princes  has  passed  down 
to  the  governing  classes.  At  the  present  time  they  no 
longer  make  war  because  a  prince  was  disrespectful  to  a 
courtesan,  as  such  things  happened  in  the  time  of  Louis 
XIV.,  but  by  exaggerating  the  respectable  sentiments,  like 
that  of  the  national  dignity  and  of  patriotism,  by  exciting 
public  opinion  against  a  neighbouring  nation,  there  will 
come  a  day  when  it  will  be  sufficient  to  say,  though  the 
information  may  not  be  true,  that  the  ambassador  of  your 
government  was  not  received  by  the  chief  of  a  state,  in 
order  to  make  break  forth  the  most  terrible  and  disastrous 
of  wars  ever  seen. 

"At  the  present  time  Europe  keeps  under  arms  more 
soldiers  than  there  were  in  the  time  of  Napoleon's  great 
wars.  All  citizens,  with  few  exceptions,  are  obliged  on 
our  continent  to  pass  several  years  in  the  barracks.  They 
build  fortresses,  construct  arsenals  and  ships,  constantly 
manufacture  arms,  which  after  awhile  have  to  be  replaced 
by  others,  because  science,  which  ought  always  to  be 
du-ected  toward  the  well-being  of  men,  unfortunately  lends 
its  aid  to  works  of  destruction,  invents  at  every  instant 
new  engines  for  kiDing  great  masses  of  men  as  rapidly 
as  possible. 

"  And  in  order  to  maintain  so  many  soldiers  and  to 
make  such  vast  preparations  for  murder,  they  spend  yearly 
hundreds  of  millions,  that  is,  what  would  be  sufficient 
for  the  education  of  the  people,  for  the  execution  of 
the  greatest  works  of  public  utility,  and  would  furnish  the 
means  for  solving  pacifically  the  social  question. 


THE    KINGDOM    OF    GOD    IS    WITHIN    YOU      135 

"  Europe,  therefore,  finds  itself,  in  spite  of  the  scientific 
conquests,  in  a  condition  as  though  it  were  still  living  in 
the  worst  times  of  the  ferocious  Middle  Ages.  All  men 
complain  of  this  situation,  which  is  not  yet  war,  but 
which  is  not  peace  either,  and  everybody  would  like  to 
get  out  of  it.  The  chiefs  of  governments  protest  that  they 
want  peace,  and  it  is  a  matter  of  emulation  between  them 
as  to  who  will  make  the  most  solemn  pacific  declarations. 
But  on  the  same  day,  or  the  day  following,  they  present 
to  the  legislative  chamjjers  propositions  for  increasing  the 
standing  army,  and  they  say  that  it  is  for  the  purpose  of 
maintaining  and  assuring  peace  that  they  take  so  many 
precautions. 

"  But  it  is  not  the  kind  of  peace  we  like ;  nor  are  the 
nations  deceived.  True  peace  has  reciprocal  confidence 
for  its  basis,  while  these  enormous  preparations  betray  a 
profound  distrust,  if  not  a  concealed  hostility,  between 
the  states.  What  would  we  say  of  a  man  who,  wishing 
to  prove  his  sentiments  of  friendship  for  his  neighbour, 
should  invite  him  to  discuss  some  question  with  him, 
wbile  he  himself  is  holding  a  revolver  in  his  hand  ?  It 
is  this  flagrant  contradiction  between  the  pacific  decla- 
rations and  the  warlike  policy  of  the  governments  that 
all  good  citizens  want  to  see  stopped  at  any  price  and  as 
quickly  as  possible." 

They  marvel  why  annually  sixty  thousand  suicides 
are  committed  in  Europe,  and  those  only  the  ones  that  are 
recorded,  which  excludes  Russia  and  Turkey  ;  but  wliat 
we  ought  to  marvel  at  is  not  that  there  are  so  many 
suicides,  but  so  few.  Every  man  of  our  time,  if  he  grasps 
the  contradiction  between  his  consciousness  and  his  life^ 
is  in  a  very  desperate  condition.  To  say  nothing  of  all 
the  other  contradictions  between  life  and  consciousness, 
which  fill  the  life  of  a  man  of  our  time,  the  contradiction 
between  this  last  military  condition,  in  which  Europe  is, 
and  the  Christian  profession  of  Europe  is  enough  to  make 


136      THE    KINGDOM    OF    GOD    IS    WITHIN   YOU 

a  man  despair,  doubt  the  rationality  of  human  nature,  and 
put  an  end  to  his  life  in  this  mad  and  beastly  world. 
This  contradiction,  the  military  contradiction,  which  is  the 
quintessence  of  all  others,  is  so  terrible  that  a  man  can 
live  and  take  part  in  it  only  by  not  thinking  of  it,  by 
being  able  to  forget  it. 

How  is  this  ?  We  are  all  Christians,  —  w^e  not  only 
profess  love  of  one  another,  but  actually  live  one  common 
life,  the  pulse  of  our  life  beats  with  the  same  beats,  we 
aid  one  another,  learn  from  one  another,  more  and  more 
approach  one  another,  for  a  common  joy  !  In  this  closer 
union  lies  the  meaning  of  the  whole  of  life,  —  and  to- 
morrow some  maddened  head  of  a  government  will  say 
something  foolish,  another  man  like  him  will  answer  him, 
and  I  shall  go,  making  myself  liable  to  be  killed,  to  kill 
men  who  not  only  have  done  me  no  harm,  but  whom  I 
love.  And  this  is  not  a  distant  accident,  but  what  we 
are  preparing  ourselves  for,  and  it  is  not  only  a  possible, 
but  even  an  inevitable  event. 

It  is  enough  to  understand  this  clearly,  in  order  to  lose 
our  mind  and  shoot  ourselves.  And  it  is  precisely  what 
happens  with  especial  frequency  among  the  military. 
We  need  but  think  for  a  moment,  in  order  that  we  may 
come  to  the  necessity  of  such  an  ending.  It  is  only  thus 
that  we  can  explain  that  terrible  tension  with  which  the 
men  of  our  time  incline  to  intoxicate  themselves  with 
wine,  tobacco,  opium,  cards,  the  reading  of  newspapers, 
travelling,  all  kinds  of  spectacles,  and  amusements.  All 
these  things  are  done  like  serious,  important  affairs. 
They  are  indeed  important  affairs.  If  there  existed  no 
external  means  for  dimming  their  consciences,  one-half 
of  the  men  would  at  once  shoot  themselves,  because  to 
live  contrary  to  one's  reason  is  a  most  intolerable  state, 
and  all  men  of  our  time  are  in  such  a  state.  All  men  of 
our  time  live  in  a  constant  crying  contradiction  between 
consciousness  and  life.    These  contradictions  are  expressed 


THE    KINGDOM    OF    GOD    IS    WITHIN    TOU      137 

Iq  the  economic  and  political  relations,  but  most  startling 
is  this  contradiction  between  the  recognition  of  the  law  of 
the  brotherhood  of  men,  as  professed  by  Christians,  and 
the  necessity,  in  which  all  men  are  placed  by  the  universal 
military  service,  of  being  prepared  for  hostility,  for  murder, 
—  of  being  at  the  same  time  a  Christian  and  a  gladiator. 


VI 

The  removal  of  the  contradiction  between  life  and  con- 
sciousness is  possible  in  two  ways,  —  by  a  change  of  life 
or  by  a  change  of  consciousness,  and  in  the  choice  of  one 
of  the  two  there  can  be  no  doubt. 

A  man  may  stop  doing  what  he  considers  bad,  but  he 
cannot  stop  considering  bad  what  is  bad. 

Even  so  the  whole  of  humanity  may  stop  doing  what  it 
considers  bad,  but  is  powerless,  not  only  to  change,  but 
even  for  a  time  to  retard  the  all-elucidating  and  expanding 
consciousness  of  what  is  bad  and  what,  therefore,  ought 
not  to  be.  It  would  seem  that  the  choice  between  the 
change  of  life  and  that  of  the  consciousness  ought  to  be 
clear  and  above  doubt. 

And  so,  it  would  seem,  it  is  indispensable  for  the  Chris- 
tian humanity  of  our  time  to  renounce  the  pagan  forms  of 
life,  which  it  condemns,  and  to  build  up  its  life  on  the 
Christian  foundations,  which  it  professes. 

But  so  it  would  be,  if  there  did  not  exist  the  law  of 
inertia,  which  is  as  invariable  in  the  lives  of  men  and 
nations  as  in  inanimate  bodies,  and  which  is  for  men  ex- 
pressed by  the  psychological  law,  so  well  stated  in  the 
Gospel  with  the  words,  "  and  did  not  walk  toward  the  light, 
because  their  deeds  were  evil."  This  law  consists  in  this, 
that  the  majority  of  men  do  not  think  in  order  to  know 
the  truth,  but  in  order  to  assure  themselves  that  the  life 
which  they  lead,  and  which  is  agreeable  and  habitual  to 
them,  is  the  one  which  coincides  with  the  truth. 

Slavery  was  contrary  to  all  the  moral  principles  which 

were  preached  by  Plato  and  Aristotle,  and  yet  neither  the 

138 


THE    KINGDOM    OF    GOD    IS    WITHIN    YOU      139 

one  nor  the  other  saw  this,  because  the  negation  of  slavery 
destroyed  all  that  life  which  they  lived.  The  same  hap- 
pens in  pur  world. 

The  division  of  men  into  two  castes,  like  the  violence 
of  the  state  and  of  the  army,  is  repugnant  to  all  those 
moral  principles  by  which  otu-  world  lives,  and  at  the  same 
time  the  leading  men  of  culture  of  our  time  do  not  seem 
to  see  it. 

The  majority,  if  not  all,  of  the  cultured  people  of  our 
time  unconsciously  try  to  maintain  the  previous  social 
concept  of  hfe  which  justifies  their  position,  and  to  con- 
ceal from  themselves  and  from  men  its  inadequacy,  and, 
above  all,  the  necessity  of  the  condition  of  the  Christian 
hfe-conception,  which  destroys  the  whole  structure  of  the 
existing  life.  They  stride  to  maintain  the  orders  that  are 
based  on  the  social  life-conceptiou,  but  themselves  do  not 
believe  in  it,  because  it  is  obsolete,  and  it  is  impossible  to 
believe  in  it  any  longer. 

All  literature,  the  philosophic,  the  political,  and  that  of 
the  helles-lettrcs,  of  our  time  is  striking  in  this  respect. 
What  a  wealth  of  ideas,  forms,  colours,  what  erudition, 
elegance,  abundance  of  thoughts,  and  what  total  absence 
of  serious  contents,  and  even  what  fear  of  every  definite- 
ness  of  thought  and  of  its  expression  !  Circumlocutions, 
allegories,  jests,  general,  extremely  broad  reflections,  and 
nothing  simple,  clear,  pertinent  to  the  matter,  that  is,  to 
the  question  of  life. 

But  it  is  not  enough  that  they  write  and  say  graceful 
vapidities  ;  they  even  write  and  say  abominable,  vile  things, 
they  in  the  most  refined  manner  adduce  reflections  which 
take  men  back  to  primeval  savagery,  to  the  foundations, 
not  only  of  pagan,  but  even  of  animal  life,  which  we  out- 
lived as  far  back  as  five  thousand  years  ago. 

It  can,  indeed,  not  be  otherwise.  In  keeping  shy  of  the 
Christian  life-conception,  which  for  some  impairs  only 
the  habitual  order,  and  for  others  both  the  habitual  and  the 


140      THE    KINGDOM    OF    GOD    IS    WITHIN    YOU 

advantageous  order,  men  cannot  help  but  return  to  the  pa- 
gan concept  of  hfe,  and  to  the  teachings  which  are  based 
on  them.  In  our  time  they  not  only  preach  patriotism 
and  aristocratism,  as  it  was  preached  two  thousand  years 
ago,  but  they  even  preach  the  coarsest  epicurism,  animality, 
with  this  one  difference,  that  the  men  who  then  preached 
it  believed  in  what  they  preached,  while  now  the  preachers 
themselves  do  not  believe  in  what  they  say,  and  they  can- 
not believe,  because  what  they  preach  no  longer  has  any 
meaning.  It  is  impossible  to  remain  in  one  place,  when 
the  soil  is  in  motion.  If  you  do  not  go  ahead,  you  fall 
behind.  And,  though  it  is  strange  and  terrible  to  say  so, 
the  cultured  people  of  our  time,  the  leaders,  with  their 
refined  reflections,  in  reality  are  dragging  society  back, 
not  even  to  the  pagan  state,  but  to  the  stale  of  primeval 
savagery. 

In  nothing  may  this  direction  of  the  activity  of  the 
leading  men  of  our  time  be  seen  so  clearly  as  in  their 
relation  to  the  phenomenon  in  which  in  our  time  the 
whole  inadequacy  of  the  social  concept  of  life  has  been 
expressed  in  a  concentrated  form,  —  in  their  relation  to 
war,  to  universal  armaments,  and  to  universal  military 
service. 

The  indefiniteness,  if  not  the  insincerity,  of  the  relation 
of  the  cultured  men  of  our  time  to  this  phenomenon  is 
striking.  The  relation  to  this  matter  in  our  cultured 
society  is  threefold  :  some  look  upon  this  phenomenon  as 
something  accidental,  which  arose  from  the  peculiar  politi- 
cal condition  of  Europe,  and  consider  it  corrigible,  without 
the  change  of  the  whole  structure  of  life,  by  means  of  ex- 
ternal, diplomatic,  international  measures ;  others  look 
upon  this  phenomenon  as  upon  something  terrible  and 
cruel,  but  inevitable  and  fatal,  like  a  disease  or  death ; 
others  again  calmly  and  coolly  look  upon  war  as  an  indis- 
pensable, beneficent,  and  therefore  desirable  phenomenon. 

These  people  look  differently  at  the  matter,  but  aU  of 


THE    KINGDOM    OF    GOD    IS    WITHIN    YOU      141 

them  discuss  war  as  an  incident  which  is  quite  inde- 
pendent of  the  will  of  men  who  take  part  in  it,  and  so  do 
not  even  admit  that  natural  question,  which  presents  itself 
to  every  simple  man,  "  Must  I  take  part  in  it  ? "  Accord- 
ing to  the  opinion  of  all  these  men,  these  questions  do  not 
even  exist,  and  every  person,  no  matter  how  he  himself 
may  look  upon  war,  must  in  this  respect  slavishly  submit 
to  the  demands  of  the  government. 

The  relation  of  the  first,  of  those  who  see  a  salvation 
from  wars  in  diplomatic,  international  measures,  is  beauti- 
fully expressed  in  the  result  of  the  last  Congress  of  Peace 
in  London,  and  in  an  article  and  letters  concerning  war 
by  prominent  authors  in  No.  8  of  the  Revue  des  Revues 
for  1891. 

Here  are  the  results  of  the  Cougress  :  having  collected 
the  personal  or  written  opinions  from  learned  men  all  over 
the  world,  the  Cougress  began  by  a  Te  Deum  in  the  Cathe- 
dral, and  ended  with  a  dinner  with  speeches,  having  for 
the  period  of  five  days  listened  to  a  large  number  of 
speeches,  and  having  arrived  at  the  following  resolutions : 

1.  "The  Congress  affirms  its  belief  that  the  brother- 
hood of  man  involves  as  a  necessary  consequence  a 
brotherhood  of  nations,  in  which  the  true  interests  of  all 
are  acknowledged  to  be  identical 

2.  "  The  Congress  recognizes  the  important  influence 
which  Christianity  exercises  upon  the  moral  and  political 
progress  of  mankind,  and  earneslly  urges  upon  ministers 
of  the  Gospel,  and  other  teachers  of  religion  and  morality, 
the  duty  of  setting  forth  the  principles  of  Peace  and 
Good-will,  and  recommends  that  the  third  Sunday  in  De- 
cember in  each  year  be  set  apart  for  that  purpose. 

3.  "  This  Congress  expresses  its  opinion  that  all  teachers 
of  history  should  call  the  attention  of  the  young  to  the 
grave  evils  inflicted  on  mankind  in  all  ages  by  war,  and 
to  the  fact  that  such  war  has  been  waged,  as  a  rule,  foi 
most  inadequate  causes. 


142     THE    KINGDOM    OF    GOD    IS    WITHIN    YOU 

4.  "  The  Congress  protests  against  the  use  of  military 
exercises  in  connection  with  the  physical  exercises  of 
school,  and  suggests  the  formation  of  brigades  for  saving 
life  rather  than  any  of  a  quasi-military  character ;  and  it 
urges  the  desirability  of  impressing  on  the  Board  of  Ex- 
aminers, who  formulate  the  questions  for  examination,  the 
propriety  of  guiding  the  minds  of  children  into  the 
principles  of  Peace. 

5.  "  The  Congress  holds  that  the  doctrine  of  the  uni- 
versal rights  of  man  requires  that  aboriginal  and  weaker 
races  shall  be  guarded  from  injustice  and  fraud  when 
brought  into  contact  with  civilized  peoples,  alike  as  to 
their  territories,  their  liberties,  and  their  property,  and  that 
they  shall  be  shielded  from  the  vices  which  are  so  preva- 
lent among  the  so-called  advanced  races  of  men.  It 
further  expresses  its  conviction  that  there  should  be  con- 
cert of  action  among  the  nations  for  the  accomplishment  of 
these  ends.  The  Congress  desires  to  express  its  hearty 
appreciation  of  the  conclusions  arrived  at  by  the  late 
Anti-Slavery  Conference,  held  in  Brussels,  for  the  amelio- 
ration of  the  condition  of  the  peoples  of  Africa. 

6.  "  The  Congress  believes  that  the  warlike  prejudices 
and  traditions  which  are  still  fostered  in  the  various 
nationalities,  and  the  misrepresentations  by  leaders  of 
public  opinion  in  legislative  assemblies,  or  through  the 
press,  are  not  infrequently  indirect  causes  of  war.  The 
Congress  is  therefore  of  opinion  that  these  evils  should  be 
counteracted  by  the  publication  of  accurate  statements 
and  information  that  would  tend  to  the  removal  of  mis- 
understanding among  nations,  and  recommends  to  the 
Inter-Parhamentary  Committee  the  importance  of  consid- 
ering the  question  of  commencing  an  international  news- 
paper, which  should  have  such  a  purpose  as  one  of  its 
primary  objects. 

7.  "The  Congress  proposes  to  the  Inter-Parliamentary 
Conference  that  the  utmost  support  should  be  given  to 


THE    KINGDOM    OF    GOD    IS    WITHIN    YOU      143 

every  project  for  the  unification  of  weights  and  measures, 
of  coinage,  tariffs,  postal  and  telegraphic  arrangements, 
means  of  transport,  etc.,  which  would  assist  in  constituting 
a  commercial,  industrial,  and  scientific  union  of  the 
peoples. 

8.  "  The  Congress,  in  view  of  the  vast  moral  and  social 
influence  of  woman,  urges  upon  every  woman  throughout 
the  world  to  sustain  the  things  that  make  for  peace ;  as 
otherwise  she  incurs  grave  responsibilities  for  the  contin- 
uance of  the  systems  of  war  and  militarism. 

9.  "  This  Congress  expresses  the  hope  that  the  Financial 
Eeform  Association,  and  other  Similar  Societies  in 
Europe  and  America,  should  unite  in  convoking  at  an 
early  date  a  Conference  to  consider  the  best  means  of 
establishing  equitable  commercial  relations  between  states 
by  the  reduction  of  import  duties.  The  Congress  feels 
that  it  can  affirm  that  the  whole  of  Europe  desires  Peace, 
and  is  impatiently  waiting  for  the  moment  when  it  shall 
see  the  end  of  those  crushing  armaments  which,  under  the 
plea  of  defence,  become  in  their  turn  a  danger,  by  keep- 
ing alive  mutual  distrust,  and  are  at  the  same  time  the 
cause  of  that  economic  disturbance  which  stands  in 
the  way  of  setthng  in  a  satisfactory  manner  the  problems 
of  labour  and  poverty,  which  should  take  precedence  of 
all  others. 

10.  "  The  Congress,  recognizing  that  a  general  disarm- 
ament would  be  the  best  guarantee  of  Peace,  and  would 
lead  to  the  solution,  in  the  general  interest,  of  those 
questions  which  must  now  divide  states,  expresses  the 
wish  that  a  Congress  of  Kepresentatives  of  all  the  states 
of  Europe  may  be  assembled  as  soon  as  possible,  to  con- 
sider the  means  of  accepting  a  gradual  general  dis- 
armament. 

11.  "The  Congress,  considering  the  timidity  of  the 
single  Powers  or  other  causes  might  delay  indefinitely 
the  convocation  of  the  above-mentioned  Congress,  is  of 


144      THE    KINGDOM    OF    GOD    IS    WITHIN    YOU 

opinion  that  the  Government  which  should  first  dismiss 
any  considerable  number  of  soldiers  would  confer  a 
signal  benefit  on  Europe  and  mankind,  because  it  would 
oblige  other  Governments,  urged  on  by  public  opinion,  to 
follow  its  example,  and  by  the  moral  force  of  this  accom- 
plished fact,  would  have  increased  rather  than  diminished 
the  condition  of  its  national  defence. 

12.  "  This  Congress,  considering  the  question  of  disarma- 
ment, as  well  as  the  Peace  question  generally,  depends 
upon  public  opinion,  recommends  the  Peace  Societies  here 
represented,  and  all  friends  of  Peace,  to  carry  on  an  active 
propaganda  among  the  people,  especially  at  the  time  of 
Parliamentary  elections,  in  order  that  the  electors  should 
give  their  vote  to  those  candidates  who  have  included  in 
their  programme  Peace,  Disarmament,  and  Arbitration. 

13.  "The  Congress  congi-atulates  the  friends  of  Peace 
on  the  resolution  adopted  by  the  International  American 
Conference  at  Washington  in  April  last,  by  which  it  was 
recommended  that  arbitration  should  be  obligatory  in  all 
controversies  concerning  diplomatic  and  consular  privi- 
leges, boundaries,  territories,  indemnities,  right  of  naviga- 
tion, and  the  validity,  construction,  and  enforcement  of 
treaties,  and  in  all  other  cases,  whatever  their  origin, 
nature,  or  occasion,  except  only  those  which,  in  the 
judgment  of  any  of  the  nations  involved  in  the  contro- 
versy, may  imperil  its  independence. 

14.  "  The  Congress  respectfully  recommends  this  resolu- 
tion to  the  attention  of  the  statesmen  of  Europe,  and 
expresses  the  ardent  desire  that  treaties  in  similar  terms 
be  speedily  entered  into  between  the  other  nations  of  the 
world. 

15.  "  The  Congress  expresses  its  satisfaction  at  the 
adoption  by  the  Spanish  Senate,  on  June  16th  last,  of  a 
project  of  law  authorizing  the  Government  to  negotiate 
general  or  special  treaties  of  arbitration  for  the  settlement 
of  all  disputes,  except  those  relating  to  the  independence 


THE    KINGDOM    OF    GOD    IS    WITHIN    YOU      145 

and  internal  government  of  the  state  affected ;  also  at  the 
adoption  of  resolutions  to  a  hke  effect  by  the  Norwegian 
Storthing,  and  by  the  Italian  Chamber,  on  July  11th. 

16.  "  The  Congress  addresses  official  communications 
to  the  principal  religious,  political,  commercial,  labour, 
and  peace  organizations  in  civilized  countries,  requesting 
them  to  send  petitions  to  governmental  authorities  of 
their  respective  countries,  praying  that  measures  be  taken 
for  the  formation  of  suitable  tribunals  for  the  adjudicature 
of  any  international  questions,  so  as  to  avoid  the  resort  to 
war. 

17.  "  Seeing  (a)  that  the  object  pursued  by  all  Peace 
Societies  is  the  estabHshment  of  juridical  order  between 
nations ;  (b)  that  neutralization  by  international  treaties 
constitutes  a  step  toward  this  juridical  state,  and  lessens 
the  number  of  districts  in  which  war  can  be  carried  on ; 
the  Congress  recommends  a  larger  extension  of  the  rule 
of  neutralization,  and  expresses  the  wish :  (a)  that  all 
treaties  which  at  present  assure  to  a  certain  state  the 
benefit  of  neutrality  remain  in  force,  or,  if  necessary,  be 
amended  in  a  manner  to  render  the  neutrality  more  effect- 
ive, either  by  extending  neutralization  to  the  whole  of 
the  state,  of  which  a  part  only  may  be  neutralized,  or  by 
ordering  the  demolition  of  fortresses  which  constitute 
rather  a  peril  than  a  guarantee  of  neutrality  ;  (h)  that  new 
treaties,  provided  they  are  in  harmony  with  the  wishes  of 
the  population,  be  concluded  for  the  establishment  of  the 
neutralization  of  other  states. 

18.  "  The  Sul)-Committee  of  the  Congress  recommends  : 
"  I.  That  the  next  Congress  be  held  immediately  before 

or  immediately  after  the  next  session  of  the  Inter-Parlia- 
mentary Conference,  and  at  the  same  place. 

"  II.  That  the  question  of  an  international  Peace  Em- 
blem be  postponed  sine  die. 

"  III.  The  adoption  of  the  following  resolution  : 

"  (a)  Resolved,  that  we  express  our  satisfaction  at  the 


146      THE    KINGDOM    OF    GOD    IS    WITHIN   YOU 

formal  and  official  overtures  of  the  Presbyterian  Church 
in  the  United  States  of  America,  addressed  to  the  highest 
representatives  of  each  church  organization  in  Christen- 
dom, inviting  the  same  to  unite  with  itself  in  a  general 
conference,  the  object  of  which  shall  be  to  promote  the 
substitution  of  international  arbitration  for  war ;  (b)  that 
this  Congress,  assembled  in  London  from  the  14th  to  the 
19th  July,  desires  to  express  its  profound  reverence  for 
the  memory  of  Aurelio  Salli,  the  great  Itahan  jurist,  a 
member  of  the  Committee  of  the  International  League  of 
Peace  and  Liberty, 

"  IV.  That  the  Memorial  to  the  various  Heads  of  Civi- 
lized States,  adopted  by  this  Congress  and  signed  by  the 
President,  should  so  far  as  practicable  be  presented  to 
each  power,  by  an  influential  deputation. 

"  V.  That  the  Organization  Committee  be  empowered 
to  make  the  needful  verbal  emendations  in  the  papers  and 
resolutions  presented. 

"  VI.  That  the  following  resolutions  be  adopted : 

"  (a)  A  resolution  of  thanks  to  the  Presidents  of  the 
various  sittings  of  the  Congress  ;  (h)  a  resolution  of  thanks 
to  the  Chairman,  the  Secretary,  and  the  Members  of  the 
Bureau  of  the  Congress ;  (c)  a  resolution  of  thanks  to  the 
conveners  and  members  of  Sectional  Committees ;  (d)  a 
resolution  of  thanks  to  Eev.  Cannon  Scott  Holland,  Eev. 
Doctor  Keuen,  and  Rev.  J.  Morgan  Gibbon,  for  their  pulpit 
addresses  before  the  Congress,  and  that  they  be  requested 
to  furnish  copies  of  the  same  for  publication ;  and  also  to 
the  Authorities  of  St.  Paul's  Cathedral,  the  City  Temple, 
and  Stamford  Hill  Congregational  Church  for  the  use  of 
those  buildings  for  public  services  ;  (e)  a  letter  of  thanks 
to  Her  Majesty  for  permission  to  visit  Windsor  Castle ; 
(/)  and  also  a  resolution  of  thanks  to  the  Lord  Mayor 
and  Lady  Mayoress,  to  Mr.  Passmore  Edwards,  and  other 
friends,  who  had  extended  their  hospitality  to  the  mem- 
bers of  the  Congress. 


N 


THE   KINGDOM    OF    GOD   IS   WITHIN    YOU      147 

19.  "  This  Congress  places  on  record  a  heartfelt  expres- 
sion of  gratitude  to  Almighty  God  for  the  remarkable 
harmony  and  concord  which  have  characterized  the  meet- 
ings of  the  Assembly,  in  which  so  many  men  and  women 
of  varied  nations,  creeds,  tongues,  and  races  have  gathered 
in  closest  cooperation,  and  in  the  conclusion  of  the  labours 
of  the  Congress ;  it  expresses  its  firm  and  unshaken  belief 
in  the  ultimate  triumph  of  the  cause  of  Peace  and  of  the 
principles  which  have  been  advocated  at  these  meetings." 

The  fundamental  idea  of  the  Congress  is  this,  that  it  is 
necessary,  in  the  first  place,  to  diffuse  by  all  means  pos- 
sible the  conviction  among  men  that  war  is  very  unprofit- 
able for  people  and  that  peace  is  a  great  good,  and  in  the 
second,  to  act  upon  the  governments,  impressing  them 
with  the  superiority  of  the  international  tribunal  over 
wars,  and,  therefore,  the  advantages  and  the  necessity  of 
disarmament.  To  attain  the  first  end,  the  Congress  turns 
to  the  teachers  of  history,  to  the  women,  and  to  the  clergy 
with  the  advice  that  the  evil  of  war  and  the  good  of  peace 
be  preached  to  men  on  every  tliird  Sunday  in  -December ; 
to  attain  the  second  end,  the  Congress  addresses  the  gov- 
ernments, proposing  that  they  disarm  and  substitute  arbi- 
tration for  war. 

To  preach  the  evil  of  war  and  the  good  of  peace  to 
men  !  But  the  evil  of  war  and  the  good  of  peace  are  so 
well  known  to  men  that,  so  long  as  we  have  known  meu, 
the  best  greeting  has  been,  "  Peace  be  with  you."  What 
need  is  there,  then,  in  preaching  ? 

Not  only  the  Christians,  but  all  the  pagans  thousands 
of  years  ago  knew  tlie  evil  of  war  and  the  good  of  peace, 
—  consequently  the  advice  given  to  the  preachers  of  the 
Gospel  to  preach  on  the  evil  of  war  and  the  good  of  peace 
on  every  third  Sunday  in  December  is  quite  superfluous. 

A  Christian  cannot  help  but  preach  this  at  all  times, 
on  all  the  days  of  his  life.  If  Christians  and  preachers  of 
Christianity  do  not  do  so,  there  must  be  causes  for  this, 


148     THE    KINGDOM    OF    GOD    IS    WITHIN    YOU 

and  so  long  as  these  causes  are  not  removed,  no  advice  will 
be  effective.  Still  less  effective  can  be  the  advice  given 
to  the  governments,  to  dismiss  the  armies  and  substitute 
international  tribunals  for  them.  The  governments  them- 
selves know  very  well  all  the  difficulty  and  burdensome- 
ness  of  collecting  and  maintaining  armies,  and  if,  in  spite 
of  it,  they  continue  with  terrible  efforts  and  tension  to 
collect  and  maintain  armies,  they  obviously  cannot  do 
otherwise,  and  the  advice  of  the  Congress  cannot  change 
anything.  But  the  learned  do  not  want  to  see  this,  and 
all  hope  to  find  a  combination  by  which  the  governments, 
who  produce  the  wars,  v/ill  limit  themselves. 

"  Is  it  possible  to  be  freed  from  war  ? "  writes  a  learned 
man  in  the  Rctnie  des  Revues.  "  All  admit  that  when  it 
breaks  loose  in  Europe,  its  consequences  will  be  like  a  great 
incursion  of  the  barbarians.  In  a  forthcoming  war  the 
existence  of  whole  nationalities  will  be  at  stake,  and  so  it 
will  be  sanguinary,  desperate,  cruel. 

"  It  is  these  considerations,  combined  with  those  terrible 
implements  of  war  which  are  at  the  disposal  of  modern 
science,  that  are  retarding  the  moment  of  the  declaration 
of  war  and  are  maintaining  the  existing  temporary  order  of 
things,  which  might  be  prolonged  for  an  indefinite  time, 
if  it  were  not  for  those  terrible  expenses  that  oppress  the 
European  nations  and  tlireaten  to  bring  them  to  no  lesser 
calamities  than  those  which  are  produced  by  war. 

"  Startled  by  this  idea,  the  men  of  the  various  countries 
have  sought  for  a  means  for  stopping  or  at  least  mitigating 
the  consequences  of  the  terrible  slaughter  which  is  men- 
acing us. 

"  Such  are  the  questions  that .  are  propounded  by  the 
Congress  soon  to  be  held  in  Eome  and  in  pamphlets  deal- 
ing with  disarmament. 

"  Unfortunately  it  is  certain  that  with  the  present 
structure  of  the  majority  of  the  European  states,  which 
are  removed  from  one  another  and  are  guided  by  various 


THE    KINGDOM    OF    GOD    IS    WITHIN    YOU      149 

interests,  the  complete  cessation  of  war  is  a  dream  with 
which  it  would  be  dangerous  to  console  ourselves.  Still, 
some  more  reasonable  laws  and  regulations,  accepted  by 
all,  in  these  duels  of  the  nations  might  considerably 
reduce  the  horrors  of  war. 

"  Similarly  Utopian  would  be  the  hope  of  disarmament, 
which  is  almost  impossible,  from  considerations  of  a 
national  character,  which  are  intelligible  to  our  readers." 
(This,  no  doubt,  means  that  France  cannot  disarm  previ- 
ous to  avenging  its  wrongs.)  "  Pubhc  opinion  is  not 
prepared  for  the  adoption  of  projects  of  disarmament, 
and,  besides,  the  international  relations  are  not  such  as 
to  make  their  adoption  possible. 

"  Disarmament,  demanded  by  one  nation  of  another,  is 
tantamount  to  a  declaration  of  war. 

"It  must,  however,  be  admitted  that  the  exchange  of 
views  between  the  interested  nations  will  to  a  certain 
extent  aid  in  the  international  agreement  and  will  make 
possible  a  considerable  diminution  of  the  military  ex- 
penses, which  now  oppress  the  European  nations  at  the 
expense  of  the  solution  of  social  questions,  the  necessity 
of  which  is  felt  by  every  state  individually,  threatening  to 
provoke  an  internal  war  in  the  effort  to  avert  one  from 
without. 

"  It  is  possible  at  least  to  assume  a  diminution  of  the 
enormous  expenses  which  are  needed  in  connection  with 
the  present  business  of  war,  which  aims  at  the  possibility 
of  seizing  the  adversary's  possessions  within  twenty-four 
hours  and  giving  a  decisive  battle  a  week  after  the  decla- 
ration of  war." 

What  is  needed  is,  that  states  should  not  be  able  to 
attack  other  states  and  in  twenty-four  hours  to  seize  the 
possessions  of  others. 

This  practical  idea  was  expressed  by  Maxime  du 
Camp,  and  to  this  the  conclusion  of  the  article  is 
reduced. 


150      THE    KINGDOM    OF    GOD   IS    WITHIN    YOU 

M.  du  Camp's  propositions  are  these  : 

"  (1)  A  diplomatic  congress  ought  to  meet  every  year. 

"  (2)  No  war  can  be  declared  sooner  than  two  months 
after  the  incident  provoking  it.  (The  difficulty  will  be  to 
determine  which  incident  it  is  that  provokes  the  war, 
because  with  every  war  there  are  a  very  large  number  of 
such  incidents,  and  it  would  be  necessary  to  decide  from 
which  incident  the  two  months  are  to  be  counted.) 

"  (3)  War  cannot  be  declared  before  it  is  submitted 
to  the  vote  of  the  nations  preparing  for  it. 

"  Military  action  cannot  begin  sooner  than  a  month 
after  the  declaration   of   war." 

"  War  cannot  be  begun  .  .  .  must  ..."  and  so  forth. 

But  who  will  see  to  it  that  war  cannot  be  begun? 
Who  will  see  to  it  that  men  must  do  so  and  so  ?  Who 
will  compel  the  power  to  wait  until  the  proper  time  ? 
All  the  other  powers  need  just  as  much  to  be  moderated 
and  placed  within  bounds  and  compelled.  Who  will  do 
the  compelling  ?  and  how  ?  —  Public  opinion.  —  But  if 
there  is  a  pubhc  opinion  which  can  compel  a  power 
to  wait  for  a  given  time,  the  same  public  opinion  can 
compel  the  power  not  to  begin  the  war  at  all. 

But,  they  reply  to  all  this,  we  can  have  such  a  balance 
oi  iovcQQ,  ponder ation  dcs  forces,  that  the  powers  will  sup- 
port one  another.  This  has  been  tried  and  is  being  tried 
even  now.  Such  were  the  Holy  Alliance,  the  League  of 
Peace,  and  so  forth. 

"But  if  all  should  agree  to  it?"  we  are  told.  If  all 
should  agree  to  it,  there  would  be  no  war,  and  there 
would  be  no  need  for  supreme  tribunals  and  courts  of 
arbitration. 

"  Arbitration  will  take  the  place  of  war.  The  questions 
will  be  decided  by  a  court  of  arbitration.  The  Alahama 
question  was  decided  by  a  court  of  arbitration,  it  was 
proposed  to  have  the  question  about  the  Caroline  Islands 
submitted  to  the  arbitration  of  the  Pope.     Switzerland, 


THE    KINGDOM    OF    GOD    IS    WITHIN    YOU      151 

and  Belgium,  and  Denmark,  and  HoUand,  —  all  have 
declared  that  they  prefer  the  decisions  of  a  court  of  arbi- 
tration to  war."  Monaco,  it  seems,  also  declared  itself  in 
this  way.  What  is  a  pity  is,  that  Germany,  Kussia, 
Austria,  France  have  not  yet  made  such  declarations. 

It  is  wonderful  how  men  can  deceive  themselves. 

The  governments  will  decide  to  submit  their  differences 
to  a  court  of  arbitration  and  so  will  disband  their  armies. 
The  differences  between  Eussia  and  Poland,  between  Eng- 
land and  Ireland,  between  Austria  and  Bohemia,  between 
Turkey  and  the  Slavs,  between  France  and  Germany  will 
be  decided  by  voluntary  consent. 

This  is  the  same  as  though  it  should  be  proposed  that 
merchants  and  bankers  should  not  sell  anytliing  at  a  higher 
price  than  at  what  they  have  bought  the  articles,  should 
busy  themselves  with  the  distribution  of  wealth  without 
profit,  and  should  abolish  the  money  which  has  thus 
become  useless. 

But  commerce  and  the  banking  industry  consist  in 
nothing  but  selling  at  a  higher  price  than  that  at  which 
the  purchases  are  made,  and  so  the  proposition  that  articles 
should  not  be  sold  except  at  a  purchase  price,  and  that 
money  should  be  abolished,  is  tantamount  to  a  proposi- 
tion that  they  should  abohsh  themselves.  The  same  is 
true  of  the  governments.  The  proposition  made  to  the 
governments  that  no  violence  be  used,  and  that  the  differ- 
ences be  decided  on  their  merits,  is  a  proposition  that  the 
government  as  such  should  abolish  itself,  and  to  this  no 
government  can  consent. 

Learned  men  gather  in  societies  (there  are  many  such 
societies,  more  than  a  hundred  of  them),  congi'esses  are 
called  (lately  such  met  at  Paris  and  London,  and  one  will 
soon  meet  at  Pome),  speeches  are  made,  people  dine,  make 
toasts,  publish  periodicals,  which  are  devoted  to  the  cause, 
and  in  all  of  them  it  is  proved  that  the  tension  of  the 
nations,  who  are  compelled  to  support  milhons  of  troops. 


152      THE    KINGDOM    OF    GOD    IS    WITHIN    YOU 

has  reached  the  utmost  limit,  and  that  this  armament 
contradicts  all  the  aims,  properties,  and  desires  of  all  the 
nations,  but  that,  if  a  lot  of  paper  is  covered  with  writing, 
and  a  lot  of  speeches  are  made,  it  is  possible  to  make  all 
people  agree  and  to  cause  them  not  to  have  any  opposing 
interests,  and  then  there  will  be  no  war. 

When  I  was  a  little  fellow,  I  was  assured  that  to  catch 
a  bird  it  was  just  necessary  to  pour  some  salt  on  its  tail. 
I  went  out  with  the  salt  to  the  birds,  and  immediately 
convinced  myself  that,  if  I  could  get  near  enough  to  pour 
the  salt  on  a  bird's  tail,  I  could  catch  it,  and  I  understood 
that  they  were  making  fun  of  me. 

It  is  the  same  that  must  be  understood  by  those  who 
read  books  and  pamphlets  on  courts  of  arbitration  and  dis- 
armament. 

If  it  is  possible  to  pour  salt  on  a  bird's  tail,  this  means 
that  it  does  not  fly,  and  that  there  is  no  need  of  catch- 
ing it.  But  if  a  bird  has  wings  and  does  not  want  to  be 
caught,  it  does  not  allow  any  one  to  pour  salt  on  its  tail, 
because  it  is  the  property  of  a  bird  to  fly.  Even  so  the 
property  of  a  government  does  not  consist  in  being  sub- 
jected, but  in  subjecting,  and  a  government  is  a  govern- 
ment only  in  so  far  as  it  is  able,  not  to  be  subjected,  but 
to  subject,  and  so  it  strives  to  do  so,  and  can  never  volun- 
tarily renounce  its  power ;  but  the  power  gives  it  the  army, 
and  so  it  will  never  give  up  the  army  and  its  use  for  pur- 
poses of  war. 

The  mistake  is  based  on  this,  that  learned  jurists, 
deceiving  themselves  and  others,  assert  in  their  books  that 
the  government  is  not  what  it  is,  —  a  collection  of  one  set 
of  men,  doing  violence  to  another,  —  but,  as  science  makes 
it  out  to  be,  a  representation  of  the  aggregate  of  citizens. 
The  learned  have  for  so  long  a  time  assured  others  of  this 
fact  that  they  have  come  themselves  to  believe  in  it,  and 
they  often  think  seriously  that  justice  can  be  obligatory  for 
the  governments.     But  history  shows  that  from  Csesar  to 


THE    KINGDOM    OF    GOD    IS    WITHIN    YOU      153 

Napoleou,  both  the  first  and  the  third,  and  Bismarck,  the 
government  has  by  its  essence  always  been  a  justice-impair- 
ing force,  as,  indeed,  it  cannot  be  otherwise.  Justice  can- 
not be  obHgatory  for  a  man  or  for  men,  who  keep  in  hand 
deceived  men,  drilled  for  violence,  —  the  soldiers,  —  and 
by  means  of  them  rule  others.  And  so  the  governments 
cannot  agree  to  the  diminution  of  the  number  of  these 
drilled  men,  who  obey  them  and  who  form  aU  their 
strength  and  significance. 

Such  is  the  relation  of  one  set  of  learned  men  to  the 
contradiction  which  weighs  heavily  on  our  world,  and  such 
are  the  means  for  its  solution.  Tell  these  men  that  the 
question  is  only  in  the  personal  relation  of  every  man  to 
the  moral,  religious  question,  now  standing  before  all,  of 
the  legitimacy  and  illegitimacy  of  his  participation  in  the 
universal  military  service,  and  these  savants  will  only 
shrug  their  shoulders,  and  will  not  even  deign  to  give  you 
an  answer,  or  pay  attention  to  you.  The  solution  of  the 
question  for  them  consists  in  reading  addresses,  writing 
books,  choosing  presidents,  vice-presidents,  secretaries,  and 
meeting  and  talking,  now  in  this  city,  and  now  in  that. 
From  these  talks  and  writings  there  will,  in  their  opinion, 
come  this  result,  that  the  governments  will  cease  drafting 
soldiers,  on  whom  their  whole  power  is  based,  but  will 
listen  to  their  speeches  and  will  dismiss  their  soldiers, 
will  remain  defenceless,  not  only  against  their  neighbours, 
but  even  against  their  subjects,  —  like  rol)bers  who,  having 
bound  defenceless  men,  for  the  purpose  of  robbing  them, 
upon  hearing  speeches  about  the  pain  caused  to  the  bound 
men  by  the  rope,  should  immediately  set  them  free. 

But  there  are  people  who  believe  in  it,  who  busy  them- 
selves with  peace  congresses,  deliver  addresses,  write  little 
books ;  and  the  governments,  of  course,  express  their  sym- 
pathy with  this,  let  it  appear  that  they  are  supporting  this, 
just  as  they  make  it  appear  that  they  are  supporting  a 
temperance  society,  whereas  they  for  the  most  part  Hve 


154      THE    KINGDOM    OF    GOD    IS    WITHIN    YOU 

by  the  drunkenness  of  the  masses ;  just  as  they  make  it 
appear  that  they  are  supporting  education,  whereas  their 
strength  is  based  on  ignorance ;  just  as  they  make  it  appear 
that  they  are  supporting  the  liberty  of  the  constitution, 
whereas  their  strength  is  based  only  on  the  absence  of  a 
constitution  ;  just  as  they  make  it  appear  that  they  are 
concerned  about  the  betterment  of  the  labouring  classes, 
whereas  it  is  on  the  oppression  of  the  labourer  that  their 
existence  is ;  just  as  they  make  it  appear  that  they  are 
supporting  Christianity,  whereas  Christianity  destroys 
every  government. 

To.be  able  to  do  this,  they  have  long  ago  worked  out 
such  provisions  for  temperance,  that  drunkenness  is  not 
impaired  ;  such  provisions  for  education,  that  ignorance  is 
not  only  not  interfered  with,  but  is  even  strengthened  ; 
such  provisions  for  liberty  and  for  the  constitution,  that 
despotism  is  not  impeded ;  such  provisions  for  the  labour- 
ers, that  they  are  not  freed  from  slavery  ;  such  Christianity 
as  does  not  destroy,  but  maintains  the  governments. 

Now  they  have  also  added  their  concern  about  peace. 
The  governments,  simply  the  kings,  who  travel  about 
with  their  ministers,  of  their  own  accord  deciding  the 
questions  as  to  whether  they  shall  begin  the  slaughter 
of  millions  this  year  or  next,  know  full  well  that  their 
talks  about  peace  will  not  keep  them,  whenever  they  feel 
like  it,  from  sending  millions  to  slaughter.  The  kings 
even  listen  with  pleasure  to  these  talks,  encourage  them, 
and  take  part  in  them. 

All  this  is  not  only  harmless,  but  even  useful  to  the 
governments,  in  that  it  takes  people's  minds  away  from 
the  most  essential  question,  as  to  whether  each  individual 
man,  who  is  called  to  become  a  soldier,  should  perform 
the  universal  military  service  or  not. 

"  Peace  will  soon  be  established,  thanks  to  alliances 
and  congresses  and  in  consequence  of  books  and  pam- 
phlets, but  in  the  meantime  go,  put  on  uniforms,  and  be 


THE    KINGDOM    OF    GOD    IS    WITHIN    YOU      155 

prepared  to  oppress  and  torture  yourselves  for  our  advan- 
tage," say  the  governments.  And  the  learned  authors  of 
congresses  and  of  writings  fully  agree  to  this. 

This  is  one  relation,  the  most  advantageous  one  for  the 
governments,  and  so  it  is  encouraged  by  all  wise  govern- 
ments. 

Another  relation  is  the  tragic  relation  of  the  men 
who  assert  that  the  contradiction  between  the  striving 
and  love  for  peace  and  the  necessity  of  war  is  terrible, 
but  that  such  is  the  fate  of  men.  These  for  the  most 
part  sensitive,  gifted  men  see  and  comprehend  the  whole 
terror  and  the  whole  madness  and  cruelty  of  war,  but  by 
some  strange  turn  of  mind  do  not  see  and  do  not  look  for 
any  issue  from  tliis  condition,  and,  as  though  irritating 
their  wound,  enjoy  the  desperate  plight  of  humanity. 

Here  is  a  remarkable  specimen  of  such  a  relation  to 
war,  by  a  famous  French  author  (Maupassant).  As  he 
looks  from  his  yacht  at  the  exercises  and  target-shooting 
of  the  French  soldiers,  the  following  ideas  come  to  him : 

"  War !  When  1  but  think  of  this  word,  I  feel  be- 
wildered, as  though  they  were  speaking  to  me  of  sorcery, 
of  the  Inquisition,  of  a  distant,  finished,  abominable,  mon- 
strous, unnatural  thing. 

"  When  they  speak  to  us  of  cannibals,  we  smile  proudly, 
as  we  proclaim  our  superiority  to  these  savages.  Who 
are  the  savages,  the  real  savages  ?  Those  who  struggle  in 
order  to  eat  those  whom  they  vanquish,  or  those  who 
struggle  to  kill,  merely  to  kill  ? 

"  The  httle  soldiers  of  the  rank  and  file  who  are  run- 
ning down  there  are  destined  for  death,  like  flocks  of 
sheep,  whom  a  butcher  drives  before  him  on  the  highway. 
They  will  fall  in  a  plain,  their  heads  cut  open  by  a  sword- 
stroke,  or  their  chests  pierced  by  bullets ;  and  these  are 
young  men  who  might  have  worked,  produced,  been  use- 
ful. Their  fathers  are,  old  and  poor ;  their  mothers,  who 
have  loved  them  for  twenty  years  and  adored  them  as 


7H 


156     THE    KINGDOM    OF    GOD   IS   WITHIN   TOU 

only  mothers  can,  will  learn  in  six  months  or,  perhaps, 
in  a  year  that  their  son,  their  child,  their  grandchild,  who 
had  been  reared  with  so  much  love,  was  thrown  into  a 
hole,  like  a  dead  dog,  after  he  had  been  eviscerated  by 
a  ball,  trampled  underfoot,  crushed,  mashed  into  pulp 
by  the  charges  of  cavalry.  Why  did  they  kill  her  boy, 
her  fine  boy,  her  only  hope,  her  pride,  her  life  ?  She  does 
not  know.     Yes,  why  ? 

"  War  !  To  fight !  To  butcher  !  To  massacre  people  ! 
And  to-day,  at  our  period  of  the  world,  with  our  civiliza- 
tion, with  the  expansion  of  science  and  the  degree  of 
philosophy  which  we  deem  the  human  genius  to  have 
attained,  we  have  schools  in  which  they  teach  how  to 
kill;  to  kill  at  a  great  distance,  with  perfection,  a  lot 
of  people  at  the  same  time,  —  to  kill  poor  innocent  fel- 
lows, who  have  the  care  of  a  family  and  are  under  no 
judicial  sentence. 

"  And  what  is  most  startling  is  the  fact  that  the  people 
do  not  rise  against  the  governments  !  What  difference  is 
there  really  between  the  monarchies  and  the  republics  ? 
It  is  most  startling  that  society  does  not  rise  in  a  body  and 
revolt  at  the  very  mention  of  the  word  '  war.' 

"  Oh,  we  shall  always  live  under  the  burden  of  the 
ancient  and  odious  customs,  criminal  prejudices,  and 
savage  ideas  of  our  barbarous  ancestors,  because  we  are 
beasts,  and  shall  remain  beasts,  who  are  dominated  by 
instinct  and  do  not  change. 

"  Would  not  any  other  man  than  Victor  Hugo  have 
been  disgraced,  if  he  sent  forth  this  cry  of  deliverance  and 
truth  ? 

" '  To-day  force  is  called  violence  and  is  about  to  be 
judged ;  war  is  summoned  to  court.  Civilization,  at  the 
instigation  of  the  human  race,  institutes  proceedings  and 
prepares  the  great  criminal  brief  of  the  conquerors  and 
captains.  The  nations  are  coming  to  understand  that  the 
increase  of  an  offence  cannot  be  its  diminution ;  that  if 


THE    KINGDOM    OF    GOD    IS    WITHIN    YOU      157 

it  is  a  crime  to  kill,  killing  much  cannot  be  an  extenua- 
ting circumstance;  that  if  stealing  is  a  disgrace,  forcible 
seizing  cannot  be  a  glory.  Oh,  let  us  proclaim  these 
absolute  verities,  —  let  us  disgrace  war  ! ' 

"  Vain  fury  and  indignation  of  a  poet !  War  is  hon- 
oured more  than  ever. 

"  A  versatile  artist  in  these  matters,  a  gifted  butcher  of 
men,  Mr.  von  Moltke,  one  day  spoke  the  following  words 
to  some  delegates  of  peace  : 

"  '  War  is  sacred  and  divinely  instituted ;  it  is  one  of  the 
sacred  laws  of  the  world ;  it  nurtures  in  men  all  the  great 
and  noble  sentiments,  —  honour,  disinterestedness,  virtue, 
courage,  —  and,  to  be  short,  keeps  men  from  falling  into 
the  most  hideous  materialism.' 

"  Thus,  uniting  into  herds  of  four  hundred  thousand 
men,  marching  day  and  night  without  any  rest,  not 
thinking  of  anything,  nor  studying  anything,  nor  learn- 
ing anything,  nor  reading  anything,  not  being  useful  to 
a  single  person,  rotting  from  dirt,  sleeping  in  the  mire, 
living  like  the  brutes  in  a  constant  stupor,  pillaging  cities, 
burning  villages,  ruining  peoples,  then  meeting  another 
conglomeration  of  human  flesh,  rushing  against  it,  mak- 
ing lakes  of  blood  and  fields  of  battered  flesh,  mingled 
with  muddy  and  l)lood-stained  earth  and  mounds  of 
corpses,  being  deprived  of  arms  or  legs,  or  having  the 
skull  crushed  without  profit  to  any  one,  and  dying  in 
the  corner  of  a  field,  while  your  old  parents,  your  wife, 
and  your  children  are  starving,  —  that's  what  is  called 
not  to  fall  into  the  most  hideous  materialism. 

"  The  men  of  war  are  the  scourges  of  the  world.  We 
struggle  against  Nature,  against  ignorance,  against  ob- 
stacles of  every  sort,  in  order  to  make  our  miserable 
life  less  hard.  Men,  benefactors,  savants  use  their  exist- 
ence in  order  to  work,  to  find  what  may  help,  may  succour, 
may  ease  their  brothers.  They  go  with  vim  about  their 
useful    business,    accumulate    discovery   upon    discovery, 


158      THE    KINGDOM    OF    GOD    IS    WITHIN    YOU 

increasiDg  the  human  spirit,  expanding  science,  giving 
every  day  a  sum  of  new  knowledge  to  the  intelhgence  of 
man,  giving  every  day  well-being,  ease,  and  force  to  their 
country. 

"War  arrives.  In  six  months  the  generals  destroy 
twenty  years  of  effort,  of  patience,  and  of  genius. 

"  This  is  what  is  called  not  to  fall  into  the  most  hideous 
materialism. 

"  We  have  seen  what  war  is.  We  have  seen  men  turned 
into  brutes,  maddened,  killing  for  the  sake  of  pleasure,  of 
terror,  of  bravado,  of  ostentation.  Then,  when  law  no 
longer  exists,  when  law  is  dead,  when  every  notion  of 
right  has  disappeared,  we  have  seen  men  shoot  innocent 
people  who  are  found  on  the  road  and  who  have  roused 
suspicion  only  because  they  showed  fear.  We  have  seen 
dogs  chained  near  the  doors  of  their  masters  killed,  just  to 
try  new  revolvers  on  them ;  we  have  seen  cows  lying  in 
the  field  shot  to  pieces,  for  the  sake  of  pleasure,  only 
to  try  a  gun  on  them,  to  have  something  to  laugh  at. 

"  This  is  what  is  called  not  to  fall  into  the  most  hideous 
materialism. 

"  To  enter  a  country,  to  kill  a  man  who  is  defending 
his  home,  simply  because  he  wears  a  blouse  and  has  no 
cap  on  his  head,  to  burn  the  habitations  of  wretched 
people  who  have  no  bread,  to  smash  the  furniture,  to 
steal  some  of  it,  to  drink  the  wine  which  is  found  in  the 
cellars,  to  rape  the  women  who  are  found  in  the  streets, 
to  burn  milhons  of  dollars'  worth  of  powder,  and  to  leave 
behind  them  misery  and  the  cholera,  —  this  is  what  is 
called  not  to  fall  into  the  most  hideous  materialism. 

"What  have  the  men  of  war  done  to  give  evidence 
of  even  a  little  intelligence  ?  Nothing.  What  have  they 
invented  ?     Cannon  and  guns.     That  is  all. 

"What  has  Greece  left  to  us?  Books,  marbles.  Is 
she  great  because  she  has  conquered,  or  because  she  has 
produced  ? 


THE    KINGDOM    OF    GOD    IS    WITHIN   YOU      159 

"  Is  it  the  invasion  of  the  Persians  that  kept  her  from 
falling  into  the  most  hideous  materialism  ? 

"  Is  it  the  invasions  of  the  barbarians  that  saved  Kome 
and  regenerated  her  ? 

"  Was  it  Napoleon  I.  who  continued  the  great  intel- 
lectual movement  which  was  begun  by  the  philosophers 
at  the  end  of  the  last  century  ? 

"  Oh,  well,  if  the  governments  arrogate  to  themselves 
the  right  to  kill  the  nations,  there  is  nothing  surprising  in 
the  fact  that  the  nations  now  and  then  take  upon  them- 
selves the  right  to  do  away  with  the  governments. 

"  They  defend  themselves.  They  are  right.  Nobody 
has  the  absolute  right  to  govern  others.  This  can  be 
done  only  for  the  good  of  the  governed.  Whoever  rules 
is  as  much  obliged  to  avoid  war  as  a  captain  of  a  boat  is 
obliged  to  avoid  a  shipwreck, 

"  When  a  captain  has  lost  his  boat,  he  is  judged  and 
condemned,  if  he  is  found  guilty  of  negligence  or  even  of 
incapacity. 

"  Why  should  not  the  governments  be  judged  after  the 
declaration  of  a  war  ?  If  the  nations  understood  this,  if 
they  themselves  sat  in  judgment  over  the  death-dealing 
powers,  if  they  refused  to  allow  themselves  to  be  killed 
without  reason,  if  they  made  use  of  their  weapons  against 
those  who  gave  them  to  them  for  the  purpose  of  mas- 
sacring, war  would  be  dead  at  once !  But  this  day  will 
not  come!"     {Sur  I'Eau,  ipix  71-80.) 

The  author  sees  all  the  horror  of  war ;  he  sees  that  its 
cause  is  in  this,  that  the  governments,  deceiving  people, 
compel  them  to  go  out  to  kill  and  die  without  any  need  ;  he 
sees  also  that  the  men  composing  the  armies  might  turn 
their  weapons  against  the  governments  and  demand 
accounts  from  them.  But  the  author  tliinks  that  this 
will  never  happen,  and  that,  therefore,  there  is  no  way 
out  of  this  situation.  He  thinks  that  the  business  of 
war  is  terrible,  but  that  it  is  inevitable  and  that  the  de- 


160      THE    KINGDOM    OF    GOD    IS   WITHIN   YOU 

mands  of  the  governments  that  the  soldiers  shall  go 
and  fight  are  as  inevitable  as  death,  and  that,  since  the 
governments  will  always  demand  it,  there  will  always 
exist  wars. 

Thus  writes  a  talented,  sincere  author,  who  is  endowed 
with  that  penetration  into  the  essence  of  the  matter 
which  forms  the  essence  of  the  poetical  genius.  He  pre- 
sents to  us  all  the  cruelty  of  the  contradiction  between 
men's  conscience  and  their  activity,  and,  without  solving 
it,  seems  to  recognize  that  this  contradiction  must  exist 
and  that  in  it  consists  the  tragedy  of  life. 

Another,  not  less  gifted  author  (E.  Eod),  describes  the 
cruelty  and  madness  of  the  present  situation  in  still  more 
glaring  colours,  and  similarly,  recognizing  the  tragical  ele- 
ment in  it,  does  not  offer  or  foresee  any  way  out  of  it. 

"  What  good  is  there  in  doing  anything  ?  What  good 
is  there  in  undertaking  anything  ? "  he  says.  "  How  can 
we  love  men  in  these  troubled  times,  when  the  morrow  is 
but  a  menace  ?  Everything  we  have  begun,  our  maturing 
ideas,  our  incepted  works,  the  little  good  which  we  shall 
have  been  able  to  do,  —  will  it  not  all  be  carried  away  by 
the  coming  hurricane  ?  Everywhere  the  earth  is  trembling 
under  our  feet,  and  the  clouds  that  are  gathering  upon  our 
horizon  will  not  pass  by  us. 

"  Oh,  if  it  were  only  the  Revolution,  with  which  we  are 
frightened,  that  we  had  to  fear !  As  I  am  incapable  of 
imagining  a  more  detestable  society  than  is  ours,  I  have 
more  mistrust  than  fear  for  the  one  which  will  succeed  it. 
If  I  were  to  suffer  from  the  transformation,  I  should  con- 
sole myself  with  the  thought  that  the  executioners  of  to- 
day are  the  victims  of  yesterday,  and  the  expectation  of 
what  is  better  would  make  me  put  up  with  what  is  worse. 
But  it  is  not  this  distant  peril  that  frightens  me,  —  I  see 
another,  nearer,  above  all,  a  more  cruel  peril,  more  cruel, 
because  it  has  no  excuse,  because  it  is  absurd,  because  no 
good    can   result   from    it.     Every   day   men   weigh   the 


THE    KINGDOM    OF    GOD    IS    WITHIN    YOU      161 

chances  of  war  for  the  morrow,  and  every  day  they  are 
more  merciless. 

"  Thought  staggers  before  the  catastrophe  which  appears 
at  the  end  of  the  century  as  the  limit  of  the  progress  of 
our  era,  —  but  we  must  get  used  to  it :  for  twenty  years  all 
the  forces  of  science  have  been  exhausting  themselves  to 
■invent  engines  of  destruction,  and  soon  a  few  cannon- 
shots  will  sufhce  to  annihilate  a  whole  army  ;  they  no 
longer  arm,  as  formerly,  a  few  thousands  of  poor  devils, 
whose  blood  was  paid  for,  but  whole  nations,  who  go  out 
to  cut  each  others'  throats ;  they  steal  their  time,  in  order 
later  more  surely  to  steal  their  hves ;  to  prepare  them 
for  the  massacre,  their  hatred  is  fanned,  by  pretending 
that  they  are  hated.  And  good  people  are  tricked,  and 
we  shall  see  furious  masses  of  peaceful  citizens,  into  whose 
hands  the  guns  will  be  placed  by  a  stupid  order,  rush 
against  one  another  with  the  ferocity  of  wild  animals, 
God  knows  for  the  sake  of  what  ridiculous  incident  of 
the  border  or  of  what  mercantile  colonial  interests  •  They 
will  march,  like  sheep,  to  the  slaughter,  —  but  knowing 
whither  they  are  going,  knowing  that  they  are  leaving 
their  wives,  knowing  that  their  children  will  be  hungry, 
and  they  will  go  with  anxious  fear,  but  none  the  less 
intoxicated  by  the  sonorous,  deceptive  words  that  will  be 
trumpeted  into  their  ears.  They  will  go  without  revolt, 
passive  and  resigned,  though  they  are  the  mass  and  the 
force,  and  could  be  the  power,  if  they  wished  and  if  they 
knew  how  to  establish  common  sense  and  brotherhood  in 
the  place  of  the  savage  trickeries  of  diplomacy.  They 
will  go,  so  deceived,  so  duped,  that  they  will  believe  the 
carnage  to  be  a  duty,  and  will  ask  God  to  bless  their 
sanguinary  appetites.  They  will  go,  trampling  on  the 
crops  which  they  have  sown,  burning  the  cities  which 
they  have  built,  with  enthusiastic  songs,  joyous  cries,  and 
festive  music.  And  their  sons  will  erect  statues  to  those 
who  shall  have  massacred  them  better  than  any  one  else ! 


162     THE    KINGDOM    OF    GOD    IS    WITHIN    YOU 

"  The  fate  of  a  whole  generation  depends  on  the  hour  at 
which  some  sombre  pohtician  will  give  the  signal,  which 
will  be  followed.  We  know  that  the  best  among  us  will 
be  mowed  down  and  that  our  work  will  be  destroyed  in 
the  germ.  We  know  this,  and  we  tremble  from  anger, 
and  we  are  unable  to  do  anything.  We  are  caught  in  the 
net  of  offices  and  red  tape,  which  it  would  take  too 
violent  an  effort  to  break.  We  belong  to  the  laws  which 
we  have  called  into  life  to  protect  us,  but  which  oppress 
us.  We  are  only  things  of  this  Antinomian  abstraction, 
the  state,  which  makes  every  individual  a  slave  in  the 
name  of  the  will  of  all,  who,  taken  separately,  would  want 
the  very  opposite  of  what  they  are  compelled  to  do. 

"  If  it  were  only  one  generation  that  is  to  be  sacrificed  ! 
But  there  are  other  interests  as  well. 

"  All  these  salaried  shouters,  these  ambitious  exploiters 
of  the  evil  passions  of  the  masses  and  the  poor  in  spirit, 
who  are  deceived  by  the  sonority  of  words,  have  to  such 
an  extent  envenomed  the  national  hatreds  that  the  war 
of  to-morrow  will  stake  the  existence  of  a  race :  one  of 
the  elements  which  have  constituted  the  modern  world 
is  menaced,  —  he  who  will  be  vanquished  must  disappear 
morally,  —  and,  whatever  it  be,  we  shall  see  a  force  anni- 
hilated, as  if  there  were  one  too  many  for  the  good !  We 
shall  see  a  new  Europe  formed,  on  bases  that  are  so 
unjust,  so  brutal,  so  bloody,  so  soiled  with  a  monstrous 
blotch,  that  it  cannot  help  but  be  worse  than  that  of 
to-day,  —  more  iniquitous,  more  barbarous,  more  vio- 
lent. 

"  One  feels  oneself  oppressed  by  a  terrible  discourage- 
ment. We  are  tossing  about  in  a  blind  alley,  with  guns 
trained  on  us  from  all  the  roofs.  Our  work  is  that  of 
sailors  going  through  their  last  exercise  before  the  ship 
goes  down.  Our  pleasures  are  those  of  the  condemned 
criminal,  who  fifteen  minutes  before  his  execution  is 
offered  a  choice  morsel.     Anguish  paralyzes  our  thought, 


I 


THE    KINGDOM    OF    GOD    IS    WITHIN    TOU      163 

and  the  best  effort  of  which  it  is  capable  is  to  calculate 

by  spelling  out  the  vague  discourses  of  ministers,  by 

twisting  the  sense  of  the  words  uttered  by  sovereigns, 
by  contorting  the  words  ascribed  to  diplomats  and  re- 
ported by  the  newspapers  at  the  uncertain  risk  of  their  in- 
formation —  whether  it  is  to-morrow  or  the  day  after,  this 
year  or  next  year,  that  we  shall  be  crushed.  We  should, 
indeed,  seek  in  vain  in  history  for  a  more  uncertain  epoch, 
one  which  is  so  full  of  anxieties  "  (E.  Rod,  Le  Sens  de  la 
Fte,  pp.  208-213). 

It  is  pointed  out  that  the  power  is  in  the  hands  of 
those  who  are  ruining  themselves,  in  the  hands  of  the 
separate  individuals  forming  the  mass ;  it  is  pointed  out 
that  the  source  of  evil  is  in  the  state.  It  would  seem 
clear  that  the  contradiction  of  the  consciousness  and  of  life 
has  reached  the  limit  beyond  which  it  is  impossible  to  go 
and  after  which  its  solution  must  ensue. 

But  the  author  does  not  think  so.  He  sees  in  this  the 
tragedy  of  human  life,  and,  having  pointed  out  all  the 
terror  of  the  situation,  concludes  that  human  life  must 
take  place  in  this  terror. 

Such  is  the  second  relation  to  war  of  those  men  who 
see  something  fatal  and  tragical  in  it. 

The  third  relation  is  tliat  of  men  who  have  lost 
their  conscience,  and  so  their  common  sense  and  human 
feeling. 

To  this  class  belong  Moltke,  whose  opinion  is  quoted  by 
Maupassant,  and  the  majority  of  military  men,  who  are 
educated  in  this  cruel  superstition,  who  live  by  it,  and  so 
are  often  naively  convinced  that  war  is  not  only  an  in- 
evitable, but  even  a  useful  matter.  Tlius,  judge  also  non- 
military,  so-called  learned,  cultured,  refined  people. 

Here  is  what  the  famous  Academician,  Dousset,  writes 
in  the  number  of  the  Revue  des  Remtes  in  which  the  letters 
about  war  are  collected,  in  reply  to  the  editor's  inquir}'  as 
to  his  views  on  war : 


164     THE    KINGDOM    OF    GOD    IS    WITHIN   YOU 

"Dear  Sir:  —  When  you  ask  the  most  peaceable  of 
Academicians  whether  he  is  an  advocate  of  war,  his  answer 
is  ready  in  advance :  unfortunately,  dear  sir,  you  yourself 
regard  as  a  dream  the  peaceful  thoughts  which  at  the 
present  time  inspire  our  magnanimous  countrymen. 

"  Ever  since  I  have  been  living  in  the  world,  I  have 
heard  many  private  people  express  their  indignation 
against  this  terrifying  habit  of  international  slaughter. 
All  men  recognize  and  deplore  this  evil ;  but  how  is  it  to 
be  mended  ?  People  have  very  often  tried  to  abolish 
duels,  —  this  seemed  so  easy  !  But  no  !  All  the  efforts 
made  for  the  attainment  of  this  end  have  done  no  good 
and  never  will  do  any  good. 

"  No  matter  how  much  may  be  said  against  war  and 
against  duelling  at  all  the  congresses  of  the  world,  above 
all  arbitrations,  above  all  treaties,  above  all  legislations, 
will  eternally  stand  man's  honour,  which  has  ever  de- 
manded duelling,  and  the  national  advantages,  which  will 
eternally  demand  war. 

"  I  none  the  less  with  all  my  heart  hope  that  the  Con- 
gress of  Universal  Peace  will  succeed  in  its  very  grave  and 
very  honourable  problem. 

"  Eeceive  the  assurance,  etc. 

"  K.  DOUSSET." 

The  meaning  is  this,  that  men's  honour  demands  that 
people  should  tight,  and  the  advantages  of  the  nations  de- 
mand that  they  should  ruin  and  destroy  one  another,  and 
that  the  attempts  at  stopping  war  are  only  worthy  of  smiles. 

Similar  is  the  opinion  of  another  famous  man,  Jules 
Claretie : 

"  Dear  Sir,"  he  writes :  "  For  an  intelligent  man  there 
can  exist  but  one  opinion  in  respect  to  the  question  of 
peace  and  war. 

"  Humanity  was  created  that  it  should  live,  being  free 


I 


THE    KINGDOM    OF    GOD    IS   WITHIIS"   YOU      165 

to  perfect  and  better  (its  fate)  its  condition  by  means  of 
peaceful  labour.  The  universal  agreement,  for  which  the 
Universal  Congress  of  Peace  is  asking  and  which  it  preaches, 
may  present  but  a  beautiful  dream,  but  it  is  in  any  case  the 
most  beautiful  dream  of  all.  Man  has  always  before 
him  the  promised  land  of  the  future,  —  the  harvest  will 
mature,  without  fear  of  harm  from  grenades  and  cannon- 
wheels. 

"  But  .  .  .  Yes,  but !  Since  the  world  is  not  ruled 
by  philosophers  and  benefactors,  it  is  fortunate  that  our 
soldiers  protect  our  borders  and  our  hearths,  and  that  their 
arms,  correctly  aimed,  appear  to  us,  perhaps,  as  the  very 
best  guarantee  of  this  peace,  which  is  so  fervently  loved 
by  all  of  us. 

"  Peace  is  given  only  to  the  strong  and  the  determined. 

"  Keceive  the  assurance,  etc. 

"  J.  Claretie." 

The  meaning  of  this  is,  that  it  does  no  harm  to  talk  of 
what  no  one  intends  to  do,  and  what  ought  not  to  be  done 
at  all.     But  when  it  comes  to  business,  we  must  fight. 

Here  is  another  recent  expression  of  opinion  concerning 
war,  by  the  most  popular  novelist  of  Europe,  E.  Zola : 

"  I  consider  war  a  fatal  necessity,  which  appears  inevi- 
table to  us  in  view  of  its  close  connection  with  human 
nature  and  the  whole  world-structure.  I  wish  war  could 
be  removed  for  the  longest  possible  time ;  none  the  less 
the  moment  will  arrive  when  we  shall  be  compelled  to 
fight.  I,  at  the  present  moment,  am  placing  m.yself  on  the 
universal  point  of  view,  and  in  no  way  have  any  reference 
to  our  difference  with  (^Sermany,  which  presents  itself  only 
as  an  insignificant  incident  in  the  history  of  humanity.  I 
say  that  war  is  indispensable  and  useful,  because  it  appears 
to  humanity  as  one  of  the  conditions  of  its  existence.  We 
everywhere  meet  with  war,  not  only  among  various  tribes 
and   nations,  but  also  in  domestic  and  private  life.     It 


166      THE    KINGDOM    OF    GOD    IS    WITHIN    YOU 

appears  as  one  of  the  chief  elements  of  progress,  and  every 
step  forward,  which  humanity  has  taken,  has  been  accom- 
panied by  bloodshed. 

"  People  used  to  speak,  and  even  now  speak,  of  disarma- 
ment, but  disarmament  is  something  impossible,  and  even 
if  it  were  possible,  we  should  be  obliged  to  reject  it.  Only 
an  armed  nation  appears  powerful  and  great.  I  am  con- 
vinced that  a  universal  disarmament  would  bring  with  it 
something  like  a  moral  fall,  which  would  find  its  expres- 
sion in  universal  impotence,  and  would  be  in  the  way  of  a 
progressive  advancement  of  humanity.  A  martial  nation 
has  always  enjoyed  virile  strength.  Military  art  has 
brought  with  it  the  development  of  all  the  other  arts. 
History  testifies  to  that.  Thus,  in  Athens  and  in  Kome, 
commerce,  industry,  and  literature  never  reached  such 
development  as  at  the  time  when  these  cities  ruled  over 
the  then  known  world  by  force  of  arms.  To  take  an 
example  from  times  nearer  to  us,  let  us  recall  the  age  of 
Louis  XIV.  The  wars  of  the  great  king  not  only  did  not 
retard  the  progress  of  the  arts  and  sciences,  but,  on  the 
contrary,  seemed  to  aid  and  foster  their  development." 

War  is  a  useful  thing ! 

But  best  of  all  in  this  sense  is  the  opinion  of  the  most 
talented  writer  of  this  camp,  the  opinion  of  the  Academi- 
cian Vogii^.  Here  is  what  he  writes  in  an  article  about 
the  exhibition,  in  visiting  the  mihtary  department : 

"  In  the  Esplanade  des  Invalides,  amidst  exotic  and 
colonial  buildings,  one  structure  of  a  more  severe  style 
rises  in  the  picturesque  bazaar ;  all  these  representatives 
of  the  terrestrial  globe  adjoin  the  Palace  of  War.  A 
superb  subject  of  antitheses  for  humanitarian  rhetorics ! 
Indeed,  it  does  not  let  pass  an  occasion  for  deploring  such 
juxtaposition  and  for  asserting  that  this  will  kill  that 
(ceci  tuera  cela)}  that  the  union  of  the  nations  through 

1  Words  from  Victor  Hugo's  novel,  Notre  Dame,  in  regard  to  print- 
ing, which  will  kill  architecture.  — Author's  Note. 


THE    KINGDOM    OF    GOD    IS    WITHIN    YOU      167 

science  and  labour  will  conquer  the  martial  instincts.    We 
shall  not  keep  it  from  fondling  the  hope  of  the  chimera  of 
a  golden  age,  which,  if  it  should  be  realized,  would  soon 
become  an  age  of  mire.     All  history  teaches  us  that  blood 
is  needed  to  speed  and  confirm  the  union  of  the  nations. 
The  natural  sciences  have  in  our  time  confirmed  the  mys- 
terious Irw  which  was  revealed  to  Joseph  de  Maistre  by 
the   inspiration    of    his   genius  and  the  consideration  of 
primitive  dogmas ;   he   saw  how  the  world    redeems   its 
hereditary  falls  by  a  sacrifice ;  the  sciences  show  us  how 
the  world   is    perfected   by  struggle  and  by  compulsory 
selection  ;  this  is  the  assertion  from  two  sides  of  the  same 
decree,  written  out  in  different  expressions.    The  assertion 
is  naturally  not  a  pleasant  one ;  but  the  laws  of  the  world 
are  not  established  for  our  pleasure,  —  they  are  established 
for  our  perfection.     Let  us,  then,  enter  into  this  unavoid- 
able, indispensable  Palace    of   War;  and  we  shall  have 
occasion  to  observe  in  what  manner  the  most  stubborn  of 
our  instincts,  without  losing  anything  of  its  force,  is  trans- 
formed, in  submitting  to  the  different  demands  of  historic 
moments." 

This  idea,  that  the  proof  of  the  necessity  of  war  is  to 
be  found  in  two  expressions  of  Maistre  and  Darwin,  two 
great  thinkers  according  to  his  opinion,  pleases  Vogii^  so 
much  that  he  repeats  it. 

"  Dear  Sir,"  he  writes  to  the  editor  of  the  Revue  des 
Revues :  "  You  ask  for  my  opinion  in  regard  to  the  suc- 
cess of  the  Universal  Congress  of  Peace.  I  believe,  with 
Darwin,  that  a  violent  struggle  is  a  law  of  "Nature,  by 
which  all  beings  are  ruled. 

"  Like  Joseph  de  Maistre,  I  believe  that  it  is  a  divine 
law,  —  two  diiferent  appellations  for  one  and  the  same 
thing.  If,  past  all  expectation,  some  particle  of  humanity, 
say  the  whole  civilized  West,  succeeded  in  arresting  the 
action  of  this  law,  other,  more  primitive  nations  would 


168     THE    KINGDOM    OF    GOD    IS    WITHIN    YOU 

apply  it  against  us.  In  these  nations  the  voice  of  Nature 
would  vanquish  the  voice  of  human  reason,  and  they 
would  act  with  success,  because  the  assurance  of  peace  — 
I  do  not  say  *  peace '  itself,  but  the  •'  full  assurance  of 
peace '  —  would  evoke  in  men  corruption  and  fall,  which 
act  more  destructively  than  the  most  terrible  war.  I  find 
that  for  that  criminal  law,  war,  it  is  necessary  to  do  the 
same  as  for  all  the  other  criminal  laws,  —  to  mitigate 
them,  to  try  to  make  them  unnecessary,  and  to  apply 
them  as  rarely  as  possible.  But  the  whole  of  history 
teaches  us  that  it  is  impossible  to  abolish  these  laws,  so 
long  as  there  are  left  in  the  world  two  men,  money,  and  a 
woman  between  them. 

"  I  should  be  very  happy,  if  the  Congress  could  prove 
the  contrary  to  me.  But  I  doubt  whether  it  will  be  able 
to  overthrow  history,  the  law  of  Nature,  and  the  law  of 
God. 

"  Accept  the  assurance,  etc. 

"E.  M.  Vogue." 

The  idea  is  this,  that  history,  man's  nature,  and  God 
show  us  that,  so  long  as  there  shall  be  two  men  and 
between  them  bread,  money,  and  a  woman,  there  wiU  be 
war ;  that  is,  that  no  progress  will  bring  men  to  get  away 
from  the  one  conception  of  life,  where  it  is  impossible 
without  quarrelling  to  divide  the  bread,  the  money  (the 
money  is  very  good  here),  and  the  woman. 

How  strange  the  people  are  that  assemble  in  congresses, 
to  talk  about  how  to  catch  birds  by  throwing  salt  on  their 
tails,  though  they  cannot  help  but  know  that  it  is  impos- 
sible to  do  so ;  queer  are  those  who,  like  Maupassant, 
Rod,  and  many  others,  see  clearly  the  whole  horror  of 
war,  the  whole  contradiction  which  arises  from  this,  that 
men  do  not  do  what  they  ought  to  do,  what  is  advan- 
tageous and  necessary  for  them  to  do,  deplore  the  tragedy 
of  life,  and  do  not  see  that  all  this  tragedy  will  stop  as 


THE   KINGDOM    OP    GOD    IS   WITHIN    YOU      169 

soon  as  men  will  cease  to  discuss  what  they  ought  not  to 
discuss,  and  will  begin  not  to  do  what  is  painful  for  them 
to  do,  what  displeases  and  disgusts  them.  These  people 
are  queer,  but  those  who,  like  Vogii^  and  others,  profess- 
ing the  law  of  evolution,  recognize  war  not  only  as  un- 
avoidable, but  even  as  useful,  and  so  as  desirable,  are 
strange  and  terrible  with  their  moral  perversion.  The 
others  at  least  say  that  they  hate  the  evil  and  love  the 
good,  but  these  simply  recognize  that  there  is  no  good  and 
no  evil. 

All  the  talk  about  establishing  peace,  in  the  place  of 
eternal  war,  is  a  harmful  sentimental  rodomontade  of  bab- 
blers. There  is  a  law  of  evolution,  from  which  it  follows 
that  I  must  Hve  and  act  badly.  What  is  to  be  done  ?  I 
am  an  educated  man,  and  I  know  the  law  of  evolution, 
and  so  I  will  act  badly. 

"  Entrons  au  palais  de  la  gtierre."  There  is  a  law  of 
evolution,  and  so  there  is  nothing  bad,  nor  good,  and  we 
must  live  for  nothing  but  our  personal  life,  leaving  every- 
thing else  to  the  law  of  evolution.  This  is  the  last 
expression  of  refined  culture,  and  at  the  same  time  of  that 
obscuration  of  consciousness  with  which  all  the  cultured 
classes  of  our  time  are  occupied. 

The  desire  of  the  cultured  classes  in  one  way  or  another 
to  maintain  their  favourite  ideas  and  their  life,  which  is 
based  upon  them,  has  reached  its  utmost  limits.  They  lie, 
deceive  themselves  and  others  in  the  most  refined  way, 
if  only  they  can  in  some  way  obscure  and  drown  their 
consciences. 

Instead  of  changing  the  life  in  accord  with  the  con- 
sciousness, they  try  in  every  manner  possible  to  obscure 
and  drown  their  consciousness.  But  the  light  shines 
even  in  the  dark,  and  so  it  is  beginning  to  shine  in  our 
time. 


VIL 

The  cultured  people  of  the  higher  classes  try  to  drown 
the  consciousness  of  the  necessity  of  changing  the  present 
order  of  things,  which  is  becoming  all  the  time  clearer 
and  clearer;  but  life,  continuing  to  develop  and  to  become 
more  complex  in  the  former  direction  and  intensifying 
the  contradictions  and  sufferings  of  men,  brings  them  to 
that  last  limit,  beyond  which  it  is  impossible  to  go.  Such 
a  last  limit,  beyond  which  it  is  impossible  to  go,  is  the 
universal  military  service. 

People  generally  think  that  universal  military  service 
and  the  ever  increased  arming,  which  is  connected  with 
it,  and  the  consequent  increase  of  taxation  and  of  state 
debts  among  all  the  nations,  are  an  accidental  phenomenon, 
due  to  some  political  condition  of  Europe,  and  may  also 
be  removed  by  some  political  considerations,  without  an 
internal  change  of  life. 

This  is  quite  erroneous.  Universal  military  service  is 
nothing  but  an  inner  contradiction  which,  having  been 
carried  to  its  utmost  limits  and  having  at  a  certain  stage 
of  material  development  become  obvious,  has  stolen  its 
way  into  the  social  concept  of  life. 

The  social  concept  of  life  consists  in  this  very  fact,  that 
the  meaning  of  life  is  transferred  from  the  individual 
to  the  aggregate,  and  its  consequence  is  transferred  to  the 
tribe,  the  family,  the  race,  or  the  state. 

From  the  social  concept  of  life  it  follows  that,  in  so  far 
as  the  meaning  of  life  is  contained  in  the  aggregate  of 
individuals,  the  individuals  themselves  voluntarily  sacri- 
fice their  interests  for   the    interests    of   the    aggregate. 

170 


THE    KINGDOM    OF    GOD    IS    WITHIN   YOU      171 

Thus  it  has  always  been  in  reality  in  the  case  of  certain 
forms  of  the  aggregate,  in  the  family  or  the  tribe,  inde- 
pendently of  which  preceded,  or  in  the  race,  or  even  in 
the  patriarchal  state.  In  consequence  of  the  habit,  which 
is  transmitted  by  education  and  confirmed  by  religious 
influence;.,  the  individuals  have  without  compulsion 
blended  their  interests  with  the  interests  of  the  aggre- 
gate and  have  sacrificed  their  own  interests  for  the 
common  interest. 

But  the  more  societies  became  complex,  the  greater 
they  grew,  especially  the  more  frequently  conquests  were 
the  causes  why  men  united  into  societies,  the  more  fre- 
quently did  individuals  strive  after  attaining  their  ends  to 
the  disadvantage  of  the  common  good,  and  the  more  fre- 
quently was  there  felt  the  need  of  the  exercise  of  power, 
that  is,  of  violence,  for  the  sake  of  curbing  these  insub- 
missive  individuals. 

The  defenders  of  the  social  concept  of  life  generally  try 
to  mix  up  the  concept  of  power,  that  is,  of  violence,  with 
that  of  spiritual  influence,  but  this  admixture  is  quite 
impossible. 

A  spiritual  influence  is  an  action  upon  a  man,  such  that 
in  consequence  of  it  the  very  desires  of  a  man  are  changed 
and  coincide  with  what  is  demanded  of  him.  A  man  who 
submits  to  a  spiritual  influence  acts  in  accordance  with 
his  desires.  But  power,  as  this  word  is  generally  under- 
stood, is  a  means  for  compelling  a  man  to  act  contrary 
to  his  wishes.  A  man  who  submits  to  power  does  not  act 
as  he  would  wish,  but  as  the  power  compels  him  to 
act.  Now  what  can  compel  a  man  to  do,  not  what  he 
wishes,  but  what  he  does  not  wish,  is  physical  violence, 
or  a  threat  of  using  such,  that  is,  the  deprivation  of 
liberty,  beating,  maiming,  or  executable  menaces  that 
such  actions  will  be  carried  out.  In  this  has  power 
always  consisted. 

In  spite  of  the  unceasing  efforts  made  by  men  in  power 


172      THE    KINGDOM    OF    GOD    IS    WITHIN    YOU 

to  conceal  this  and  to  ascribe  a  different  meaning  to 
power,  power  is  the  application  of  a  rope,  a  chain,  by 
which  a  man  will  be  bound  and  dragged  along,  or  of  a 
whip,  with  which  he  will  be  flogged,  or  of  a  knife,  an  axe, 
with  which  they  will  cut  off  his  hands,  feet,  ears,  head, — 
an  application  of  these  means,  or  a  threat  that  they  will 
be  used.  Thus  it  was  in  the  time  of  Nero  and  of  Dzhin- 
gis-Khan,  and  thus  it  is  even  now,  in  the  most  liberal  of 
governments,  in  the  republic  of  America  and  in  that 
of  France.  If  men  submit  to  power,  they  do  so  only 
because  they  are  afraid  that  in  case  they  do  not  submit 
these  actions  will  be  applied  to  them.  All  governmental 
demands,  the  payment  of  taxes,  the  execution  of  pubhc 
works,  the  submission  to  punishments  imposed  upon  one, 
exile,  penalties,  and  so  forth,  to  which  men  seem  volunta- 
rily to  submit,  have  always  had  bodily  violence,  or  a  threat 
that  such  will  be  used,  for  their  base. 

The  basis  of  power  is  bodily  violence. 

The  possibility  of  exerting  bodily  violence  against 
people  is  first  of  all  given  by  an  organization  of  armed 
men  in  which  all  the  armed  men  act  in  agreement,  sub- 
mitting to  one  will.  Such  assemblies  of  armed  men,  who 
submit  to  one  will,  are  formed  by  the  army.  The  army 
has  always  stood  at  the  base  of  power.  Power  is  always 
found  in  the  hands  of  those  who  command  an  army,  and 
all  potentates  —  from  the  Eoman  Caesars  to  the  Eussian 
and  German  emperors  —  are  more  than  anytliing  else 
concerned  about  the  army,  knowing  that  if  the  army  is 
with  them,  the  power  will  remain  in  their  hands. 

It  is  this  formation  and  increase  of  the  army,  which  is 
necessary  for  the  support  of  power,  that  has  introduced  a 
decomposing  principle  into  the  social  concept  of  life. 

The  end  of  power  and  its  justification  consists  in  the 
limitation  of  those  men  who  might  wish  to  attain  their 
interests  to  the  disadvantage  of  the  interests  of  the  aggre- 
gate.    But  whether  the  power  has  been  acquired  by  the 


THE    KINGDOM    OF    GOD    IS    WITHIN    YOU      173 

formation  of  a  new  power,  by  inheritance,  or  by  election, 
men  who  possess  power  by  means  of  an  army  have  in  no 
way  differed  from  other  men,  and  so  have,  hke  other  men, 
been  prone  not  to  subordinate  their  interests  to  those  of 
the  aggregate,  but,  on  the  contrary,  having  in  their  hands 
the  possibiUty  of  doing  so,  have  been  more  prone  than  any 
one  else  to  subordinate  the  common  interests  to  their 
own.  No  matter  how  much  men  have  devised  means 
for  depriving  men  in  power  of  the  possibility  of  subordi- 
nating the  common  interests  to  their  own,  or  for  entrust- 
ing the  power  only  into  the  hands  of  infallible  men,  there 
have  so  far  been  discovered  no  means  for  doing  either. 

All  methods  employed,  either  of  divine  sanction,  or  of 
election,  or  of  heredity,  or  of  suffrage,  or  of  assemblies, 
or  of  parliaments,  or  of  senates,  have  proved  ineffective. 
All  men  know  that  not  one  of  these  methods  attains  the 
aim  of  entrusting  the  power  into  none  but  infallible 
hands,  or  of  preventing  its  being  misused.  All  know 
that,  on  the  contrary,  men  in  power,  be  they  emperors, 
ministers,  chiefs  of  police,  policemen,  become,  by  the  very 
fact  of  having  power,  more  prone  to  commit  immorahties, 
that  is,  to  subordinate  the  common  interests  to  their  own, 
than  men  who  have  no  power,  as  indeed  it  could  not  be 
otherwise. 

The  social  concept  of  life  justified  itself  only  so  long  as 
all  men  voluntarily  sacrificed  their  interests  to  the  common 
interests ;  but  the  momeut  there  appeared  men  who  did 
not  voluntarily  sacrifice  their  interests,  and  power  was 
needed,  that  is,  violence,  for  the  purpose  of  limiting  these 
individuals,  the  decomposing  principle  of  power,  that  is, 
violence  exerted  by  one  set  of  people  against  another, 
entered  into  the  social  concept  of  life  and  the  structure 
which  is  based  upon  it. 

For  the  power  of  one  set  of  men  over  another  to  attain 
its  end  of  limiting  men  who  strove  after  their  individual 
interests  to  the  disadvantage  of  those  of  the  aggregate, 


174      THE    KIN'GDOM   OF    GOD    IS    WITHIN    YOU 

it  was  necessary  to  have  the  power  vested  in  the  hands  of 
infallible  men,  as  is  assumed  to  be  the  case  by  the 
Chinese,  and  as  has  been  assumed  in  the  ]VIiddle  Ages 
and  at  the  present  time  by  men  who  believe  in  the  sanc- 
tity of  anointment.  It  was  only  under  this  condition 
that  the  social  structure  received  its  justification. 

But  since  this  does  not  exist,  and  men  in  power,  on 
the  contrary,  by  the  very  fact  of  their  possession  of  power, 
are  never  saintly,  the  social  structure,  which  is  based  on 
power,  should  not  have  any  justification. 

Even  if  there  was  a  time  when,  with  a  certain  low 
level  of  morahty  and  with  the  universal  tendency  of  men 
to  exert  violence  against  each  other,  the  existence  of  the 
power  which  limited  this  violence  was  advantageous,  that 
is,  when  the  violence  of  the  state  was  not  so  great  as 
that  exerted  by  individuals  against  each  other,  it  is  impos- 
sible to  overlook  the  fact  that  such  a  superiority  of  the 
state  over  its  absence  could  not  be  permanent.  The  more 
the  tendency  of  individuals  to  exert  violence  was  di- 
minished, the  more  the  manners  were  softened,  and  the 
more  the  power  was  corrupted  in  consequence  of  its 
unrestraint,  the  more  did  this  superiority  grow  less  and 
less. 

In  this  change  of  the  relation  between  the  moral  devel- 
opment of  the  masses  and  the  corruption  of  the  govern- 
ments does  the  whole  history  of  the  last  two  thousand 
years  consist. 

In  the  simplest  form  the  case  was  like  this :  men  lived 
by  tribes,  families,  races,  and  waged  war,  committed  acts 
of  violence,  and  destroyed  and  killed  one  another.  These 
cases  of  violence  took  place  on  a  small  and  on  a  large 
scale:  individual  struggled  with  individual,  tribe  with 
tribe,  family  with  family,  race  with  race,  nation  with 
nation.  Larger,  more  powerful  aggregates  conquered  the 
weaker,  and  the  larger  and  the  more  powerful  the  aggre- 
gate of  people  became,  the  less  internal  violence  took 


THE   KINGDOM    OF    GOD    IS    WITHIN    YOU      175 

place  in  it,  and  the  more  secure  did  the  continuance  of  the 
life  of  the  aggregate  seem  to  be. 

The  members  of  the  tribe  or  of  the  family,  uniting  into 
one  aggregate,  war  less  among  themselves,  and  the  tribe 
and  the  family  do  not  die,  like  one  man,  but  continue 
their  exisoence ;  between  the  members  of  one  state,  who 
are  subject  to  one  power,  the  struggle  seems  even  weaker, 
and  the  life  of  the  state  seems  even  more  secure. 

These  unions  into  greater  and  ever  greater  aggregates 
did  not  take  place  because  men  consciously  recognized 
such  unions  as  more  advantageous  to  themselves,  as  is 
described  in  the  story  about  the  calling  of  the  Varangians, 
but  in  consequence,  on  the  one  hand,  of  natural  growth, 
and  on  the  other,  of  struggle  and  conquests. 

When  the  conquest  is  accomplished,  the  power  of  the 
conqueror  actually  puts  an  end  to  internecine  strife,  and 
the  social  concept  of  life  receives  its  justification.  But 
this  confirmation  is  only  temporary.  Internal  strifes 
cease  only  in  proportion  as  the  pressure  of  the  power  is 
exerted  upon  individuals  who  heretofore  have  been  warring 
against  one  another.  The  violence  of  internal  struggle, 
which  is  destroyed  by  the  power,  is  conceived  in  the 
power  itself.  The  power  is  in  the  hands  of  just  such 
people  as  all  men  are,  that  is,  of  such  as  are  always  or 
frequently  prepared  to  sacrifice  the  common  good  for  the 
sake  of  their  personal  good,  with  this  one  difference,  that 
these  men  do  not  have  the  tempering  force  of  the  counter- 
action of  the  violated,  and  are  subjected  to  the  full  cor- 
rupting influence  of  power.  Thus  the  evil  of  violence, 
passing  over  into  the  hands  of  power,  keeps  gi-owing  more 
and  more,  and  in  time  comes  to  be  greater  than  the  one 
which  it  is  supposed  to  destroy,  whereas  in  the  members 
of  society  the  proneness  to  violence  keeps  weakening  more 
and  more,  and  the  violence  of  power  grows  less  and  less 
necessary. 

The  governmental  power,  even  if  it  destroys  inner  vio- 


176     THE    KINGDOM    OF    GOD    IS    WITHIN    YOU 

lence,  invariably  introduces  new  forms  of  violence  into 
the  lives  of  men,  and  this  grows  greater  and  greater  in 
proportion  with  its  continuance  and  intensification. 

Thus,  although  the  violence  is  less  perceptible  in  the 
state  than  the  violence  of  the  members  of  society  against 
one  another,  since  it  is  not  expressed  by  struggle,  but  by 
submission,  the  violence  none  the  less  exists  and  for 
the  most  part  in  a  much  more  powerful  degree  than  be- 
fore. 

This  cannot  be  otherwise,  because  the  possession  of 
power  not  only  corrupts  men,  but  the  purpose  or  even  un- 
conscious tendency  of  the  violators  will  consist  in  bringing 
the  violated  to  the  greatest  degree  of  weakening,  since,  the 
weaker  the  violated  man  is,  the  less  effort  will  it  take  to 
suppress  him. 

For  this  reason  the  violence  which  is  exerted  against 
him  who  is  violated  keeps  growing  to  the  farthest  limit 
which  it  can  attain  without  killing  the  hen  that  is  laying 
the  golden  eggs.  But  if  this  hen  does  not  lay,  as  in  the 
case  of  the  American  Indians,  the  Fijians,  the  Negroes,  it 
is  killed,  in  spite  of  the  sincere  protestations  of  the  philan- 
thropists against  such  a  mode  of  action. 

The  best  confirmation  of  this  is  found  in  the  condition 
of  the  labouring  classes  of  our  time,  who  in  reality  are 
nothing  but  subjugated  people. 

In  spite  of  all  the  hypocritical  endeavours  of  the  higher 
classes  to  alleviate  the  condition  of  the  working  people, 
all  the  working  people  of  our  world  are  subject  to  an  in- 
variable iron  law,  according  to  which  they  have  only  as 
much  as  they  need  to  be  always  incited  by  necessity  to 
work  and  to  have  the  strength  for  working  for  their 
masters,  that  is,  for  the  conquerors. 

Thus  it  has  always  been.  In  proportion  with  the  dura- 
tion and  increase  of  power,  its  advantages  have  always 
been  lost  for  those  who  subjected  themselves  to  it,  and  its 
disadvantages  have  been  increased. 


1 


THE    KINGDOM    OF    GOD    IS    WITHIN    YOU      177 

Thus  it  has  been  independently  of  those  forms  of  gov- 
ernment under  which  the  nations  have  lived.  The  only 
difference  is  this,  that  in  a  despotic  form  of  govern meut 
the  power  is  concentrated  in  a  small  number  of  violators, 
and  the  form  of  the  violence  is  more  pronounced ;  in  the 
constitutional  monarchies  and  repubhcs,  as  in  France  and  in 
America,  the  power  is  distributed  among  a  larger  number 
of  violators,  and  its  forms  are  less  pronounced ;  but  the 
matter  of  violence,  with  which  the  disadvantages  of 
the  power  are  gi-eater  than  its  advantages,  and  its  process, 
which  brings  the  violated  to  the  extreme  limit  of  weaken- 
ing to  which  they  can  be  brought  for  the  advantage  of  the 
violators,  are  always  one  and  the  same. 

Sucli  has  been  the  condition  of  all  the  violated,  but  be- 
fore this  they  did  not  know  it,  and  in  the  majority  of 
cases  they  believed  naively  that  governments  existed  for 
their  good  ;  that  without  government  they  would  perish ; 
that  the  thought  that  men  could  live  without  governments 
was  a  blasphemy  wliif;h  ought  not  even  be  uttered ;  that 
this  was  for  some  reason  a  terrible  doctrine  of  anarchism, 
with  which  is  connected  the  conception  of  everything 
terrible. 

Men  believed,  as  in  something  absolutely  proved  and 
so  needing  no  further  proofs,  that,  since  until  now  all  the 
nations  have  developed  in  a  governmental  form,  this  form 
was  for  ever  an  indispensable  condition  of  the  development 
of  humanity. 

Thus  it  went  on  for  hundreds  and  for  thousands  of 
years,  and  the  governments,  that  is,  men  in  power,  have 
tried,  and  now  try  more  and  more,  to  keep  the  nations  in 
this  error. 

Thus  it  was  in  the  time  of  the  Roman  emperors,  and 
thus  it  is  at  present.  In  spite  of  the  fact  that  the  idea  of 
the  uselessness  and  even  harm  of  the  governmental  vio- 
lence more  and  more  enters  into  the  consciousness  of  men, 
this  would  last  for  ever,  if  the  governments  were  not  obliged 


178      THE    KINGDOM    OF    GOD    IS    WITHIN    YOU 

to  increase  the  armies  for  the  purpose  of  maintaining  their 
power. 

People  generally  think  that  the  armies  are  increased 
by  the  governments  for  the  purpose  of  defending  the 
states  against  other  states,  forgetting  the  fact  that  armies 
are  needed  by  the  governments  for  the  purpose  of  protect- 
ing themselves  against  their  own  crushed  and  enslaved 
subjects. 

This  has  always  been  indispensable,  and  has  become 
more  and  more  necessary  in  proportion  as  culture  has 
been  developed  among  the  nations,  in  proportion  as  the 
intercourse  among  the  men  of  the  same  and  of  different 
nations  has  been  increased,  and  it  has  become  particularly 
indispensable  now  in  connection  with  the  communistic, 
socialistic,  anarchistic,  and  universal  movements  among 
the  labouring  classes.  The  governments  feel  this,  and  so 
increase  their  main  force  of  the  disciplined  army.^ 

Answering  lately  to  a  question  why  money  was  needed 
for  the  increase  of  the  wages  of  under-officers,  the  German 
chancellor  declared  frankly  in  the  German  Eeichstag  that 
there  was  a  need  of  reliable  under-officers,  in  order  to  fight 
against  socialism.  Caprivi  only  said  in  the  hearing  of  all 
what  everybody  knows,  though  it  is  carefully  concealed 
from  the  nations ;  he  explained  why  guards  of  Swiss  and 
Scotchmen  were  hired  out  to  French  kings  and  Popes, 
and  why  in  Russia  they  carefully  shuffle  up  the  recruits 

^The  fact  that  in  America  there  exist  abuses  of  power,  in  spite  of 
the  small  number  of  troops,  not  only  does  not  contradict,  but  even 
supports  this  proposition.  In  America  there  is  a  smaller  army  than 
in  other  countries,  and  so  there  is  nowhere  a  lesser  oppression  of  the 
oppressed  classes,  and  nowhere  can  we  foresee  so  soon  the  abolition 
of  the  abuses  of  power  and  of  the  power  itself.  But  in  America  itself 
there  have  of  date,  in  proportion  as  the  labouring  classes  become 
more  unified,  been  heard  voices  asking  more  and  more  frequently 
for  an  increase  of  the  army,  although  America  is  not  threatened  by 
any  external  attack.  The  higher  ruling  classes  know  that  fifty  thou- 
sand soldiers  will  soon  be  insufiicient,  and,  no  longer  depending  on 
Pinkerton's  army,  they  feel  that  the  security  of  their  position  lies 
only  in  an  increase  of  the  army.  —  Author's  Note. 


THE    KINGDOM    OF    GOD    IS    WITHIN    YOU      179 

in  such  a  way  that  the  regiments  which  are  located  in  the 
centre  are  made  up  of  recruits  from  the  outlying  districts, 
while  the  regiments  in  the  outlying  districts  are  completed 
by  soldiers  from  the  centre  of  Kussia.  The  meaning  of 
Caprivi's  speech,  translated  into  simple  language,  is  this, 
that  money  was  not  needed  for  counteracting  the  foreign 
enemies,  but  for  bribing  the  under-officers,  so  as  to  make 
them  willing  to  act  against  the  oppressed  labouring  masses. 

Caprivi  accidentally  gave  utterance  to  what  everybody 
knows,  or  feels,  if  he  does  not  know,  namely,  that  the 
existing  structure  of  hfe  is  such  as  it  is,  not  because  it 
naturally  must  be  such,  because  the  nation  wants  it  to  be 
such,  but  because  it  is  maintained  as  such  by  the  violence 
of  the  governments,  by  the  army  with  its  bribed  under- 
olhcers,  officers,  and  generals. 

If  a  labouring  man  has  no  laud,  no  chance  of  making 
use  of  the  right,  so  natural  for  every  man,  to  obtain  from 
the  land  his  own  means  of  support  and  those  of  his  fam- 
ily, this  is  not  so  because  tbe  nation  wants  it  to  be  so,  but 
because  certain  men,  the  owners  of  land,  are  granted  the 
right  to  admit,  or  not  to  admit,  the  labouring  people  to  it. 
And  this  unnatural  order  of  things  is  maintained  by  means 
of  the  army.  If  the  immense  wealth,  accumulated  by  tbe 
lajjouring  people,  is  not  considered  as  belonging  to  all  men, 
but  to  an  exclusive  number  of  men ;  if  the  power  to  col- 
lect taxes  from  labour  and  to  use  the  money  for  anything 
they  may  see  fit  is  entrusted  to  a  few  men ;  if  a  few  men 
are  permitted  to  select  the  method  of  the  religious  and 
civil  instruction  and  education  of  the  children ;  if  strikes 
of  the  labourers  are  opposed  and  strikes  of  the  capitalists 
are  encouraged ;  if  a  few  men  are  granted  the  right  to 
compose  laws,  which  all  must  obey,  and  to  dispose  of 
men's  property  and  life,  —  all  this  does  not  take  place 
because  the  nation  wants  it  so,  but  because  the  govern- 
ments and  the  ruling  classes  want  it  so,  and  by  means  of 
bodily  violence  establish  it  so. 


180      THE    KINGDOM    OF    GOD    IS    WITHIN   Y0I7 

Every  person  who  does  not  know  this  will  find  it  out 
in  every  attempt  at  not  conforming  or  at  changing  this 
order  of  things.  Therefore  armies  are  first  of  all  indis- 
pensable to  the  governments  and  the  ruling  classes,  in 
order  to  maintain  the  order  of  things  which  not  only  does 
not  result  from  the  necessity  of  the  nation,  but  is  fre- 
quently opposed  to  it  and  is  advantageous  only  to  the 
government  and  to  the  ruling  classes. 

Every  government  needs  armies,  first  of  all,  in  order  to 
keep  its  subjects  in  submission,  and  to  exploit  their  labours. 
But  the  government  is  not  alone ;  side  by  side  with  it 
there  is  another  government,  which  exploits  its  subjects 
by  means  of  the  same  violence,  and  which  is  always  ready 
to  take  away  from  another  government  the  labours  of  its 
already  enslaved  subjects.  And  so  every  government 
needs  an  army,  not  only  for  internal  use,  but  also  for  the 
protection  of  its  booty  against  neighbouring  ravishers. 
Every  government  is  in  consequence  of  this  involuntarily 
led  to  the  necessity  of  increasing  its  army  in  emula- 
tion with  the  other  governments ;  but  the  increasing  of 
armies  is  contagious,  as  Montesquieu  remarked  150  years 
ago. 

Every  increase  of  an  army  in  a  state,  directed  against 
its  subjects,  becomes  dangerous  even  for  its  neighbours, 
and  evokes  an  increase  in  the  neighbouring  states. 

The  armies  have  reached  their  present  millions  not 
merely  because  the  neighbours  threatened  the  states ; 
this  resulted  above  all  from  the  necessity  of  crushing 
all  attempts  at  revolt  on  the  part  of  the  subjects.  The 
increase  of  armies  arises  simultaneously  from  two  causes, 
which  provoke  one  another :  armies  are  needed  against 
domestic  enemies  and  for  the  purpose  of  defending  one's 
position  against  one's  neighbours.  One  conditions  the 
other.  The  despotism  of  a  government  always  increases 
with  the  increase  and  strengthening  of  armies  and  exter- 
nal successes,  and  the  aggressiveness  of  governments  is 


THE    KINGDOM    OF    GOD    IS    WITHIN   YOU      181 

increased  with  the  intensification  of  the  internal  despot- 
ism. 

In  consequence  of  this,  the  European  governments,  in 
emulating  one  another  in  the  greater  and  ever  greater 
increase  of  the  army,  arrived  at  the  inevitable  necessity 
of  the  universal  military  service,  since  the  universal  mili- 
tary service  was  a  means  for  obtaming  in  time  of  war  the 
greatest  quantity  of  soldiers  at  the  least  expense.  Ger- 
many was  the  first  to  hit  upon  this  plan,  and  the  moment 
one  government  did  it,  all  the  others  were  obliged  to  do 
the  same.  The  moment  this  happened,  it  happened  that 
all  the  citizens  were  put  under  arms  for  the  purpose  of 
maintaining  all  that  injustice  which  was  committed  against 
them ;  what  happened  was  that  all  the  citizens  became 
oppressors  of  themselves. 

The  universal  military  service  was  an  inevitable  logical 
necessity,  at  which  it  was  impossible  not  to  arrive ;  at  the 
same  time  it  is  the  last  expression  of  the  inner  contradic- 
tion of  the  social  concept  of  life,  wliich  arose  at  a  time 
when  violence  was  needed  in  order  to  maintain  it.  In 
the  universal  military  service  this  contradiction  became 
obvious.  Indeed,  the  meaning  of  the  social  concept  of 
life  consists  in  this,  that  a  man,  recognizing  the  cruelty 
of  the  struggle  of  individuals  among  themselves  and  the 
perishableness  of  the  individual  himself,  transfers  the 
meaning  of  his  life  to  the  aggregate  of  individuals;  but 
in  the  universal  military  service  it  turns  out  that  men, 
having  brought  all  the  sacrifices  demanded  of  them,  in 
order  to  free  themselves  from  the  cruelty  of  the  struggle 
and  the  insecurity  of  life,  are,  after  all  the  sacrifices  which 
they  have  made,  again  called  to  bear  all  those  dangers 
from  which  they  thought  they  had  freed  themselves,  and, 
besides,  that  aggregate,  tlie  state,  in  the  name  of  which 
the  individuals  renounced  their  advantages,  is  again  sub- 
jected to  the  same  danger  of  destruction  to  which  the 
iudividual  himself  was  subjected  before. 


182      THE    KINGDOM    OF    GOD    IS    WITHIN    YOTJ 

The  governments  were  to  have  freed  men  from  the 
cruelty  of  the  struggle  of  individuals  and  to  have  given 
them  the  assurance  of  the  inviolability  of  the  order  of  the 
state  life ;  but,  instead,  they  impose  upon  the  individuals 
the  necessity  of  the  same  struggle,  except  that  the  strug- 
gle with  the  nearest  individuals  is  transferred  to  the 
struggle  with  the  individuals  of  other  states,  and  they 
leave  the  same  danger  of  the  destruction  of  the  individual 
and  of  the  state. 

The  establishment  of  the  universal  military  service  is 
like  what  would  happen  if  a  man  were  to  brace  up  a 
dilapidated  house :  the  walls  bend  inwards  —  supports 
are  put  up ;  the  ceiling  is  sagging  down  —  other  sup- 
ports are  put  up ;  boards  hang  down  between  the  supports 
—  some  more  supports  are  put  up.  A  point  is  finally 
reached  when  the  supports  indeed  hold  the  house  to- 
gether, but  it  is  impossible  to  live  in  the  house  because 
there  are  so  many  supports. 

The  same  is  true  of  the  universal  military  service.  It 
destroys  all  those  advantages  of  the  social  life  which  it  is 
called  to  preserve. 

The  advantages  of  the  social  life  consist  in  the  security 
of  property  and  labour  and  in  the  cooperation  in  the 
aggregate  perfection  of  life,  —  the  universal  mihtary  serv- 
ice destroys  all  that. 

The  taxes  which  are  collected  from  the  masses  for  war 
preparations  swallow  the  greater  share  of  the  production 
of  labour  which  the  army  is  supposed  to  protect. 

The  tearing  away  of  the  men  from  the  habitual  course 
of  life  impairs  the  possibility  of  the  work  itself. 

The  menaces  of  a  war  that  is  likely  to  break  out  at 
any  time  make  all  the  perfections  of  the  social  life  use- 
less and  in  vain. 

If  a  man  was  formerly  told  that  if  he  did  not  submit 
to  the  power  of  the  state  he  would  be  subjected  to  the 
attacks  of  evil  men,  of  external  and  internal  enemies ; 


THE    KINGDOM    OF    GOD    IS    WITHIN    YOU      183 

that  he  would  be  compelled  himself  to  struggle  with 
them  aud  to  subject  himself  to  being  killed ;  that  there- 
fore it  would  be  advantageous  for  him  to  bear  certain 
privations,  in  order  to  free  himself  from  these  calamities, 
—  he  WPS  able  to  believe  it  all,  because  the  sacritices 
which  he  made  for  the  state  were  only  private  sacri- 
fices and  gave  him  the  hope  for  a  peaceful  hfe  in  an 
imperishable  state,  in  the  name  of  which  he  made  these 
sacriiices.  But  now,  when  these  sacrifices  have  not  only 
increased  tenfold,  but  the  advantages  promised  to  him  are 
absent,  it  is  natural  for  any  one  to  imagine  that  his  sub- 
nassion  to  power  is  quite  useless. 

But  not  in  this  alone  lies  the  fatal  significance  of  the 
universal  military  service,  as  a  manifestation  of  that  con- 
tradiction which  is  contained  in  the  social  concept  of  life. 
The  main  manifestation  of  this  contradiction  consists 
in  the  fact  that  with  the  universal  military  service  every 
citizen,  upon  becoming  a  soldier,  becomes  a  supporter  of 
the  state  structure,  and  a  participant  in  everything  which 
the  government  does  and  the  legality  of  which  he  does 
not  recognize. 

The  governments  assert  that  the  armies  are  needed 
mainly  for  the  purpose  of  external  defence ;  but  that  is 
not  true.  They  are  needed  first  of  all  against  their  sub- 
jects, and  every  man  who  does  military  service  involun- 
tarily becomes  a  participant  in  all  the  violence  which  the 
state  exerts  over  its  own  subjects. 

To  convince  himself  that  every  man  who  does  his 
military  service  becomes  a  participant  in  such  deeds  of 
the  government  as  he  does  not  acknowledge  and  cannot 
acknowledge,  let  a  man  only  remember  what  is  being 
done  in  every  state  in  the  name  of  order  and  of  the  good 
of  the  nation,  things  which  the  army  appears  as  the 
executor  of.  All  the  struggles  of  dynasties  and  of  the 
various  parties,  all  the  executions,  which  are  connected 
with  these  disturbances,  all  the  suppressions  of  revolts,  all 


184     THE   KINGDOM   OF   GOD   IS    WITHIN   YOU 

the  employment  of  military  force  for  the  dispersion  of 
popular  crowds,  the  suppression  of  strikes,  all  the  extor- 
tions of  taxes,  all  the  injustice  of  the  distribution  of  the 
ownership  of  land,  all  the  oppressions  of  labour,  —  all  this 
is  produced,  if  not  directly  by  the  armies,  at  least  by  the 
police,  which  is  supported  by  the  armies.  He  who  does 
military  service  becomes  a  participant  in  all  these  matters, 
which  in  some  cases  are  doubtful  to  him  and  in  many 
cases  are  directly  opposed  to  his  conscience.  Some  people 
do  not  wish  to  leave  the  land  which  they  have  been 
working  for  generations ;  people  do  not  wish  to  disperse, 
as  they  are  commanded  to  do  by  the  government ;  people 
do  not  want  to  pay  the  taxes  which  are  exacted  of  them ; 
people  do  not  wish  to  recognize  the  obligatoriness  for 
them  of  laws  which  they  have  not  made ;  people  do  not 
wish  to  be  deprived  of  their  nationality,  —  and  I,  by  doing 
military  service,  am  obliged  to  come  and  beat  these 
people.  Being  a  participant  in  these  deeds,  I  cannot  help 
but  ask  myself  whether  these  deeds  are  good,  and  whether 
I  ought  to  contribute  to  their  execution. 

Universal  military  service  is  for  the  government  the 
last  degree  of  violence,  which  is  necessary  for  the  support 
of  the  whole  structure ;  and  for  the  subjects  it  is  the 
extreme  limit  of  the  possibility  of  their  obedience.  It  is 
that  keystone  which  holds  the  walls  and  the  extraction  of 
which  causes  the  building  to  cave  in. 

The  time  came  when  the  growing  abuses  of  the  govern- 
ments and  their  strifes  among  themselves  had  this  effect, 
that  from  every  subject  there  were  demanded,  not  only 
material,  but  also  moral  sacrifices,  when  every  man  had 
to  stop  and  ask  himself,  "  Can  I  make  these  sacrifices  ? 
And  in  the  name  of  what  nmst  I  make  these  sacri- 
iices  ?  These  sacrifices  are  demanded  in  the  name  of  the 
state.  In  the  name  of  the  state  they  demand  of  me 
the  renunciation  of  everything  which  may  be  dear  to 
man,  of  peace,  of  family,  of  security,  of  human  dignity. 


THE    KINGDOM    OF    GOD    IS    WITHIN    YOU      185 

What  is  that  state  in  the  name  of  which  such  terrible 
sacrifices  are  demanded  of  me  ?  And  why  is  it  so  indis- 
pensably necessary  ? " 

"  The  state,"  we  are  told,  "  is  indispensably  necessary, 
in  the  first  place,  because  without  the  state,  I  and  all  of 
us  would  not  be  protected  against  violence  and  the  attack 
of  evil  men ;  in  the  second  place,  without  the  state  all  of 
us  would  be  savages,  and  would  have  no  religious,  nor 
educational,  nor  mercantile  institutions,  nor  roads  of  com- 
munication, nor  any  other  public  establishments  ;  and,  in 
the  third  place,  because  without  the  state  we  should  be 
subject  to  enslavement  by  neighbouring  nations." 

"  Without  the  state,"  we  are  told,  "  we  should  be  sub- 
ject to  violence  and  to  the  attacks  of  evil  men  in  our 
own  country." 

But  who  among  us  are  these  evil  men,  from  the  violence 
and  attacks  of  whom  the  state  and  its  army  save  us  ?  If 
three,  four  centuries  ago,  when  men  boasted  of  their  mili- 
tary art  and  their  accoutrements,  when  it  was  considered 
a  virtue  to  kill  men,  there  existed  such  men,  there  are 
none  now,  for  no  men  of  the  present  time  use  or  carry 
weapons,  and  all,  professing  the  rules  of  philanthropy  and 
of  compassion  for  their  neighbours,  wish  the  same  as  we,  — 
the  possibility  of  a  calm  and  peaceful  life.  There  now  are 
no  longer  those  particular  violators  against  whom  the  state 
should  defend  us.  Ijut  if,  by  the  people,  from  whose  attack 
the  state  saves  us,  we  are  to  understand  those  men  who 
commit  crimes,  we  know  that  they  are  not  some  especial 
beings,  like  rapacious  animals  among  the  sheep,  but  just 
such  people  as  we  are,  who  are  just  as  disinclined  to  com- 
mit crimes  as  those  against  whom  they  commit  them. 
We  know  now  that  threats  and  punishments  cannot 
diminish  the  inimber  of  such  men,  and  that  it  is  only 
the  change  of  surroundings  and  the  moral  influence  upon 
people  that  diminish  it.  Thus  the  explanation  of  the 
necessity  of  governmental  violence  for  the  purpose  of  de- 


186      THE    KINGDOM    OF    GOD    IS    WITHIN    YOU 

fending  men  against  violators  may  have  had  a  basis  three 
or  four  centuries  ago,  but  has  none  at  the  present  time. 
Now  the  contrary  would  be  more  correct,  namely,  that  the 
activity  of  the  governments,  with  their  morahty  whicl:  has 
fallen  behind  the  common  level,  with  their  cruel  methods 
of  punishments,  of  prisons,  of  hard  labour,  of  gallows,  of 
guillotines,  rather  contributes  to  the  brutalization  of  the 
masses  than  to  the  softening  of  their  manners,  and  so 
rather  to  the  increase  than  to  the  diminution  of  the  num- 
ber of  violators. 

"  Without  the  state,"  they  also  say,  "  there  would  not 
be  all  those  institutions  of  education,  of  learning,  of  re- 
ligion, of  roads  of  communication,  and  others.  Without 
the  state  men  would  not  be  able  to  estabhsh  the  public 
things  which  are  indispensable  for  all  men."  But  this 
argument,  too,  could  have  a  basis  only  several  centuries 
ago. 

If  there  was  a  time  when  men  were  so  disunited  among 
themselves  and  the  means  for  a  closer  union  and  for  the 
transmission  of  thought  were  so  little  worked  out  that 
they  could  not  come  to  any  understanding  nor  agree  upon 
any  common  mercantile,  or  economical,  or  cultural  matter 
without  the  medium  of  the  state,  there  now  no  longer 
exists  such  a  disunion.  The  widely  developed  means  for 
communion  and  for  the  transmission  of  thought  have  had 
this  effect,  that,  for  the  formation  of  societies,  assemblies, 
corporations,  congresses,  learned,  economic,  or  political 
institutions,  the  men  of  our  time  can  get  along  without 
any  government,  and  the  governments  in  the  majority  of 
cases  are  more  likely  to  interfere  with  the  attainment  of 
these  ends  than  to  cooperate  with  it. 

Beginning  with  the  end  of  the  last  century,  almost  every 
forward  step  of  humanity  has  not  only  not  been  encouraged 
by  the  government,  but  has  always  been  retarded  by  it. 
Thus  it  was  with  the  abolition  of  corporal  punishment,  of 
torture,  of  slavery,  and  with  the  establishment  of  the  free- 


THE    KINGDOM    OF    GOD    IS    WITHIN   TOTT      187 

dom  of  the  press  and  of  assemblies.  In  our  time  the 
power  of  the  state  and  the  governments  not  only  fail  to 
cooperate  with,  but  are  distinctly  opposed  to,  all  that 
activity  by  means  of  which  men  work  out  new  forms  of 
life.  The  solutions  of  labouring,  agronomic,  political,  re- 
ligious questions  are  not  only  not  encouraged,  but  directly 
interfered  with  by  the  power  of  the  state. 

"  Without  the  state  and  the  government,  the  nations 
woald  be  enslaved  by  their  neighbours." 

It  is  hardly  necessary  to  retort  to  this  last  argument. 
The  retort  is  found  in  itself. 

The  governments,  so  we  are  told,  are  necessary  with 
their  armies  for  the  purpose  of  defending  us  against  our 
neighbours,  who  might  enslave  us.  But  this  is  what  all 
the  governments  say  of  one  another,  and  at  the  same  time 
we  know  that  all  the  European  nations  profess  the  same 
principles  of  freedom  and  of  brotherhood,  and  so  are  in  no 
need  of  defending  themselves  against  one  another.  But  if 
protection  against  barbarians  is  meant,  then  one- thousandth 
of  all  the  armies  now  under  arms  would  suffice.  Thus  the 
contrary  to  what  is  asserted  is  what  actually  happens : 
the  power  of  the  state,  far  from  saving  us  from  the  attacks 
of  our  neighbours,  on  the  contrary  causes  the  danger  of 
the  attacks. 

Thus  a  man,  who  by  means  of  his  military  service  is 
placed  under  the  necessity  of  thinking  about  the  signifi- 
cance of  the  state,  in  the  name  of  which  the  sacrifice  of 
his  peace,  his  security,  and  his  life  is  demanded  of  him, 
cannot  help  but  see  clearly  that  for  these  sacrifices  there 
no  longer  exists  any  basis  in  our  time. 

But  it  is  not  only  by  theoretical  reflections  that  any  man 
may  see  that  the  sacrifices  demanded  of  him  by  the  state 
have  no  foundation  whatever;  even  by  reflecting  practi- 
cally, that  is,  by  weighing  all  those  hard  conditions  in 
which  a  man  is  placed  by  the  state,  no  one  can  fail  to  see 
that  for  him  personally  the  fulfilment  of  the  demands  of 


188      THE    KINGDOM    OF    GOD    IS    WITHIN   YOU 

the  state  and  his  submission  to  military  service  is  in  the 
majority  of  cases  more  disadvantageous  than  a  refusal  to 
do  military  service. 

If  the  majority  of  men  prefer  submission  to  insub- 
mission,  this  is  not  due  to  any  sober  weighing  of  the  ad- 
vantages and  disadvantages,  but  because  the  men  are 
attracted  to  submission  by  means  of  the  hypnotization  to 
which  they  are  subjected  in  the  matter.  In  submitting, 
men  only  surrender  themselves  to  those  demands  which 
are  made  upon  them,  without  reflection,  and  without 
making  any  effort  of  the  will ;  for  in  submission  there  is  a 
need  of  independent  reflection  and  of  effort,  of  which  not 
every  man  is  capable.  But  if,  excluding  the  moral  signifi- 
cance of  submission  and  insubmission,  we  should  consider 
nothing  but  the  advantages,  insubmission  would  in  general 
always  be  more  advantageous  to  us  than  submission. 

No  matter  who  I  may  be,  whether  I  belong  to  the 
well-to-do,  oppressing  classes,  or  to  the  oppressed  labour- 
ing classes,  the  disadvantages  of  insubmission  are  less  than 
the  disadvantages  of  submission,  and  the  advantages  of 
insubmission  are  greater  than  the  advantages  of  sub- 
mission. 

If  I  belong  to  the  minority  of  oppressors,  the  disadvan- 
tages of  insubmission  to  the  demands  of  the  government 
will  consist  in  this,  that  I,  refusing  to  comply  with  the 
demands  of  the  government,  shall  be  tried  and  at  best 
shall  be  discharged  or,  as  they  do  with  the  Mennonites, 
shall  be  compelled  to  serve  out  my  time  at  some  unmili- 
tary  work ;  in  the  worst  case  I  shall  be  condemned  to 
deportation  or  imprisonment  for  two  or  three  years  (I 
speak  from  examples  that  have  happened  in  Eussia), 
or,  perhaps,  to  a  longer  term  of  incarceration,  or  to  death, 
though  the  probability  of  such  a  penalty  is  very  small. 

Such  are  the  disadvantages  of  insubmission ;  but  the 
disadvantages  of  submission  will  consist  in  this :  at  best 
I  shall  not  be  sent  out  to  kill  men,  and  I  myself  shall  not 


THE    KINGDOM    OF    GOD    IS    WITHIN    YOU      189 

be  subjected  to  any  great  probability  of  crippling  or  death, 
but  shall  only  be  eulisted  as  a  military  slave,  —  I  shall 
be  dressed  up  iu  a  fool's  garments ;  I  shall  be  at  the 
mercy  of  every  man  above  me  in  rank,  from  a  corporal  to 
a  field-marshal ;  I  shall  be  compelled  to  contort  my  body 
according  to  their  desire,  and,  after  being  kept  from  one 
to  five  years,  I  shall  be  left  for  ten  years  in  a  condition 
of  readiness  to  appear  at  any  moment  for  the  purpose 
of  going  through  all  these  things  again.  In  the  worst 
case  I  shall,  in  addition  to  all  those  previous  conditions  of 
slavery,  be  sent  to  war,  where  I  shall  be  compelled  to  kill 
men  of  other  nations,  who  have  done  me  no  harm,  where 
I  may  be  crippled  and  killed,  and  where  I  may  get  into  a 
place,  as  happened  at  Sevastopol  and  as  happens  in  every 
war,  where  men  are  sent  to  certain  death ;  and,  what  is 
most  agonizing,  I  may  be  sent  out  against  my  own  coun- 
trymen, when  I  shall  be  compelled  to  kill  my  brothers  for 
dynastic  or  other  reasons,  which  are  entirely  alien  to  me. 
Such  are  the  comparative  disadvantages. 

The  comparative  advantages  of  submission  and  of  insub- 
missiou  are  these : 

For  him  who  has  not  refused,  the  advantages  will  con- 
sist in  this,  that,  having  submitted  to  all  the  humiliations 
and  having  executed  all  the  cruelties  demanded  of  him, 
he  may,  if  he  is  not  killed,  receive  red,  golden,  tin-foil 
decorations  over  his  fool's  garments,  and  he  may  at  best 
command  hundreds  of  thousands  of  just  such  bestialized 
meu  as  himself,  and  be  called  a  field-marshal,  and  receive 
a  lot  of  money. 

But  the  advantages  of  him  who  refuses  will  consist  in 
this,  that  he  will  retain  his  human  dignity,  will  earn  the 
respect  of  good  meu,  and,  above  all  else,  will  know  without 
fail  that  he  is  doing  God's  work,  and  so  an  incontestable 
good  to  men. 

Such  are  the  advantages  and  the  disadvantages  on  both 
sides  for  a  man  from  the  wealthy  classes,  for  an  oppressor ; 


190     THE    KINGDOM    OF    GOD    IS    WITHIN   YOU 

for  a  man  of  the  poor,  working  classes  the  advantages  and 
disadvantages  will  be  the  same,  but  with  an  important 
addition  of  disadvantages.  The  disadvantages  for  a  man 
of  the  labouring  classes,  who  has  not  refused  to  do  military 
service,  will  also  consist  in  this,  that,  by  entering  upon 
military  service,  he  by  his  participation  and  seeming  con- 
sent confirms  the  very  oppression  under  which  he  is 
suffering. 

But  it  is  not  the  reflections  as  to  how  much  the  state 
which  men  are  called  upon  to  support  by  their  participa- 
tion in  the  military  service  is  necessary  and  useful  to  men, 
much  less  the  reflections  as  to  the  advantages  or  disad- 
vantages accruing  to  each  man  from  his  submission  or 
insubmission  to  the  demands  of  the  government,  that 
decide  the  question  as  to  the  necessity  of  the  existence 
or  the  abolition  of  the  state.  What  irrevocably  and  with- 
out appeal  decides  this  question  is  the  religious  conscious- 
ness or  conscience  of  every  individual  man,  before  whom, 
in  connection  with  the  universal  military  service,  involun- 
tarily rises  the  question  as  to  the  existence  or  non-exist« 
ence  of  the  state. 


VIII. 

People  frequently  say  that  if  Christianity  is  a  truth,  it 
ought  to  have  been  accepted  by  all  men  at  its  very  appear- 
ance, and  ought  at  that  very  moment  to  have  changed  the 
lives  of  men  and  made  them  better.  But  to  say  this  is 
the  same  as  saying  that  if  the  seed  is  fertile,  it  must 
immediately  produce  a  sprout,  a  flov^^er,  and  a  fruit. 

The  Christian  teaching  is  no  legislation  which,  being 
introduced  by  violence,  can  at  once  change  the  lives 
of  men.  Christianity  is  another,  newer,  higher  concept 
of  life,  which  is  different  from  the  previous  one.  But  the 
new  concept  of  life  cannot  be  prescribed ;  it  can  only 
be  freely  adopted. 

Now  the  new  life-conception  can  be  acquired  only  in 
two  ways :  in  a  spiritual  (internal)  and  an  experimental 
(external)  way. 

Some  people  —  the  minority  —  immediately,  at  once, 
by  a  prophetic  feeling  divine  the  truth  of  the  teaching, 
abandon  themselves  to  it,  and  execute  it.  Others  —  the 
majority  —  are  led  only  through  a  long  path  of  errors, 
experiences,  and  sufferings  to  the  recognition  of  the  truth 
of  the  teaching  and  the  necessity  of  acquiring  it. 

It  is  to  this  necessity  of  acquiring  the  teaching  in  an 
experimental  external  way  that  the  whole  mass  of  the 
men  of  the  Christian  world  have  now  been  brought. 

Sometimes  we  think :  what  need  was  there  for  that 
corruption  of  Christianity  which  even  now  more  than  any- 
thing else  interferes  with  its  adoption  in  its  real  sense  ? 
And  yet  this  corruption  of  Christianity,  having  brought 
men  to  the  condition  in  which  they  now  are,  was  a  neces- 

101 


192      THE    KINGDOM    OF    GOD    IS    WITHIN    YOU 

sary  condition  for  the  majority  of  men  to  be  able  to 
receive  it  in  its  real  significance. 

If  Christianity  had  been  offered  to  men  in  its  real,  and 
not  its  corrupted,  form,  it  would  not  have  been  accepted 
by  the  majority  of  men,  and  the  majority  of  men  would 
have  remained  ahen  to  it,  as  the  nations  of  Asia  are  alien 
to  it  at  the  present  time.  But,  having  received  it  in  its 
corrupted  form,  the  nations  who  received  it  were  sub- 
jected to  its  certain,  though  slow,  action,  and  by  a  long 
experimental  road  of  errors  and  of  sufferings  resulting 
therefrom  are  now  brought  to  the  necessity  of  acquiring 
it  in  its  true  sense. 

The  corruption  of  Christianity  and  its  acceptance  in  its 
corrupted  form  by  the  majority  of  men  was  as  indispen- 
sable as  that  a  seed,  to  sprout,  should  be  for  a  time  con- 
cealed by  the  earth. 

The  Christian  teaching  is  a  teaching  of  the  truth  and 
at  the  same  time  a  prophecy. 

Eighteen  hundred  years  ago  the  Christian  teaching 
revealed  to  men  the  truth  of  how  they  should  live,  and  at 
the  same  time  predicted  what  human  life  would  be  if 
men  would  not  live  thus,  but  would  continue  to  live 
by  those  principles  by  which  they  had  lived  heretofore, 
and  what  it  would  be  if  they  should  accept  the  Christian 
teaching  and  should  carry  it  out  in  life. 

In  imparting  in  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount  the  teaching 
which  was  to  guide  the  lives  of  men,  Christ  said : 

"  Therefore,  whosoever  heareth  these  sayings  of  mine, 
and  doeth  them,  I  will  liken  him  unto  a  wise  man,  which 
built  his  house  upon  a  rock :  and  the  rain  descended,  and 
the  floods  came,  and  the  winds  blew,  and  beat  upon  that 
house ;  and  it  fell  not :  for  it  was  founded  upon  a  rock. 
And  every  one  that  heareth  these  sayings  of  mine,  and 
doeth  them  not,  shall  be  likened  unto  a  foolish  man, 
which  built  his  house  upon  the  sand  :  and  the  rain  de- 
scended, and  the  floods  came,  and  the  winds  blew,  and 


THE   KINGDOM    OF    GOD    IS    WITHIN    YOU      193 

beat  upon  that  house  ;  and  it  fell :  and  great  was  the  fall 
of  it  "  (Matt.  vii.  24-27). 

Now,  after  eighteen  hundred  years,  the  prophecy  has 
been  fulfilled.  By  not  following  Christ's  teaching  in 
general  and  its  manifestation  in  public  life  as  non-resist- 
ance to  evil,  men  involuntarily  came  to  that  position  of 
inevitable  ruin  which  was  promised  by  Christ  to  those 
who  would  not  follow  His  teaching. 

People  frequently  think  that  the  question  of  non-resist- 
ance to  evil  is  an  invented  question,  a  question  which  it 
is  possible  to  circumvent.  It  is,  however,  a  question 
which  life  itself  puts  before  all  men  and  before  every 
thinking  man,  and  which  invariably  demands  a  solution. 
For  men  in  their  public  life  this  question  has,  ever  since 
the  Christian  teaching  has  been  preached,  been  the  same 
as  the  question  for  a  traveller  which  road  to  take,  when 
he  comes  to  a  fork  on  the  highway  on  which  he  has  been 
walking.  He  must  go  on,  and  he  cannot  say,  "  I  will  not 
think,  and  I  will  continue  to  walk  as  before."  Before  this 
there  was  one  road,  and  now  there  are  two  of  them,  and 
it  is  impossible  to  walk  as  before,  and  one  of  the  two 
roads  must  inevitably  be  chosen. 

Even  so  it  has  been  impossible  to  say,  ever  since  Christ's 
teaching  was  made  known  to  men,  "  I  will  continue  to 
hve  as  I  lived  before,  without  solving  the  question  as  to 
resisting  or  not  resisting  evil  by  means  of  violence."  It 
is  inevitably  necessary  at  the  appearance  of  every  struggle 
to  solve  the  question,  "  Shall  I  with  violence  resist  that 
which  I  consider  to  be  an  evil  and  violence,  or  not  ? " 

The  question  as  to  resisting  or  not  resisting  evil  by 
means  of  violence  appeared  when  there  arose  the  first 
struggle  among  men,  since  every  struggle  is  nothing  but  a 
resistance  by  means  of  violence  to  what  each  of  the  contend- 
ing parties  considers  to  be  an  evil.  But  the  men  before 
Christ  did  not  see  that  the  resistance  by  means  of  violence 
to  what  each  considers  to  be  an  evil,  only  because  he  re- 


194     THE   KINGDOM   OF   GOD   IS   WITHIN   YOU 

gards  as  an  evil  what  another  regards  as  a  good,  is  only 
one  of  the  means  of  solving  the  struggle,  and  that  another 
means  consists  in  not  at  all  resisting  evil  by  means  of 
violence. 

Previous  to  Christ's  teaching  it  appeared  to  men  that 
there  was  but  one  way  of  solving  a  struggle,  and  that  was 
by  resisting  evil  with  violence,  and  so  they  did,  each  of 
the  contending  parties  trying  to  convince  himself  and 
others  that  what  each  of  them  considered  to  be  an  evil 
was  a  real,  absolute  evil. 

And  so  since  most  remote  times  men  have  endeavoured 
to  discover  such  definitions  of  evil  as  would  be  obligatory 
for  all  men,  and  as  such  were  given  out  the  statutes  of 
law  which,  it  was  assumed,  were  received  in  a  super- 
natural manner,  or  the  injunctions  of  men  or  of  assem- 
blies of  men,  to  whom  is  ascribed  the  quality  of  infallibility. 
Men  have  employed  violence  against  other  men  and  have 
assured  themselves  and  others  that  they  have  employed 
this  violence  against  the  evil,  which  was  acknowledged 
by  all  men. 

This  means  has  been  employed  since  remote  antiquity, 
especially  by  those  men  who  usurped  the  power,  and  men 
for  a  long  time  did  not  see  the  irrationality  of  this  means. 

But  the  longer  men  lived,  the  more  complex  their 
relations  became,  the  more  obvious  did  it  become  that  it 
was  irrational  by  means  of  violence  to  resist  that  which 
is  by  every  one  regarded  as  an  evil,  that  the  struggle  was 
not  diminished  by  doing  so,  and  that  no  human  definitions 
could  succeed  in  making  that  which  was  considered  to  be 
evil  by  one  set  of  men  considered  such  by  others. 

Even  at  the  time  of  the  appearance  of  Christianity,  in 
the  place  where  it  made  its  appearance,  in  the  Eoman 
Empire,  it  was  clear  for  the  majority  of  men  that  what  by 
Nero  and  Caligula  was  considered  to  be  an  evil  which 
ought  to  be  resisted  with  violence  could  not  be  con- 
sidered an  evil  by  other  men.     Even  then  men  began  to 


THE  KINGDOM  OF  GOD  IS  WITHIN  YOU  195 

understand  that  human  laws  which  were  given  out  as 
being  divine  had  been  written  by  men,  that  men  could 
not  be  infalHble,  no  matter  with  what  external  grandeur 
they  might  be  vested,  and  that  erring  men  could  not 
become  infallible  simply  because  they  came  together  and 
called  themselves  a  senate  or  some  such  name.  This 
was  even  then  felt  and  understood  by  many,  and  it  was 
then  that  Christ  preached  His  teaching,  which  did  not  con- 
sist simply  in  this,  that  evil  ought  not  to  be  resisted  by 
means  of  violence,  but  in  the  teaching  of  the  new  compre- 
hension of  life,  a  part,  or  rather  an  apphcation  of  which  to 
public  life  was  the  teaching  about  the  means  for  abolishing 
the  struggle  among  all  men,  not  by  obliging  only  one  part 
of  men  without  a  struggle  to  submit  to  what  would  be 
prescribed  to  them  by  certain  authorities,  but  by  having 
no  one,  consequently  even  not  those  (and  preeminently 
not  those)  who  rule,  employ  violence  against  any  one,  and 
under  no  consideration. 

The  teaching  was  at  that  time  accepted  by  but  a  small 
number  of  disciples ;  but  the  majority  of  men,  especially 
all  those  who  ruled  over  men,  continued  after  the  nominal 
acceptance  of  Christianity  to  hold  to  the  rule  of  violently 
resisting  that  which  they  considered  to  be  evil.  Tlius  it 
was  in  the  time  of  the  Roman  and  the  Byzantine  em- 
perors, and  so  it  continued  even  afterward. 

The  inadequacy  of  the  principle  of  defining  with  au- 
thority what  is  evil  and  resisting  it  with  violence,  which 
was  already  obvious  in  the  first  centuries  of  Christianity, 
became  even  more  obvious  during  the  decomposition  of 
the  Roman  Empire  into  many  states  of  equal  right,  with 
their  mutual  hostilities  and  the  inner  struggles  which 
took  place  in  the  separate  states. 

But  men  were  not  prepared  to  receive  the  solution 
which  was  given  by  Christ,  and  the  former  means  for  the 
definition  of  the  evil,  which  had  to  be  resisted  by  estab- 
lishing laws  which,  being  obligatory  for  all,  were  carried 


196     THE    KINGDOM    OF    GOD    IS    WITHIN    YOU 

out  by  the  use  of  force,  continued  to  be  applied.  The 
arbiter  of  what  was  to  be  considered  an  evil  and  what 
was  to  be  resisted  by  means  of  force  was  now  the  Pope, 
now  the  emperor,  now  the  king,  now  an  assembly  of  the 
elect,  now  the  whole  nation.  But  both  inside  and  out- 
side the  state  there  always  existed  some  men  who  did  not 
recognize  the  obligatoriness  for  themselves  either  of  the 
injunctions  which  were  given  out  to  be  the  commands  of 
the  divinity,  or  of  the  decrees  of  men  who  were  vested  with 
sanctity,  or  of  the  institutions  which  purported  to  represent 
the  will  of  the  people,  and  these  men,  who  considered  to 
be  good  what  the  existing  powers  regarded  as  evil,  fought 
against  the  powers,  using  the  same  violence  which  was 
directed  against  themselves. 

Men  who  were  vested  with  sanctity  regarded  as  evil 
what  men  and  institutions  that  were  vested  with  civil 
power  considered  to  be  good,  and  vice  versa,  and  the 
struggle  became  ever  more  acute.  And  the  more  such 
people  held  to  this  method  for  solving  their  struggle,  the 
more  obvious  did  it  become  that  this  method  was  useless, 
because  there  is  and  there  can  be  no  such  external 
authority  for  the  definition  of  evil  as  would  be  recognized 
by  all  men. 

Thus  it  lasted  for  eighteen  hundred  years,  and  it 
reached  the  present  point,  —  the  complete  obviousness  of 
the  fact  that  there  is  and  there  can  be  no  external  defini- 
tion of  evil  which  would  be  obligatory  for  all  men.  It 
reached  such  a  point  that  men  ceased  to  believe  in  the 
possibility  of  finding  this  common  definition  which  would 
be  obligatory  for  all  men,  and  even  in  the  necessity  of 
putting  forward  such  a  definition.  It  came  to  such  a  pass 
that  the  men  in  power  stopped  proving  that  that  which 
they  considered  to  be  an  evil  was  an  evil,  and  said  out- 
right that  they  considered  that  an  evil  which  did  not 
please  them ;  and  the  men  who  obeyed  the  power  began 
to  obey  it,  not  because  they  believed  that  the  definitions 


THE    KINGDOM    OF    GOD    IS    WITHIN    YOU      197 

of  evil  given  by  this  power  were  correct,  but  only  because 
they  could  not  help  but  obey.  Nice  is  added  to  France, 
Lorraine  to  Germany,  Bohemia  to  Austria ;  Poland  is 
divided  ;  Ireland  and  India  are  subjected  to  English  rule  ; 
war  is  waged  against  China  and  the  Africans ;  the  Ameri- 
cans expel  the  Chinese,  and  the  Russians  oppress  the 
Jews ;  the  landowners  use  the  land  which  they  do  not 
work,  and  the  capitalists  make  use  of  the  labours  of 
others,  not  because  tliis  is  good,  useful,  and  needful  to 
men  and  because  the  contrary  is  evil,  but  because  those 
who  are  in  power  want  it  to  be  so.  What  has  happened 
is  what  happens  now :  one  set  of  men  commit  acts  of 
violence,  no  longer  in  the  name  of  resisting  evil,  but  in 
the  name  of  their  advantage  or  whim,  while  another  set 
submit  to  violence,  not  because  they  assume,  as  was  the 
case  formerly,  that  violence  is  exerted  against  them  in  the 
name  of  freeing  them  from  evil  and  for  their  good,  but  only 
because  they  cannot  free  themselves  from  this  violence. 

If  a  Roman,  a  man  of  the  Middle  Ages,  a  Russian,  as  I 
remember  him  to  have  been  fifty  years  ago,  was  incon- 
testably  convinced  that  the  existing  violence  of  the  power 
was  necessary  in  order  to  free  him  from  evil,  that  taxes, 
levies,  serf  law,  prisons,  whips,  knouts,  hard  labour,  capital 
punishment,  militarism,  wars,  must  exist,  —  it  will  be  hard 
now  to  find  a  man  who  either  believes  that  all  acts  of 
violence  free  any  one  from  anything,  or  even  does  not  see 
clearly  that  the  majority  of  all  those  cases  of  violence  to 
which  he  is  subject  and  in  which  he  partly  shares  are  in 
themselves  a  great  and  useless  evil. 

There  is  now  no  such  a  man  who  does  not  see,  not  only 
the  uselessness,  but  even  the  insipidity,  of  collecting  taxes 
from  the  labouring  classes  for  the  purpose  of  enriching 
idle  officials ;  or  the  senselessness  of  imposing  punish- 
ments upon  corrupt  and  weak  people  in  the  shape  of 
deportation  from  one  place  to  another,  or  in  the  form 
of  imprisonment  in  jails,  where  they  live  in  security  and 


198     THE   KINGDOM   OF   GOD    IS    WITHIN    YOU 

idleness  and  become  more  corrupted  and  weakened ;  or, 
not  the  uselessness  and  insipidity,  but  simply  the 
madness  and  cruelty  of  military  preparations  and  wars, 
which  ruin  and  destroy  the  masses  and  have  no  explana- 
tion and  justification,  —  and  yet  these  cases  of  violence 
are  continued  and  even  maintained  by  the  very  men  who 
see  their  uselessness,  insipidity,  and  cruelty,  and  suffer 
from  them. 

If  fifty  years  ago  a  rich  idle  man  and  an  ignorant 
labouring  man  were  both  equally  convinced  that  their 
condition  of  an  eternal  holiday  for  the  one  and  of  eternal 
labour  for  the  other  was  ordained  by  God  Himself,  it  is 
now,  not  only  in  Europe,  but  even  in  Russia,  thanks  to 
the  migration  of  the  populace,  and  the  dissemination  of 
culture  and  printing,  hard  to  find  either  a  rich  or  a  poor 
man  who,  from  one  side  or  another,  has  not  been  assailed 
by  doubts  of  the  justice  of  such  an  order  of  things.  Not 
only  do  the  rich  know  that  they  are  guilty  even  because 
they  are  rich,  and  try  to  redeem  their  guilt  by  offering 
contributions  to  art  and  science,  as  formerly  they  redeemed 
their  sins  by  means  of  contributions  to  the  churches,  but 
even  the  greater  half  of  the  working  people  recognize 
the  present  order  as  being  false  and  subject  to  destruction 
or  change.  One  set  of  religious  people,  of  whom  there 
are  millions  in  Russia,  the  so-called  sectarians,  recognize 
this  order  as  false  and  subject  to  destruction  on  the  basis 
of  the  Gospel  teaching  as  taken  in  its  real  meaning ; 
others  consider  it  to  be  false  on  the  basis  of  socialistic, 
communistic,  anarchistic  theories,  which  now  have  pene- 
trated into  the  lower  strata  of  the  working  people. 

Violence  is  now  no  longer  maintained  on  the  ground 
that  it  is  necessary,  but  only  that  it  has  existed  for  a  long 
time,  and  has  been  so  organized  by  men  to  whom  it  is 
advantageous,  that  is,  by  governments  and  the  ruling 
classes,  that  the  men  who  are  in  their  power  cannot  tear 
themselves  away  from  it. 


II 


THE    KINGDOM    OF   GOD    IS   WITHIN    YOU     199 

The  governments  in  our  time  —  all  governments,  the 
most  despotic  and  the  most  hberal  —  have  become  what 
Herzen  so  aptly  called  Dzhingis-Khans  with  telegraphs, 
that  is,  organizations  of  violence,  which  have  nothing  at 
their  base  but  the  coarsest  arbitrary  will,  and  yet  use  all 
those  means  which  science  has  worked  out  for  the  aggre- 
gate social  peaceful  activity  of  free  and  equal  men,  and 
which  they  now  employ  for  the  enslavement  and  oppres- 
sion of  men. 

The  governments  and  the  ruling  classes  do  not  now 
lean  on  the  right,  not  even  on  the  semblance  of  justice, 
but  on  an  artificial  organization  which,  with  the  aid  of 
the  perfections  of  science,  encloses  all  men  in  the  circle 
of  violence,  from  which  there  is  no  possibility  of  tearing 
themselves  away.  This  circle  is  now  composed  of  four 
means  of  influencing  men.  All  those  means  are  connected 
and  sustain  one  another,  as  the  links  in  the  ring  of  a 
united  chain. 

The  first,  the  oldest,  means  is  the  means  of  intimidation. 
This  means  consists  in  representing  the  existing  state 
structure  (no  matter  what  it  may  be,  —  whether  a  free 
republic  or  the  wildest  despotism)  as  something  sacred 
and  invariable,  and  so  in  inflicting  the  severest  penalties 
for  any  attempt  at  changing  it.  This  means,  having  been 
used  before,  is  even  now  used  in  an  unchanged  form 
wherever  there  are  governments:  in  Russia  —  against 
the  so-called  nihilists ;  in  America  —  against  the  anar- 
chists ;  in  France  —  against  the  imperialists,  monarchists, 
communists,  and  anarchists.  The  railways,  telegraphs, 
photographs,  and  the  perfected  method  of  removing 
people,  without  killing  them,  into  eternal  solitary  con- 
finement, where,  hidden  from  men,  they  perish  and  are 
forgotten,  and  many  other  modern  inventions,  which 
governments  employ  more  freely  than  any  one  else,  give 
them  such  strength  that  as  soon  as  the  power  has  fallen 
into  certain  hands,  and  the  visible  and  the  secret  police, 


200      THE    KINGDOM    OF    GOD    IS    WITHIN    YOU 

and  the  administration,  and  all  kinds  of  prosecutors,  and 
jailers,  and  executioners  are  earnestly  at  work,  there  is  no 
possibility  of  overthrowing  the  government,  no  matter 
how  senseless  or  cruel  it  may  be. 

The  second  means  is  that  of  bribery.  It  consists  in  tak- 
ing the  wealth  away  from  the  labouring  classes  in  the  shape 
of  monetary  taxes,  and  distributing  this  wealth  among 
the  officials,  who  for  this  remuneration  are  obliged  tc 
maintain  and  strengthen  the  enslavement  of  the  masses. 

These  bribed  officials,  from  the  highest  ministers  to  the 
lowest  scribes,  who,  forming  one  continuous  chain  of 
men,  are  united  by  the  same  interest  of  supporting  them- 
selves by  the  labours  of  the  masses,  and  grow  wealthier  in 
proportion  as  they  more  humbly  do  the  will  of  their  gov- 
ernments, always  and  everywhere,  stopping  short  before 
no  means,  in  all  branches  of  activity,  in  word  and  deed, 
defend  the  governmental  violence,  upon  which  their  very 
well-being  is  based. 

The  third  means  is  what  I  cannot  call  by  any  other 
name  than  the  hypnotization  of  the  people.  This  means 
consists  in  retarding  the  spiritual  development  of  men 
and  maintaining  them  with  all  kinds  of  suggestions  in 
a  concept  of  life  which  humanity  has  already  outlived, 
and  on  which  the  power  of  the  governments  is  based. 
This  hypnotization  is  at  the  present  time  organized  in 
the  most  complex  manner,  and,  beginning  its  action  in 
childhood,  continues  over  men  to  their  death.  This  hyp- 
notization begins  at  early  youth  in  compulsory  schools 
which  are  established  for  the  purpose,  and  in  which  the 
children  are  instilled  with  world-conceptions  which  were 
peculiar  to  their  ancestors  and  are  directly  opposed  to  the 
modern  consciousness  of  humanity.  In  countries  in  which 
there  is  a  state  religion,  the  children  are  taught  the 
senseless  blasphemies  of  ecclesiastical  catechisms,  in  which 
the  necessity  of  obeying  the  powers  is  pointed  out ;  in  re- 
publican governments  they  are  taught  the  savage  supersti- 


THE    KINGDOM    OF    GOD    IS    WITHIN    YOU      201 

tion  of  patriotism,  and  the  same  imaginary  obligation  of 
obeying  the  authorities.  At  a  more  advanced  age,  this 
hypnotization  is  continued  by  encouraging  the  religious 
and  the  patriotic  superstitions. 

The  religious  superstition  is  encouraged  by  means  of 
the  institution  of  churches,  processions,  monuments,  fes- 
tivities, from  the  money  collected  from  the  masses,  and 
these,  with  the  aid  of  painting,  architecture,  music,  in- 
cense, but  chiefly  by  the  maintenance  of  the  so-called 
clergy,  stupefy  the  masses :  their  duty  consists  in  this, 
that  with  their  representations,  the  pathos  of  the  services, 
their  sermons,  their  interference  in  the  private  lives  of  the 
people,  —  at  births,  marriages,  deaths,  —  they  bedim  the 
people  and  keep  them  in  an  eternal  condition  of  stupe- 
faction. The  patriotic  superstition  is  encouraged  by 
means  of  public  celebrations,  spectacles,  monuments,  fes- 
tivities, which  are  arranged  by  the  governments  and  the 
ruling  classes  on  the  money  collected  from  the  masses, 
and  which  make  people  prone  to  recognize  the  exclusive 
importance  of  their  own  nation  and  the  grandeur  of  their 
own  state  and  rulers,  and  to  be  ill  inclined  toward  all 
other  nations  and  even  hate  them.  In  connection  with 
this,  the  despotic  governments  directly  prohibit  the  print- 
ing and  dissemination  of  books  and  the  utterance  of 
speeches  which  anlighten  the  masses,  and  deport  or  incar- 
cerate all  men  who  are  likely  to  rouse  the  masses  from 
their  lethargy ;  besides,  all  governments  without  excep- 
tion conceal  from  the  masses  everything  which  could 
free  them,  and  encourage  everything  which  could  corrupt 
them,  such  as  the  authorship  of  books  which  maintain 
the  masses  in  the  savagery  of  their  rehgious  and  patriotic 
superstitions,  all  kinds  of  sensuous  amusements,  specta- 
cles, circuses,  theatres,  and  even  all  kinds  of  physical  in- 
toxications, such  as  tobacco,  and  brandy,  which  furnish 
the  chief  income  of  states ;  they  even  encourage  prostitu- 
tion, which  is  not  only  acknowledged,  but  even  organ- 


202     THE   KINGDOM    OF    GOD   IS    WITHIN    YOU 

ized  by  the  majority  of  governments.  Such  is  the  third 
means. 

The  fourth  means  consists  in  this,  that  with  the  aid  of 
the  three  preceding  means  there  is  segregated,  from  the 
men  so  fettered  and  stupefied,  a  certain  small  number  of 
men,  who  are  subjected  to  intensified  methods  of  stupefac- 
tion and  brutalization,  and  are  turned  into  involuntary 
tools  of  all  those  cruelties  and  bestiahties  which  the  gov- 
ernments may  need.  This  stupefaction  and  brutalization 
is  accomplished  by  taking  the  men  at  that  youthful  age 
when  they  have  not  yet  had  time  to  form  any  firm  convic- 
tions in  regard  to  morality,  and,  having  removed  them 
from  all  natural  conditions  of  human  hfe,  from  home, 
family,  native  district,  rational  labour,  locking  them  all 
up  together  in  narrow  barracks,  dressing  them  up  in  pecul- 
iar garments,  and  making  them,  under  the  influence  of 
shouts,  drums,  music,  ghttering  objects,  perform  daily 
exercises  specially  invented  for  the  purpose,  and  thus 
inducing  such  a  state  of  hypnosis  in  them  that  they  cease 
to  be  men,  and  become  unthinking  machines,  which  are 
obedient  to  the  command  of  the  hypnotizer.  These  hyp- 
notized, physically  strong  young  men  (all  young  men,  on 
account  of  the  present  universal  military  service),  who 
are  provided  with  instruments  of  murder,  and  who  are 
always  obedient  to  the  power  of  the  governments  and 
are  prepared  to  commit  any  act  of  violence  at  their  com- 
mand, form  the  fourth  and  chief  means  for  the  enslave- 
ment of  men. 

With  this  means  the  circle  of  violence  is  closed. 

Intimidation,  bribery,  hypnotization,  make  men  desirous 
to  become  soldiers ;  but  it  is  the  soldiers  who  give  the 
power  and  the  possibility  for  punishing  people,  and  picking 
them  clean  (and  bribing  the  officials  with  the  money  thus 
obtained),  and  for  hypnotizing  and  enlisting  them  again  as 
soldiers,  who  in  turn  afford  the  possibihty  for  doing  all 
this. 


THE    KINGDOM    OF    GOD    IS    WITHIN    YOU      203 

The  circle  is  closed,  and  there  is  no  way  of  tearing  one- 
self away  from  it  by  means  of  force. 

If  some  men  affirm  that  the  liberation  from  violence,  or 
even  its  weakening,  may  be  effected,  should  the  oppressed 
people  overthrow  the  oppressing  government  by  force  and 
substitute  a  new  one  for  it,  a  government  in  which  such 
violence  and  enslavement  would  not  be  necessary,  and  if 
some  men  actually  try  to  do  so,  they  only  deceive  them- 
selves and  others  by  it,  and  thus  fail  to  improve  men's 
condition,  and  even  make  it  worse.  The  activity  of  these 
men  only  intensifies  the  despotism  of  the  governments. 
The  attempts  of  these  men  at  freeing  themselves  only  give 
the  governments  a  convenient  excuse  for  strengthening 
their  power,  and  actually  provoke  its  strengthening. 

Even  if  we  admit  that,  in  consequence  of  an  unfortunate 
concurrence  of  events  in  the  government,  as,  for  example, 
in  France  in  the  year  1870,  some  governments  may  be 
overthrown  by  force  and  the  power  pass  into  other  hands, 
this  power  would  in  no  case  be  less  oppressive  than  the 
former  one,  and,  defending  itself  against  the  infuriated 
deposed  enemies,  would  always  be  more  despotic  and  cruel 
than  the  former,  as  indeed  has  been  the  case  in  every 
revolution. 

If  the  socialists  and  communists  consider  the  individu- 
alistic, capitalistic  structure  of  society  to  be  an  evil,  and 
the  anarchists  consider  the  government  itself  to  be  an  evil, 
there  are  also  monarchists,  conservatives,  capitalists,  who 
consider  the  socialistic,  communistic,  and  anarchistic  order 
to  be  evil ;  and  all  these  parties  have  no  other  means  than 
force  for  the  purpose  of  uniting  men.  No  matter  which 
of  these  parties  may  triumph,  it  will  be  compelled,  for  the 
materialization  of  its  tenets,  as  well  as  for  the  maintenance 
of  its  power,  not  only  to  make  use  of  all  the  existing  means 
of  violence,  but  also  to  invent  new  ones.  Other  men  will  be 
enslaved,  and  men  will  be  compelled  to  do  something  else  ; 
but  there  will  be,  not  only  the  same,  but  even  a  more  cruel 


I 


204  THE  KINGDOM  OF  GOD  IS  WITHIN  YOU 

form  of  violence  and  enslavement,  because,  in  consequence 
of  the  struggle,  the  hatred  of  men  toward  one  another  will 
be  intensified,  and  at  the  same  time  new  means  of  enslave- 
ment will  be  worked  out  and  confirmed. 

Thus  it  has  always  been  after  every  revolution,  every 
attempt  at  a  revolution,  every  plot,  every  violent  change  of 
government.  Every  struggle  only  strengthens  the  means 
of  the  enslavement  of  those  who  at  a  given  time  are  in 
power. 

The  condition  of  the  men  of  our  Christian  world,  and 
especially  the  current  ideals  themselves  prove  this  in  a 
striking  manner. 

There  is  left  but  one  sphere  of  human  activity  which  is 
not  usurped  by  the  governmental  power,  —  the  domestic, 
economic  sphere,  the  sphere  of  the  private  life  and  of  labour. 
But  even  this  sphere,  thanks  to  the  struggle  of  the  com- 
munists and  socialists,  is  slowly  being  usurped  by  the 
governments,  so  that  labour  and  rest,  the  domicile,  the  at- 
tire, the  food  of  men  will  by  degrees  be  determined  and 
directed  by  the  governments,  if  the  wishes  of  the  reformers 
are  to  be  fulfilled. 

The  whole  long,  eighteen-centuries-old  course  of  the  life 
of  the  Christian  nations  has  inevitably  brought  them  back 
to  the  necessity  of  solving  the  question,  so  long  evaded  by 
them,  as  to  the  acceptance  or  non-acceptance  of  Christ's 
teaching,  and  the  solution  of  the  question  resulting  from 
it  as  regards  the  social  life,  whether  to  resist  or  not  to 
resist  evil  with  violence,  but  with  this  difference,  that 
formerly  men  could  accept  the  solution  which  Christianity 
offered,  or  not  accept  it,  while  now  the  solution  has  become 
imperative,  because  it  alone  frees  them  from  that  condition 
of  slavery  in  which  they  have  become  entangled  as  in  a 
snare. 

But  it  is  not  merely  the  wretchedness  of  men's  condition 
that  brings  them  to  this  necessity. 

Side  by  side  with  the  negative  proof  of  the  falseness  of 


THE    KINGDOM    OF    GOD    IS    WITHIN    YOU     205 

the  pagan  structure,  there  went  the  positive  proof  of  the 
truth  of  the  Christian  teaching. 

There  was  a  good  reason  why,  in  the  course  of  eighteen 
centuries,  the  best  men  of  the  wliole  Christian  world, 
having  recognized  the  truths  of  tlie  teaching  by  means  of 
an  inner,  spiritual  method,  should  have  borne  witness  to 
them  before  men,  in  spite  of  all  threats,  privations,  calami- 
ties, and  torments.  With  this  their  martyrdom  these  best 
men  have  put  the  stamp  of  truthfulness  upon  the  teaching 
and  have  trausmitted  it  to  the  masses. 

Christianity  penetrated  into  the  consciousness  of  human- 
ity, not  merely  by  the  one  negative  way  of  proving  the 
impossibihty  of  continuing  the  pagan  hfe,  but  also  by  its 
simplification,  elucidation,  liberation  from  the  dross  of  su- 
perstitions, and  dissemination  among  all  the  classes  of 
people. 

Eighteen  hundred  years  of  the  profession  of  Christianity 
did  not  pass  in  vain  for  the  men  who  accepted  it,  even 
though  only  in  an  external  manner.  These  eighteen  cen- 
turies have  had  this  effect  that,  continuing  to  live  a  pagan 
life,  which  does  not  correspond  to  the  age  of  humanity, 
men  have  not  only  come  to  see  clearly  the  whole  wretched- 
ness of  the  condition  in  which  they  are,  but  believe  in  the 
depth  of  tlieir  hearts  (they  live  only  because  they  believe) 
in  this,  that  the  salvation  from  this  condition  is  only  in 
the  fulfilment  of  the  Christian  teaching  in  its  true  signifi- 
cance. As  to  when  and  how  this  salvation  will  take  place, 
all  men  think  differently,  in  accordance  with  their  mental 
development  and  the  current  prejudices  of  their  circle ; 
but  every  man  of  our  world  recognizes  the  fact  that  our 
salvation  lies  in  tlie  fulfilment  of  the  Christian  teaching. 
Some  believers,  recognizing  the  Christian  teaching  as 
divine,  think  that  the  salvation  will  come  when  all  men 
shall  believe  in  Christ,  and  the  second  advent  shall  ap- 
proach ;  others,  who  also  recognize  the  divinity  of  Christ's 
teaching,  think  that  this  salvation  will  come  through  the 


206      THE    KINGDOM    OF    GOD    IS    WITHIN    YOU 

church,  which,  subjecting  all  men  to  itself,  will  educate  in 
them  Christian  virtues  and  will  change  their  lives.  Others 
again,  who  do  not  recognize  Christ  as  God,  think  that  the 
salvation  of  men  will  come  through  a  slow,  gradual  prog- 
ress, when  the  foundations  of  the  pagan  life  will  slowly 
give  way  to  the  foundations  of  liberty,  equality,  fraternity, 
that  is,  to  Christian  principles ;  others  again,  who  preach  a 
social  transformation,  think  that  the  salvation  will  come 
when  men  by  a  violent  revolution  shall  be  compelled  to 
adopt  community  of  possession,  absence  of  government, 
and  collective,  not  individual,  labour,  that  is,  the  material- 
ization of  one  of  the  sides  of  the  Christian  teaching. 

In  one  way  or  another,  all  men  of  our  time  in  their 
consciousness  not  only  reject  the  present  obsolete  pagan 
order  of  life,  but  recognize,  frequently  not  knowing  it 
themselves  and  regarding  themselves  as  enemies  of  Chris- 
tianity, that  our  salvation  lies  only  in  the  application  of 
the  Christian  teaching,  or  of  a  part  of  it,  in  its  true  mean- 
ing, to  life. 

For  the  majority  of  men,  as  its  teacher  has  said,  Chris- 
tianity could  not  be  realized  at  once,  but  had  to  grow, 
hke  an  immense  tree,  from  a  small  seed.  And  so  it- grew 
and  has  spread,  if  not  in  reality,  at  least  in  the  conscious- 
ness of  the  men  of  our  time. 

Now  it  is  not  merely  the  minority  of  men,  who  always 
comprehended  Christianity  internally,  that  recognizes  it 
in  its  true  meaning,  Imt  also  that  vast  majority  of  men 
which  on  account  of  its  social  hfe  seems  to  be  so  far  re- 
moved from  Christianity. 

Look  at  the  private  life  of  separate  individuals ;  listen 
to  those  valuations  of  acts,  which  men  make  in  judging 
one  another ;  listen,  not  only  to  the  public  sermons  and 
lectures,  but  also  to  those  instructions  which  parents 
and  educators  give  to  their  charges,  and  you  will  see  that, 
no  matter  how  far  the  political,  social  life  of  men,  which 
is  united    through  violence,  is    from    the    reahzation   of 


THE    KINGDOM    OF    GOD    IS    WITHIN    YOU      207 

Chiistian  truths  iu  private  life,  it  is  only  the  Christian 
virtues  that  are  by  all  and  for  all,  w^ithout  exception  and 
indubitably,  considered  to  be  good,  and  that  the  anti- 
Christian  vices  are  by  all  aud  for  all,  without  exception 
and  indubitably,  considered  to  be  bad.  Those  are  con- 
sidered to  be  the  best  of  men  who  renounce  and  sacrifice 
their  lives  in  the  service  of  humanity  and  who  sacrifice 
themselves  for  others ;  those  are  considered  to  be  the 
worst  who  are  selfish,  who  exploit  the  misery  of  their 
neighbours  for  their  own  personal  advantage. 

If  by  some,  who  have  not  yet  been  touched  by  Chris- 
tianity, are  recognized  the  non-Christian  ideals,  force, 
valour,  wealth,  these  are  ideals  which  are  not  experienced 
and  shared  by  all  men,  and  certainly  not  by  men  who  are 
considered  to  be  the  best. 

The  condition  of  our  Christian  humanity,  if  viewed 
from  without,  with  its  cruelty  and  its  slavery,  is  really 
terrible.  But  if  we  look  upon  it  from  the  side  of  its  con- 
sciousness, an  entirely  different  spectacle  is  presented  to  us. 

The  whole  evil  of  our  life  seems  to  exist  for  no  other 
reason  than  that  it  was  done  long  ago,  aud  the  men  who 
have  done  it  liave  not  yet  had  time  to  learn  how  not  to 
do  it,  though  none  of  them  wish  to  do  it. 

All  this  evil  seems  to  exist  for  some  other  reason, 
which  is  independent  of  the  consciousness  of  men. 

No  matter  how  strange  and  contradictory  this  may 
seem,  all  the  men  of  our  time  despise  the  very  order  of 
things  which  they  help  to  maintain. 

I  think  it  is  Max  Mtiller  who  tells  of  the  surprise  of 
an  Indian  converted  to  Christianity,  who,  having  grasped 
the  essence  of  the  Christian  teaching,  arrived  in  Europe 
and  saw  the  life  of  the  Christians.  He  could  not  recover 
from  his  astonishment  in  the  presence  of  the  reality, 
which  was  the  very  opposite  of  what  he  had  expected  to 
find  among  the  Christian  nations. 

If  we  are  not  surprised  at  the  contradiction  between 


208      THE    KINGDOM    OF    GOD    IS    WITHIN   YOU 

our  beliefs,  convictions,  and  acts,  this  is  due  only  to  the 
fact  that  the  influences  which  conceal  this  contradiction 
from  men  act  also  upon  us.  We  need  only  look  upon  our 
life  from  the  standpoint  of  the  Indian,  who  understood 
Christianity  in  its  real  significance,  without  any  compro- 
mises and  adaptations,  and  upon  those  savage  bestialities, 
with  which  our  life  is  filled,  in  order  that  we  may  be 
frightened  at  the  contradictions  amidst  which  we  live, 
frequently  without  noticing  them. 

We  need  but  think  of  warlike  preparations,  mitrail- 
leuses, silver-plated  bullets,  torpedoes,  —  and  the  Eed 
Cross ;  of  the  construction  of  prisons  with  solitary  cells, 
of  the  experiments  at  electrocution,  —  and  of  the  be- 
nevolent cares  for  the  imprisoned ;  of  the  philanthropic 
activity  of  rich  men,  —  and  of  their  lives,  which  are  pro- 
ductive of  those  very  poor  whom  they  benefit.  And 
these  contradictions  do  not  result,  as  may  appear,  because 
people  pretend  to  be  Christians,  when  in  reahty  they  are 
pagans,  but,  on  the  contrary,  because  people  lack  some- 
thing, or  because  there  is  some  force  which  keeps  them 
from  being  what  they  already  feel  themselves  to  be  in 
their  consciousness  and  what  they  actually  wish  to  be. 
The  men  of  our  time  do  not  pretend  to  hate  oppression, 
inequality,  the  division  of  men,  and  all  kinds  of  cruelty, 
not  only  toward  men,  but  also  toward  animals,  —  they 
actually  do  hate  all  this,  but  they  do  not  know  how  to 
destroy  it  all,  and  they  have  not  the  courage  to  part  with 
what  maintains  all  this  and  seems  to  them  to  be  indispen- 
sable. 

Indeed,  ask  any  man  of  our  time  privately,  whether  he 
considers  it  laudable  or  even  worthy  of  a  man  of  our 
time  to  busy  himself  with  collecting  taxes  from  the 
masses,  who  frequently  are  poverty-stricken,  receiving  for 
this  work  a  salary  which  is  entirely  out  of  proportion 
with  his  labour,  this  money  to  be  used  for  the  construc- 
tion of  cannon,  torpedoes,  and  implements  for  murdering 


THE    KINGDOM    OF    GOD    IS    WITHIN    YOU      209 

men,  with  whom  we  wish  to  be  at  peace,  and  who  wish 
to  be  at  peace  with  us  ;  or  for  a  salary  to  devote  all  his 
life  to  the  construction  of  these  implements  of  murder ; 
or  to  prepare  himself  and  others  to  commit  murder.  And 
ask  him  whether  it  is  laudable  and  worthy  of  a  man,  and 
proper  for  a  Christian,  to  busy  himself,  again  for  money, 
with  catching  unfortunate,  erring,  frequently  ignorant, 
drunken  men  for  appropriating  to  themselves  other 
people's  possessions  in  much  smaller  quantities  than  we 
appropriate  things  to  ourselves,  and  for  killing  men  differ- 
ently from  what  we  are  accustomed  to  kill  men,  and  for 
this  to  put  them  in  prisons,  and  torment,  and  kill  them, 
and  whether  it  is  laudable  and  worthy  of  a  man  and  a 
Christian,  again  for  money,  to  preach  to  the  masses,  in- 
stead of  Christianity,  what  is  well  known  to  be  insipid 
and  harmful  superstitions ;  and  whether  it  is  laudable 
and  worthy  of  a  man  to  take  from  his  neighbour,  for 
the  sake  of  his  own  lust,  what  his  neighbour  needs  for  the 
gratification  of  his  prime  necessities,  as  is  done  by  the 
large  landowners ;  or  to  compel  him  to  perform  labour 
above  his  strength,  which  ruins  his  life,  in  order  to  in- 
crease his  own  wealth,  as  is  done  by  manufacturers,  by 
owners  of  factories ;  or  to  exploit  men's  want  for  the 
purpose  of  increasing  his  wealth,  as  is  done  by  merchants. 
And  each  of  them  taken  privately,  especially  in  speaking 
of  another,  will  tell  you  that  it  is  not.  And  yet  this 
same  man,  who  sees  all  the  execrableness  of  these  acts, 
who  is  himself  not  urged  by  any  one,  will  himself  volun- 
tarily, and  frequently  without  the  monetary  advantage  of 
a  salary,  for  the  sake  of  childish  vanity,  for  the  sake  of  a 
porcelain  trinket,  a  ribbon,  a  piece  of  lace,  which  he  is 
permitted  to  put  on,  go  into  military  service,  become  an 
examining  magistrate,  a  justice  of  the  peace,  a  minister, 
a  rural  officer,  a  bisliop,  a  sexton,  that  is,  he  will  take  an 
office  in  which  he  is  obliged  to  do  things  the  disgrace  and 
execrableness  of  which  he  cannot  help  but  know. 


210     THE    KINGDOM    OF    GOD    IS    WITHIN   YOU 

I  know  many  of  these  men  will  self-conceitedly  prove 
that  they  consider  their  positions  not  only  legitimate,  but 
even  indispensable;  they  will  say  in  their  defence  that 
the  power  is  from  God,  that  political  offices  are  necessary 
for  the  good  of  humanity,  that  wealth  is  not  contrary  to 
Christianity,  that  the  rich  young  man  was  told  to  give  up 
his  wealth  only  if  he  wished  to  be  perfect,  that  the  now 
existing  distribution  of  wealth  and  commerce  must  be  so 
and  is  advantageous  for  everybody,  and  so  forth.  But, 
no  matter  how  they  may  try  to  deceive  themselves  and 
others,  all  these  men  know  that  what  they  do  is  contrary 
to  everything  they  believe  in,  and  in  the  name  of  which 
they  live,  and  in  the  depth  of  their  hearts,  when  they  are 
left  alone  with  their  consciences,  they  think  with  shame 
and  pain  of  what  they  are  doing,  especially  if  the  execra- 
bleuess  of  their  activity  has  been  pointed  out  to  them. 
A  man  of  our  time,  whether  he  professes  the  divinity  of 
Christ  or  not,  cannot  help  but  know  that  to  take  part, 
whether  as  a  king,  a  minister,  a  governor,  or  a  rural 
officer,  in  the  sale  of  a  poor  family's  last  cow  for  taxes, 
with  which  to  pay  for  cannon  or  the  salaries  and  pensions 
of  luxuriating,  idle,  and  harmful  officials ;  or  to  have  a 
share  in  putting  the  provider  of  a  family  into  prison,  be- 
cause we  ourselves  have  corrupted  him,  and  let  his  family 
go  a-begging  ;  or  to  take  part  in  the  plunders  and  murders 
of  war ;  or  to  help  substitute  savage  and  idolatrous  super- 
stitions for  Christ's  law ;  or  to  detain  a  trespassing  cow  of 
a  man  who  has  no  land  of  his  own ;  or  to  deduct  a  sum 
from  the  wages  of  a  factory  hand  for  an  article  which  he 
accidentally  ruined ;  or  to  extort  a  double  price  from  a 
poor  fellow,  only  because  he  is  in  need,  —  a  man  of  our 
time  cannot  help  but  know  that  all  these  things  are  dis- 
graceful and  execrable,  and  that  they  should  not  be  done. 
They  all  know  it :  they  know  that  what  they  do  is  bad, 
and  they  would  not  be  doing  it  under  any  consideration, 
if  they  were  able  to  withstand  those  forces  which,  closing 


THE   KINGDOM    OF   GOD   IS   WITHIN   YOU     211 

their  eyes  to  the  criminality  of  their  acts,  draw  them  on 
to  committing  them. 

In  nothing  is  the  degree  of  the  contradiction  which  the 
lives  of  the  men  of  our  time  have  reached  so  striking,  as 
in  that  phenomenon  which  forms  the  last  means  and 
expression  of  violence,  —  in  the  universal  mihtary  serv- 
ice. 

Only  because  this  condition  of  universal  arming  and 
military  service  has  come  step  by  step  and  imperceptibly, 
and  because  for  its  maintenance  the  governments  employ 
all  means  in  their  power  for  intimidating,  bribing,  stupe- 
fying, and  ravishing  men,  we  do  not  see  the  crying  con- 
tradiction between  this  condition  and  those  Christian 
feelings  and  thoughts,  with  which  all  the  men  of  our 
time  are  really  permeated. 

This  contradiction  has  become  so  habitual  to  us  that 
we  do  not  even  see  all  the  terrifying  senselessness  and 
immorality  of  the  acts,  not  only  of  the  men  who  volun- 
tarily choose  the  profession  of  killing  as  something  hon- 
ourable, but  even  of  those  unfortunate  men  who  agree  to 
perform  military  duty,  or  even  of  those  who  in  coun- 
tries where  military  service  is  not  introduced,  voluntarily 
give  up  their  labours  to  hire  soldiers  and  prepare  them  to 
commit  murder.  All  these  men,  be  they  Christians  or 
men  who  profess  humanity  and  liberalism,  certainly  know 
that,  in  committing  these  crimes,  they  become  the  partici- 
pants, and,  in  personal  military  service,  the  actors,  in  the 
most  senseless,  aimless,  cruel  of  murders,  and  yet  they 
commit  them. 

But  more  than  this  :  in  Germany,  whence  comes  the 
universal  military  service,  Caprivi  said  openly,  what  be- 
fore was  carefully  concealed,  that  the  men  who  had  to 
be  killed  were  not  merely  the  foreigners,  but  the  working 
people,  from  whom  come  the  majority  of  the  soldiers. 
And  this  confession  did  not  open  men's  eyes,  did  not 
frighten  them.     Even  after  this,  as  before,  they  continue 


212     THE    KINGDOM    OF    GOD    IS    WITHIN    YOU 

to  go  like  sheep  to  the  enlistment  and  to  submit  to  every- 
thing demanded  of  them. 

And  this  is  not  enough :  lately  the  German  Emperor 
stated  more  definitely  the  significance  and  the  calling  of 
a  soldier,  when  distinguishing,  thanking,  and  rewarding  a 
soldier  for  having  shot  a  defenceless  prisoner,  who  had 
attempted  to  run  away.  In  thanking  and  rewarding 
the  man  for  an  act  which  has  always  been  regarded  as 
the  lowest  and  basest  by  men  who  stand  on  the  lowest 
stage  of  morality,  William  showed  that  the  chief  duty  of 
a  soldier,  the  one  most  valued  by  the  authorities,  consisted 
in  being  an  executioner,  not  one  hke  the  professional  exe- 
cutioners, who  kill  only  condemned  criminals,  but  one  who 
kills  all  those  innocent  men  whom  he  is  ordered  by  his 
superiors  to  kill. 

But  more  than  this:  in  1891  this  same  William,  the 
enfant  terrible  of  the  political  power,  who  expresses  what 
others  think,  in  speaking  with  some  soldiers,  said  the  fol- 
lowing in  public,  and  the  next  day  thousands  of  news- 
papers reprinted  these  words : 

"  Recruits !  In  the  sight  of  the  altar  and  the  servant 
of  God  you  swore  allegiance  to  me.  You  are  still  too 
young  to  understand  the  true  meaning  of  everything 
which  is  said  here,  but  see  to  this,  that  you  first  of  all 
follow  the  commands  and  instructions  given  you.  You 
have  sworn  allegiance  to  me ;  this,  children  of  my  guard, 
means  that  you  are  now  my  soldiers,  that  you  have  sur- 
rendered your  souls  and  bodies  to  me.  For  you  there 
now  exists  but  one  enemy,  namely,  the  one  who  is  my 
enemy.  With  the  present  socialistic  propaganda  it  may 
happen  that  I  will  command  you  to  shoot  at  your  own  rel- 
atives, your  brothers,  even  parents,  —  which  God  forfend, 
—  and  then  you  are  obliged  without  murmuring  to  do  my 
commands." 

This  man  expresses  what  all  wise  men  know,  but  care- 
fully conceal.     He  says  frankly  that  men  who  serve  in 


THE    KINGDOM    OF    GOD   IS    WITHIN    YOU      213 

the  army  serve  him  and  his  advantage,  and  must  be  pre- 
pared for  his  advantage  to  kill  their  brothers  and  fathers. 

He  expresses  frankly  and  vs^ith  the  coarsest  of  words  all 
the  horror  of  the  crime  for  which  the  men  who  enter  into 
military  service  are  prepared,  all  that  abyss  of  degradation 
which  they  reach,  when  they  promise  obedience.  Like 
a  bold  hypnotizer,  he  tests  the  degree  of  the  hypnotized 
man's  sleep :  he  puts  the  glowing  iron  to  his  body,  the 
body  sizzles  and  smokes,  but  the  hypnotized  man  does 
not  wake. 

This  miserable,  ill  man,  who  has  lost  his  mind  from 
the  exercise  of  power,  with  these  words  offends  every- 
thing which  can  be  holy  for  a  man  of  our  time,  and  men, 
—  Christians,  Hberals,  cultured  men  of  our  time,  —  all  of 
them,  are  not  only  not  provoked  by  this  insult,  but  even 
do  not  notice  it.  The  last,  extreme  trial,  in  its  coarsest, 
most  glaring  form,  is  offered  to  men,  and  men  do  not  even 
seem  to  notice  that  this  is  a  trial,  that  they  have  a  choice. 
It  looks  as  though  it  seemed  to  them  that  there  was  not 
even  any  choice,  and  that  there  was  but  the  one  path  of 
slavish  obedience.  One  would  tliink  that  these  senseless 
words,  which  offend  everything  which  a  man  of  our  time 
considers  to  be  sacred,  ought  to  have  provoked  people,  but 
nothing  of  the  kind  took  place.  All  the  young  men  of  all 
Europe  are  year  after  year  subjected  to  this  trial,  and  with 
the  rarest  exceptions  they  all  renounce  everything  which 
is  and  can  be  sacred  to  a  man,  they  all  express  their 
readiness  to  kill  their  brothers,  even  their  fathers,  at  the 
command  of  the  first  erring  man  who  is  clad  in  a  red 
livery  embroidered  witli  gold,  and  all  they  ask  is  when 
and  whom  to  kill.     And  they  are  ready. 

Every  savage  has  something  sacred  for  which  he  is 
prepared  to  suffer  and  for  which  he  will  make  no  conces- 
sions. But  where  is  this  sacredness  for  a  man  of  our 
time  ?  He  is  told,  "  Go  into  slavery  to  me,  into  a  slavery 
in  which  you  have  to  kill  your  own  fatlier,"  and  he,  who 


214     THE    KINGDOM    OF    GOD   IS    WITHIN   TOtJ 

very  frequently  is  a  learned  man,  who  has  studied  all  the 
sciences  in  a  university,  submissively  puts  his  neck  into 
the  yoke.  He  is  dressed  up  in  a  fool's  attire,  is  com- 
manded to  jump,  to  contort  his  body,  to  bow,  to  kill, — 
and  he  does  everything  submissively.  And  when  he  is 
let  out,  he  returns  briskly  to  his  former  life  and  continues 
to  talk  of  man's  dignity,  liberty,  equahty,  and  fraternity. 

"  Yes,  but  what  is  to  be  done  ? "  people  frequently  ask, 
in  sincere  perplexity.  "  If  all  should  refuse,  it  would  be 
well ;  otherwise  I  alone  shall  suffer,  and  no  one  will  be 
helped  by  it." 

And,  indeed,  a  man  of  the  social  concept  of  life  cannot 
refuse.  The  meaning  of  his  life  is  the  good  of  his  person- 
ality. For  the  sake  of  his  personality  it  is  better  for 
him  to  submit,  and  he  submits. 

No  matter  what  may  be  done  to  him,  no  matter  how 
he  may  be  tortured  and  degraded,  he  will  submit,  because 
he  can  do  nothing  himself,  because  he  has  not  that  founda- 
tion in  the  name  of  which  he  could  by  himself  withstand 
the  violence  ;  but  those  who  govern  men  will  never  give 
them  a  chance  to  unite.  It  is  frequently  said  that  the 
invention  of  terrible  implements  of  murder  will  abolish 
war  and  that  war  will  abolish  itself.  That  is  not  true. 
As  it  is  possible  to  increase  the  means  for  the  slaughter 
of  men,  so  it  is  possible  to  increase  the  means  for  subju- 
gating the  men  of  the  social  concept  of  life.  Let  them  be 
killed  by  the  thousand,  by  the  million,  and  be  torn  to 
pieces,  —  they  will  none  the  less  go  to  the  slaughter  like 
senseless  cattle,  because  they  are  driven  with  a  goad; 
others  will  go,  because  for  this  they  will  be  permitted  to 
put  on  ribbons  and  galloons,  and  they  wiU  even  be  proud 
of  it. 

And  it  is  in  connection  with  such  a  contingent  of  men, 
who  are  so  stupefied  that  they  promise  to  kiU  their 
parents,  that  the  public  leaders  —  the  conservatives,  liber- 
als, sociahsts,  anarchists  —  talk  of  building  up  a  rational 


THE    KINGDOM    OF    GOD    IS    WITHIN    YOU      215 

and  moral  society.  What  rational  and  moral  society  can 
be  built  up  with  such  men  ?  Just  as  it  is  impossible  to 
build  a  house  with  rotten  and  crooked  logs,  no  matter  how 
one  may  transpose  them,  so  it  is  impossible  with  such 
people  to  construct  a  rational  and  moral  society.  Such 
people  can  only  form  a  herd  of  animals  which  is  directed 
by  the  shouts  and  goads  of  the  shepherds.     And  so  it  is. 

And  so,  on  the  one  hand.  Christians  by  name,  who  pro- 
fess liberty,  equality,  and  fraternity,  are  side  by  side  with 
that  prepared  in  the  name  of  liberty  for  the  most  slavish 
and  degraded  submission,  in  the  name  of  equality  for  the 
most  glaring  and  senseless  divisions  of  men  by  external 
signs  alone  into  superiors  and  inferiors,  their  allies  and 
their  enemies,  and  in  the  name  of  fraternity  for  the 
murder  of  these  brothers.^ 

The  contradictions  of  consciousness  and  the  resulting 
wretchedness  of  life  have  reached  the  extremest  point, 
beyond  which  it  is  impossible  to  go.  The  life  which  is 
built  up  on  the  principles  of  violence  has  reached  the 
negation  of  those  very  principles  in  the  name  of  which 
it  was  built  up.  The  establishment  of  society  on  the 
principles  of  violence,  which  had  for  its  aim  the  security 
of  the  personal,  domestic,  and  social  good,  has  led  men  to  a 
complete  negation  and  destruction  of  this  good. 

The  first  part  of  the  prophecy  has  been  fulfilled  in 
respect  to  men  and  their  generations,  who  did  not  accept 
the  teaching,  and  their  descendants  have  now  been  brought 
to  tlie  necessity  of  experiencing  the  justice  of  its  second 
part. 

1  The  fact  that  some  nations,  the  English  and  the  Americans,  have 
not  yet  any  universal  military  service  (though  voices  in  its  favour 
are  already  heard),  but  only  the  enlistment  and  hire  of  soldiers,  does 
in  no  way  change  the  condition  of  slavery  in  which  the  citizens  stand 
relative  to  the  governments.  Here  everybody  has  to  go  himself  to 
kill  and  be  killed  ;  there  everybody  has  to  give  his  labours  for  the 
hire  and  preparation  of  murderers.  — Author's  Note. 


IX. 

The  condition  of  the  Christian  nations  in  our  time  has 
remained  as  cruel  as  it  was  in  the  times  of  paganism.  In 
many  relations,  especially  in  the  enslavement  of  men,  it 
has  become  even  more  cruel  than  in  the  times  of  pa- 
ganism. 

But  between  the  condition  of  the  men  of  that  time  and  of 
our  time  there  is  the  same  difference  that  there  is  for  the 
plants  between  the  last  days  of  autumn  and  the  first  days 
of  spring.  There,  in  the  autumnal  Nature,  the  external 
lifelessness  corresponds  to  the  internal  condition  of  decay  ; 
but  here,  in  the  spring,  the  external  lifelessness  is  in  the 
sharpest  contradiction  to  the  condition  of  the  internal 
restoration  and  the  change  to  a  new  form  of  life. 

The  same  is  true  of  the  external  resemblance  between 
the  previous  pagan  life  and  the  present  one :  the  external 
condition  of  men  in  the  times  of  paganism  and  in  our 
time  is  quite  different. 

There  the  external  condition  of  cruelty  and  slavery 
was  in  full  agreement  with  the  internal  consciousness  of 
men,  and  every  forward  movement  increased  this  agree- 
ment ;  but  here  the  external  condition  of  cruelty  and 
slavery  is  in  complete  disagreement  with  the  Christian 
consciousness  of  men,  and  every  forward  step  only  in- 
creases this  disagreement. 

What  is  taking  place  is,  as  it  were,  useless  sufferings, 
—  something  resembling  childbirth.  Everything  is  pre- 
pared for  the  new  life,  but  the  life  itself  has  not  made  its 
appearance. 

The  situation   seems   to   be   without  an  issue,  and  it 

216 


THE    KINGDOM    OF    GOD    IS    WITHIN    YOU     217 

would  be  so,  if  the  individual  man,  and  so  all  men,  were 
not  given  the  possibility  of  another,  higher  conception  of 
life,  which  at  once  frees  him  from  all  those  fetters  which, 
it  seemed,  bound  him  indissolubly. 

Such  is  the  Christian  concept  of  life,  which  was  pointed 
out  to  humanity  eighteen  hundred  years  ago. 

A  man  need  only  make  this  life-concept  his  own,  in 
order  that  the  chains  which  seemed  to  have  fettered  him 
so  indissolubly  may  fall  off  of  themselves,  and  that  he 
may  feel  himself  quite  free,  something  the  way  a  bird 
would  feel  free  when  it  expanded  its  wings  in  a  place 
which  is  fenced  in  all  around. 

People  speak  of  the  liberation  of  the  Christian  church 
from  the  state,  of  granting  or  not  granting  liberty  to 
Christians.  In  these  thoughts  and  expressions  there  is 
some  terrible  misconception.  Liberty  cannot  be  granted 
to  a  Christian  or  to  Christians,  or  taken  from  them.  Lib- 
erty is  a  Christian's  inalienable  property. 

When  people  si)eak  of  granting  liberty  to  Christians, 
or  taking  it  from  them,  it  is  evident  that  they  are  not 
speaking  of  real  Christians,  but  of  men  who  call  them- 
selves Christians.  A  Christian  cannot  be  anvthing  else 
but  free,  because  the  attainment  of  the  end  which  he  has 
set  before  himself  cannot  be  retarded  or  detained  by  any 
one  or  anything. 

A  man  need  but  understand  his  hfe  as  Christianity 
teaches  him  to  understand  it,  that  is,  understand  that  life 
does  not  belong  to  him,  his  personality,  or  the  family,  or 
the  state,  but  to  Hiu)  who  sent  him  into  this  life ;  that, 
therefore,  he  must  not  fulfil  the  law  of  his  personality,  liis 
family,  or  the  state,  but  the  unlimited  law  of  Him  from 
whom  he  has  come,  in  order  that  he  may  feel  himself 
quite  free  from  every  human  power  and  may  even  stop 
seeing  this  power  as  something  which  may  be  oppressive 
for  any  one. 

A  man  need  but  understand  that  the  aim  of  his  life  is 


218     THE    KINGDOM    OF    GOD    IS    WITHIN   YOU 

the  fulfilment  of  God's  law,  in  order  that  this  law,  taking 
for  him  the  place  of  all  other  laws  and  subjugating  him 
to  itself,  by  this  very  subjugation  may  deprive  all  the 
human  laws  in  his  eyes  of  all  their  obligatoriness  and 
oppression. 

A  Christian  is  freed  from  every  human  power  in  that 
he  considers  for  his  life  and  for  the  lives  of  others  the 
divine  law  of  love,  which  is  implanted  in  the  soul  of 
every  man  and  is  brought  into  consciousness  by  Christ, 
as  the  only  guide  of  his  life  and  of  that  of  other  men. 

A  Christian  may  submit  to  external  violence,  may  be 
deprived  of  his  bodily  freedom,  may  not  be  free  from  his 
passions  (he  who  commits  a  sin  is  a  slave  of  sin),  but  he 
cannot  help  but  be  free,  in  the  sense  of  not  being  com- 
pelled by  some  danger  or  external  threat  to  commit  an  act 
which  is  contrary  to  his  consciousness. 

He  cannot  be  compelled  to  do  this,  because  the  priva- 
tions and  sufferings  which  are  produced  by  violence,  and 
which  form  a  mighty  tool  against  the  men  of  the  social 
concept  of  hfe,  have  no  compulsory  force  with  him.  The 
privations  and  sufferings  which  take  from  the  men  of 
the  social  concept  of  life  the  good  for  which  they  live, 
cannot  impair  the  Christian's  good,  which  consists  in  the 
fulfilment  of  God's  will;  they  can  only  strengthen  him, 
when  they  assail  him  in  the  performance  of  this  will. 

And  so  a  Christian,  in  submitting  to  the  internal,  divine 
law,  cannot  only  not  perform  the  prescription  of  the  ex- 
ternal law,  when  it  is  not  in  accord  with  the  divine  law 
of  love  as  recognized  by  him,  as  is  the  case  in  the 
demands  set  forth  by  the  government,  but  cannot  even 
recognize  the  obligation  of  obeying  any  one  or  anything,  — 
he  cannot  recognize  what  is  called  the  subject's  allegiance. 
For  a  Christian  the  promise  of  allegiance  to  any  govern- 
iiient  —  that  very  act  which  is  regarded  as  the  foundation 
of  the  political  life  —  is  a  direct  renunciation  of  Chris- 
tianity, because  a  man  who  unconditionally  promises  in 


THE    KINGDOM    OF    GOD    IS    WITHIN    YOU     219 

advance  to  submit  to  laws  which  are  made  and  will  be 
made  by  men,  by  this  very  promise  in  a  very  definite 
manner  renounces  Christianity,  which  consists  in  this, 
that  in  all  problems  of  life  he  is  to  submit  only  to  the 
divine  law  of  love,  of  which  he  is  conscious  in  himself. 

It  was  possible  with  the  pagan  world-conception  to 
promise  to  do  the  will  of  the  civil  authorities,  without 
violating  the  will  of  God,  which  consisted  in  circumcision, 
the  Sabbath,  praying  at  set  times,  abstaining  from  a  certain 
kind  of  food,  and  so  forth.  One  did  not  contradict  the 
other.  But  the  Christian  profession  differs  in  this  very 
thing  from  the  pagan,  in  that  it  does  not  demand  of  a 
man  certain  external  negative  acts,  but  places  him  in  an- 
other relation  to  man  from  what  he  was  in  before,  a  rela- 
tion from  which  may  result  the  most  varied  acts,  which 
cannot  be  ascertained  in  advance,  and  so  a  Christian  cannot 
promise  to  do  another  person's  will,  without  knowing  in 
what  the  demands  of  this  will  may  consist,  and  cannot 
obey  the  variable  human  laws ;  he  cannot  even  promise 
to  do  anything  definite  at  a  certain  time  or  to  abstain 
from  anything  at  a  certain  time,  because  he  cannot  know 
what  at  any  time  that  Christian  law  of  love,  the  sulunis- 
sion  to  which  forms  the  meaning  of  his  life,  may  demand 
of  him.  In  promising  in  advance  unconditionally  to  fulfil 
the  laws  of  men,  a  Christian  would  by  this  very  promise 
indicate  that  the  inner  law  of  God  does  not  form  for  him 
the  only  law  of  his  life. 

For  a  Christian  to  promise  that  he  will  obey  men  or 
human  laws  is  the  same  as  for  a  labourer  who  has  hired 
out  to  a  master  to  promise  at  the  same  time  that  he  will 
do  everything  which  other  men  may  command  him  to  do. 
It  is  impossible  to  serve  two  masters. 

A  Christian  frees  himself  from  human  power  by  recog- 
nizing over  himself  nothing  but  God's  power,  the  law  of 
which,  revealed  to  him  by  Christ,  he  recognizes  in  himself, 
and  to  which  alone  he  submitS; 


220     THE    KINGDOM    OF    GOD    IS    WITHIN    YOU 

And  this  liberation  is  not  accomplished  by  means  of  a 
struggle,  not  by  the  destruction  of  existing  forms  of  life, 
but  only  by  means  of  the  changed  comprehension  of 
life.  The  liberation  takes  place  in  consequeoce  of  this,  in 
the  first  place,  that  a  Christian  recognizes  the  law  of  love, 
which  was  revealed  to  him  by  his  teacher,  as  quite  sufficient 
for  human  relations,  and  so  regards  all  violence  as  superflu- 
ous and  illegal,  and,  in  the  second  place,  that  those  priva- 
tions, sufl'erings,  threats  of  sufferings  and  privations,  with 
which  the  public  man  is  brought  to  the  necessity  of  obeying, 
present  themselves  to  a  Christian,  with  his  different  con- 
cept of  life,  only  as  inevitable  conditions  of  existence, 
which  he,  without  struggling  against  them  by  exercising 
violence,  bears  patiently,  like  diseases,  hunger,  and  all 
other  calamities,  but  which  by  no  means  can  serve  as  a 
guide  for  his  acts.  What  serves  as  a  guide  for  a  Chris- 
tian's acts  is  only  the  divine  principle  that  lives  within 
him  and  that  cannot  be  oppressed  or  directed  by  any- 
thing. 

A  Christian  acts  according  to  the  word  of  the  prophecy 
applied  to  his  teacher,  "  He  shall  not  strive,  nor  cry ; 
neither  shall  any  man  hear  His  voice  in  the  streets  ;  a 
bruised  reed  shall  He  not  break,  and  smoking  flax  shall  He 
not  quench,  till  He  send  forth  judgment  unto  victory " 
(Matt.  xii.  19-20). 

A  Christian  does  not  quarrel  with  any  one,  does  not 
attack  any  one,  nor  use  violence  against  one ;  on  the  con- 
trary, he  himself  without  murmuring  bears  violence ;  but 
by  this  very  relation  to  violence  he  not  only  frees  himself, 
but  also  the  world  from  external  power. 

"  And  ye  shall  know  the  truth,  and  the  truth  shall  make 
you  free  "  (John  viii.  32).  If  there  were  any  doubt  as  to 
Christianity  being  truth,  that  complete  freedom,  which 
cannot  be  oppressed  by  anything,  and  which  a  man  experi- 
ences the  moment  he  makes  the  Christian  life-conception 
his  own,  would  be  an  undoubted  proof  of  its  truth. 


THE    KINGDOM    OF    GOD    IS    WITHIN    YOU     221 

In  their  present  condition  men  are  like  bees  which  have 
just  swarmed  and  are  hanging  down  a  limb  in  a  cluster. 
The  position  of  the  bees  on  the  limb  is  temporary,  and 
must  inevitably  be  changed.  They  must  rise  and  find  a 
new  home  for  themselves.  Every  one  of  the  bees  knows 
that  and  wishes  to  change  its  position  and  that  of  the 
others,  but  not  one  is  able  to  do  so  before  the  others  are 
going  to  do  so.  They  cannot  rise  all  at  once,  because  one 
hangs  down  from  the  other,  keeping  it  from  separating 
itself  from  the  swarm,  and  so  all  continue  to  hang. 
It  would  seem  that  the  bees  could  not  get  out  of  this 
state,  just  as  it  seems  to  worldly  men  who  are  entang.^  -.d 
in  the  snare  of  the  social  world-conception.  But  tht  re 
would  be  no  way  out  for  the  bees,  if  each  of  the  bees 
were  not  separately  a  living  being,  endowed  with  wings. 
So  there  would  also  be  no  way  out  for  men,  if  each  of 
them  were  not  a  separate  living  being,  endowed  with  the 
ability  of  acquiring  the  Christian  concept  of  life. 

If  every  bee  which  can  fly  did  not  fly,  the  rest,  too, 
would  not  move,  and  the  swarm  would  never  change  its 
position.  And  as  one  bee  need  but  open  its  wings,  rise  up, 
and  fly  away,  and  after  it  a  second,  third,  tenth,  hundredth, 
in  order  that  the  immovable  cluster  may  become  a  freely 
flying  swarm  of  bees,  so  one  man  need  but  understand  life 
as  Christianity  teaches  him  to  understand  it,  and  begin  to 
live  accordingly,  and  a  second,  third,  liundrcdth,  to  do  so 
after  him,  in  order  that  the  magic  circle  of  the  social  Hfe, 
from  which  there  seemed  to  be  no  way  out,  be  destroyed. 

But  people  think  that  the  liberation  of  all  men  in  this 
manner  is  too  slow,  and  that  it  is  necessary  to  find  and 
use  another  such  a  means,  so  as  to  free  all  at  once ;  some- 
thing like  what  the  bees  would  do,  if,  wishing  to  rise  and 
fly  away,  they  should  find  that  it  was  too  long  for  them  to 
wait  for  the  whole  swarm  to  rise  one  after  another,  and 
should  try  to  find  a  way  where  every  individual  bee  would 
not  have  to  unfold  its  wings  and  fly  away,  but  the  whole 


^22      THE    KINGDOM    OF    GOD    IS    WITHIN    TOtT 

swarm  could  fly  at  once  wherever  it  wanted.  But  that  is 
impossible :  so  long  as  the  first,  second,  third,  hundredth 
bee  does  not  unfold  its  wings  and  fly,  the  swarm,  too,  will 
not  fly  away  or  find  the  new  life.  So  long  as  every  indi- 
vidual man  does  not  make  the  Christian  Efe-conception 
his  own,  and  does  not  live  in  accordance  with  it,  the  con- 
tradiction of  the  human  life  will  not  be  solved  and  the 
new  form  of  life  will  not  be  established. 

One  of  the  striking  phenomena  of  our  time  is  that 
preaching  of  slavery  which  is  disseminated  among  the 
masses,  not  only  by  the  governments,  which  need  it,  but 
also  by  those  men  who,  preaching  socialistic  theories, 
imagine  that  they  are  the  champions  of  liberty. 

These  people  preach  that  the  improvement  of  life,  the 
bringing  of  reality  in  agreement  with  consciousness,  will 
not  take  place  in  consequence  of  personal  efforts  of  sepa- 
rate men,  but  of  itself,  in  consequence  of  a  certain  violent 
transformation  of  society,  which  will  be  inaugurated  by 
somebody.  What  is  preached  is  that  men  do  not  have  to 
go  with  their  own  feet  whither  they  want  and  have  to  go, 
but  that  some  kind  of  a  floor  will  be  put  under  their  feet, 
so  that,  without  walking,  they  will  get  whither  they  have 
to  go.  And  so  all  their  efforts  must  not  be  directed 
toward  going  according  to  one's  strengtli  whither  one  has 
to  go,  but  toward  constructing  this  imaginary  floor  while 
standing  in  one  spot. 

In  the  economic  relation  they  preach  a  theory^  the 
essence  of  which  consists  in  this,  that  the  worse  it  is, 
the  better  it  is,  that  the  more  there  shall  be  an  accumula- 
tion of  capital,  and  so  an  oppression  of  the  labourer,  the 
nearer  will  the  liberation  be,  and  so  every  personal  effort 
of  a  man  to  free  himself  from  the  oppression  of  capital  is 
useless ;  in  the  relation  of  the  state,  they  preach  that  the 
greater  the  power  of  the  state,  which  according  to  this 
theory  has  to  take  in  the  still  unoccupied  field  of  the 
private  life,  the  better  it  will  be,  and  that,  therefore,  the 


THE   KINGDOM    OF   GOD   IS   WITHIN   TOU     223 

interference  of  the  governments  in  the  private  life  has  to 
be  invoked ;  in  the  political  and  international  relations 
they  preach  that  the  increase  of  the  means  of  destruction, 
the  increase  of  the  armies,  will  lead  to  the  necessity  of 
disarmament  by  means  of  congresses,  arbitrations,  and  so 
forth.  And,  strange  to  say,  the  obstinacy  of  men  is  so 
great  that  they  believe  in  these  theories,  although  the 
whole  course  of  life,  every  step  in  advance,  betrays  its 
incorrectness. 

Men  suffer  from  oppression,  and  to  save  themselves  from 
this  oppression,  they  are  advised  to  invent  common  means 
for  the  improvement  of  their  situation,  to  be  applied  by 
the  authorities,  while  they  themselves  continue  to  submit 
to  them.  Obviously,  nothing  results  from  it  but  a  strength- 
ening of  the  power,  and  consequently  the  intensification  of 
the  oppression. 

Not  one  of  the  errors  of  men  removes  them  so  much 
from  the  end  which  they  have  set  for  themselves  as  this 
one.  In  order  to  attain  the  end  which  they  have  set 
before  themselves,  men  do  all  khids  of  things,  only  not 
the  one,  simple  thing  which  all  have  to  do.  They  invent 
the  most  cunning  of  ways  for  changing  the  situation  which 
oppresses  them,  except  the  one,  simple  one  that  none  of 
them  should  do  that  which  produces  this  situation. 

I  was  told  of  an  incident  which  happened  with  a  brave 
rural  judge  who,  upon  arriving  at  a  village  where  the 
peasants  had  been  riotous  and  whither  the  army  had  been 
called  out,  undertook  to  settle  the  riot  in  the  spirit  of 
Nicholas  L,  all  by  himself,  through  his  personal  influence. 
He  sent  for  several  wagon-loads  of  switches,  and,  col- 
lecting all  the  peasants  in  the  corn-kiln,  locked  himself 
up  with  them,  and  so  intimidated  the  peasants  with  his 
shouts,  that  they,  obeying  him,  began  at  his  command  to 
flog  one  another.  They  continued  flogging  one  another 
until  there  was  found  a  little  fool  who  did  not  submit 
and  shouted  to  his  companions  to  stop  flogging  one  an- 


224     THE    KINGDOM    OF    GOD    IS    WITHIN    YOU 

other.  It  was  only  then  that  the  flogging  stopped,  and 
the  rural  judge  ran  away  from  the  kiln.  It  is  this  advice 
of  the  fool  that  the  men  of  the  social  order  do  not  know 
how  to  follow,  for  they  flog  one  another  without  cessation, 
and  men  teach  this  mutual  flogging  as  the  last  word  of 
human  wisdom. 

Indeed,  can  we  imagine  a  more  striking  example  of 
how  men  flog  themselves  than  the  humbleness  with 
which  the  men  of  our  time  carry  out  the  very  obligations 
which  are  imposed  upon  them  and  which  lead  them  into 
servitude,  especially  the  military  service  ?  Men  obviously 
enslave  themselves,  suff'er  from  this  slavery,  and  believe 
that  it  must  be  so,  that  it  is  all  right  and  does  not  inter- 
fere with  the  liberation  of  men,  which  is  being  prepared 
somewhere  and  somehow,  in  spite  of  the  ever  increasing 
and  increasing  slavery. 

Indeed,  let  us  take  a  man  of  our  time,  whoever  he  be 
(I  am  not  speaking  of  a  true  Christian,  but  of  a  man  of 
the  rank  and  file  of  our  time),  cultured  or  uncultured, 
a  believer  or  unbeliever,  rich  or  poor,  a  man  of  a  family 
or  a  single  man.  Such  a  man  of  our  time  lives,  doing  his 
work  or  enjoying  himself,  employing  the  fruits  of  his  own 
labour  or  those  of  others  for  his  own  sake  or  for  the  sake 
of  those  who  are  near  to  him,  hke  any  other  man,  despis- 
ing all  kinds  of  oppressions  and  privations,  hostility,  and 
sufferings.  The  man  lives  peacefully ;  suddenly  people 
come  to  him,  who  say :  "  In  the  first  place,  promise  and 
swear  to  us  that  you  will  slavishly  obey  us  in  everything 
which  we  shall  prescribe  to  you,  and  that  everything  we 
shall  invent,  determine,  and  call  a  law  you  will  consider 
an  indubitable  truth  and  will  submit  to  ;  in  the  second 
place,  give  part  of  your  earnings  into  our  keeping :  we  shall 
use  this  money  for  keeping  you  in  slavery  and  preventing 
you  from  forcibly  opposing  our  decrees  ;  in  the  third  place, 
choose  yourself  and  others  as  imaginary  participants  in 
the  government,  knowing  full  well  that  the  government 


I 


THE   KINGDOM    OF    GOD   IS    WITHIN   YOU     225 

will  take  place  entirely  independently  of  those  stupid 
speeches  which  you  will  utter  to  your  like,  and  that  it 
will  take  place  according  to  our  will,  in  whose  hands  is 
the  army ;  in  the  fourth  place,  appear  at  a  set  time  in 
court  and  take  part  in  all  those  senseless  cruelties  which 
we  commit  against  the  erring  men,  whom  we  ourselves 
have  corrupted,  in  the  shape  of  imprisonments,  exiles, 
solitary  confinements,  and  capital  punishments.  And 
finally,  in  the  fifth  place,  besides  all  this,  though  you  may 
be  in  the  most  friendly  relations  with  people  belonging  to 
other  nations,  be  prepared  at  once,  when  we  command 
you,  to  consider  such  of  these  men  as  we  shall  point  out 
to  you  your  enemies,  and  to  cooperate  personally  or  by 
hiring  others  in  the  ruin,  pillage,  and  murder  of  their 
men,  women,  children,  old  people,  and,  perhaps,  your  own 
countrymen,  even  your  parents,  if  we  want  it." 

What  could  any  man  of  our  time  who  is  not  stupefied 
answer  to  such  demands  ? 

"  Why  should  I  do  all  this  ? "  every  spiritually  healthy 
man,  we  should  think,  ought  to  say.  "  Why  should  I 
promise  to  do  all  tliat  which  I  am  commanded  to  do, 
to-day  by  Salisbury,  to-morrow  by  Gladstone,  to-day  by 
Boulanger,  to-morrow  by  a  Chamber  of  just  such  Boulan- 
gers,  to-day  by  Peter  III.,  to-morrow  by  Catherine,  day 
after  to-morrow  by  Pugachev,  to-day  by  the  crazy  King 
of  Bavaria,  to-morrow  by  William  ?  Why  should  I  promise 
to  obey  them,  since  I  know  them  to  be  bad  or  trifling 
men,  or  do  not  know  them  at  all  ?  Why  should  I  in  the 
shape  of  taxes  give  them  the  fruits  of  my  labours,  know- 
ing that  the  money  will  be  used  for  bril)iug  the  officials, 
for  prisons,  churches,  armies,  for  bad  tilings  and  my  own 
enslavement  ?  Why  should  I  flog  myself  ?  Why  should 
I  go,  losing  my  time  and  pulhng  the  wool  over  my  eyes, 
and  ascribing  to  the  violators  a  semblance  of  legality,  and 
take  part  in  the  government,  when  I  know  full  well  that 
the  government  of  the  state  is  in  the  hands  of  those  in 


226      THE    KINGDOM    OF    GOD    IS    WITHIN    YOU 

whose  hands  is  the  army  ?  Why  should  I  go  into  courts 
and  take  part  in  the  torture  and  punishments  of  men  for 
having  erred,  since  I  know,  if  I  am  a  Christian,  that  the 
law  of  revenge  has  given  way  to  the  law  of  love,  and,  if 
I  am  a  cultured  man,  that  punishments  do  not  make  men 
who  are  subjected  to  them  better,  but  worse  ?  And  why 
should  I,  above  all,  simply  because  the  keys  of  the  temple 
at  Jerusalem  will  be  in  the  hands  of  this  bishop  and  not 
of  that,  because  in  Bulgaria  this  and  not  that  German 
will  be  prince,  and  because  English  and  not  American 
merchants  will  catch  seals,  recognize  as  enemies  the  men 
of  a  neighbouring  nation,  with  whom  I  have  heretofore 
lived  at  peace  and  wish  to  live  in  love  and  concord,  and 
why  should  I  hire  soldiers  or  myself  go  and  kill  and 
destroy  them,  and  myself  be  subjected  to  their  attack  ? 
And  why,  above  all  else,  should  I  cooperate  personally  or 
by  the  hiring  of  a  military  force  in  the  enslavement  and 
murder  of  my  own  brothers  and  fathers  ?  Why  should 
I  flog  myself  ?  All  this  I  do  not  need,  and  all  this  is 
harmful  for  me,  and  all  this  on  all  sides  of  me  is  immoral, 
abominable.  So  why  should  I  do  it  all  ?  If  you  tell  me 
that  without  it  I  shall  fare  ill  at  somebody's  hands,  I,  in 
the  first  place,  do  not  foresee  anything  so  bad  as  that 
which  you  cause  me  if  I  listen  to  you ;  in  the  second 
place,  it  is  quite  clear  to  me  that,  if  you  do  not  flog  your- 
self, nobody  is  going  to  flog  us.  The  government  is  the 
kings,  the  ministers,  the  officials  with  their  pens,  who 
cannot  compel  me  to  do  anything  like  what  the  rural 
judge  compelled  the  peasants  to  do :  those  who  will  take 
me  forcibly  to  court,  to  prison,  to  the  execution  are  not 
the  kings  and  the  officials  with  their  pens,  but  those  very 
people  who  are  in  the  same  condition  in  which  I  am.  It 
is  just  as  useless  and  harmful  and  disagreeable  for  them 
to  be  flogged  as  it  is  for  me,  and  so  in  all  probability,  if 
I  open  their  eyes,  they  not  only  must  do  me  no  violence, 
but  must  even  do  as  I  do. 


THE   KINGDOM    OF    GOD   IS    WITHIN   YOU     227 

"  In  the  third  place,  even  if  it  should  happen  that  I 
must  suffer  for  it,  it  still  is  more  advantageous  for  me  to 
be  exiled  or  shut  up  in  a  prison,  while  defending  com- 
mon sense  and  the  good,  which  shall  triumph,  if  not 
to-day,  certainly  to-morrow,  or  in  a  very  short  time,  than 
to  suffer  for  a  foolish  thing  and  an  evil,  which  sooner  or 
later  must  come  to  an  end.  And  so  it  is  even  in  this 
case  more  advantageous  for  me  to  risk  being  deported, 
locked  up  in  a  prison,  or  even  executed,  than  through  my 
own  fault  to  pass  my  whole  life  as  a  slave  to  other  bad 
men,  than  to  be  ruined  by  an  enemy  making  an  incursion 
and  stupidly  to  be  maimed  or  killed  by  him,  while  defend- 
ing a  cannon,  or  a  useless  piece  of  land,  or  a  stupid  rag 
which  they  call  a  flag. 

"  I  do  not  want  to  flog  myself,  and  I  won't.  There  is 
no  reason  why  I  should.  Do  it  yourselves,  if  you  are  so 
minded,  but  I  won't." 

It  would  seem  that  not  only  the  religious  or  moral 
feeling,  but  the  simplest  reflection  and  calculation  would 
make  a  man  of  our  time  answer  and  act  in  this  manner. 
But  no  :  the  men  of  tlie  social  life-concej)tion  find  that  it 
is  not  right  to  act  in  this  manner,  and  that  it  is  even 
harmful  to  act  thus  if  we  wish  to  obtain  the  end  of  the 
liberation  of  men  from  slavery,  and  that  it  is  necessary 
for  us,  as  in  the  case  of  the  rural  judge  and  the  peasants, 
to  continue  to  flog  one  another,  consoling  ourselves  with 
the  thought  that  the  fact  that  we  prattle  in  Chambers  and 
assemblies,  form  labour-unions,  parade  the  streets  on  the 
first  of  May,  form  plots,  and  secretly  tease  the  govern- 
ment which  flogs  us,  —  that  all  this  will  liave  the  effect 
of  freeing  us  very  soon,  though  we  are  enslaving  ourselves 
more  and  more. 

Nothing  so  much  impedes  the  liberation  of  men  as 
this  remarkable  delusion.  Instead  of  directing  all  his 
forces  to  the  liberation  of  himself,  to  the  change  of 
his   world-conception,  every   man  seeks  for  an   external 


228      THE    KINGDOM    OF    GOD    IS    WITHIN    YOU 

aggregate  means  for  freeing  himself,  and  thus  fetters  him- 
self more  and  more. 

It  is  as  though  men  should  affirm  that,  in  order  to  fan 
a  fire,  it  is  not  necessary  to  make  every  coal  catch  fire, 
but  to  place  the  coals  in  a  certain  order. 

In  the  meantime  it  has  been  getting  more  and  more 
obvious  of  late  that  the  liberation  of  all  men  will  take 
place  only  through  the  liberation  of  the  individual  men. 
The  liberation  of  individual  persons  in  the  name  of  the 
Christian  life-conception  from  the  enslavement  of  the 
state,  which  used  to  be  an  exclusive  and  imperceptible 
phenomenon,  has  of  late  received  a  significance  which  is 
menacing  to  the  power  of  state. 

If  formerly,  in  the  days  of  Eome,  in  the  Middle  Ages, 
it  happened  that  a  Christian,  professing  his  teaching,  re- 
fused to  take  part  in  sacrifices,  to  worship  the  emperors 
and  gods,  or  in  the  Middle  Ages  refused  to  worship  the 
images,  to  recognize  the  papal  power,  these  refusals  were, 
in  the  first  place,  accidental ;  a  man  might  have  been  put 
to  the  necessity  of  professing  his  faith,  and  he  might  have 
lived  a  life  without  being  placed  in  this  necessity.  But 
now  all  men  without  exception  are  subject  to  these  trials. 
Every  man  of  our  time  is  put  to  the  necessity  of  recog- 
nizing his  participation  in  the  cruelties  of  the  pagan  life, 
or  rejecting  it.  And,  in  the  second  place,  in  those  days 
the  refusals  to  worship  the  gods,  the  images,  the  Pope.,  did 
not  present  any  essential  phenomena  for  the  state :  no 
matter  how  many  men  worshipped  the  gods,  the  images, 
or  the  Pope,  the  state  remained  as  strong  as  ever.  But 
now  the  refusal  to  comply  with  the  non-Christian  de- 
mands of  governments  undermines  the  power  of  state  to 
the  root,  because  all  the  power  of  the  state  is  based  on 
these  non-Christian  demands. 

The  worldly  powers  were  led  by  the  course  of  life 
to  the  proposition  that  for  their  own  preservation 
they  had  to  demand  from  all  men  such  acts  as  could 


THE   KINGDOxM    OF   GOD   IS   WITHIN   YOU     229 

not  be  performed  by  those  who  professed  true  Chris- 
tianity. 

And  so  in  our  time  every  profession  of  true  Chris- 
tianity by  a  separate  individual  most  materially  under- 
mines the  power  of  the  government  and  inevitably  leads 
to  the  emancipation  of  all  men. 

What  importance  can  there  be  in  such  phenomena  as 
the  refusals  of  a  few  dozens  of  madmen,  as  they  are  called, 
who  do  not  wish  to  swear  to  the  government,  or  pay 
taxes,  or  take  part  in  courts  and  military  service  ?  These 
men  are  punished  and  removed,  and  life  continues  as  of 
old.  It  would  seem  that  there  is  nothing  important  in 
these  phenomena,  and  yet  it  is  these  very  phenomena  that 
more  than  anything  else  undermine  the  power  of  the 
state  and  prepare  the  emancipation  of  men.  They  are 
those  individual  bees  which  begin  to  separate  from  the 
swarm  and  fly  about,  awaiting  what  cannot  be  delayed, — 
the  rising  of  the  whole  swarm  after  them.  The  govern- 
ments know  this,  and  are  afraid  of  these  phenomena  more 
than  of  all  socialists,  communists,  anarchists,  and  their 
plots  with  their  dynamite  bombs. 

A  new  reign  begins :  according  to  the  general  rule  and 
customary  order  all  the  subjects  are  ordered  to  swear  alle- 
giance to  the  new  government.  A  general  order  is  sent 
out,  and  everybody  is  called  to  the  cathedral  to  swear. 
Suddenly  one  man  in  Perm,  another  in  Tula,  a  third  in 
Moscow,  a  fourth  in  Kaluga  declare  that  they  will  not 
swear,  and  they  base  their  refusal,  every  one  of  them, 
without  having  plotted  togctlicr,  on  one  and  the  same 
reason,  which  is,  that  the  oath  is  proliibited  by  the  Chris- 
tian law,  and  that,  even  if  it  were  .not  proliibited,  they 
could  not,  according  to  the  spirit  of  the  Christian  law, 
promise  to  commit  the  evil  acts  which  are  demanded  of 
them  in  the  oath,  such  as  denouncing  all  those  who  will 
violate  tlie  interests  of  the  government,  defending  their 
government  with  weapons  in  their  hands,  or  attacking  its 


230     THE   KINGDOM    OF   GOD   IS   WITHIN   YOU 

enemies.  They  are  summoned  before  the  rural  judges  or 
chiefs,  priests,  or  governors,  are  admonished,  implored, 
threatened,  and  punished,  but  they  stick  to  their  determi- 
nation and  do  not  swear.  Among  millions  of  those  who 
swear,  there  are  a  few  dozens  who  do  not.  And  they  are 
asked : 

"  So  you  have  not  sworn  ? " 

"  We  have  not." 

"  Well,  nothing  happened  ? " 

"  Nothing." 

All  the  subjects  of  a  state  are  obliged  to  pay  taxes. 
And  all  pay ;  but  one  man  in  Kharkov,  another  in  Tver, 
a  third  in  Samara,  refuse  to  pay  their  taxes,  all  of  them 
repeating,  as  though  by  agreement,  one  and  the  same 
thing.  One  says  that  he  will  pay  only  when  he  is  told 
what  the  money  taken  from  him  will  be  used  for :  if  for 
good  things,  he  says,  he  will  himself  give  more  than  is 
asked  of  him  ;  but  if  for  bad  things,  he  will  not  give  any- 
thing voluntarily,  because,  according  to  Christ's  teaching, 
which  he  follows,  he  cannot  contribute  to  evil  deeds.  The 
same,  though  with  different  words,  is  said  by  the  others, 
who  do  not  voluntarily  pay  their  taxes.  From  those  who 
possess  anything,  the  property  is  taken  by  force,  but 
those  who  have  nothing  to  give  are  left  alone. 

"  Well,  you  did  not  pay  the  taxes  ? " 

« I  did  not." 

"  Well,  and  nothing  happened  to  you  ? " 

"  Nothing." 

Passports  are  established.  All  who  remove  themselves 
from  their  place  of  abode  are  obliged  to  take  them  and 
pay  a  revenue  for  them.  Suddenly  on  all  sides  appear 
men  who  say  that  it  is  not  necessary  to  take  passports 
and  that  it  is  not  right  to  recognize  one's  dependence  on  a 
government  which  lives  by  violence,  and  they  take  no 
passports  and  pay  no  revenue.  Again  it  is  impossible  to 
make  these  people  carry  out  what  is  demanded  of  them. 


THE    KINGDOM    OF    GOD    IS    WITHIN    YOU      231 

They  are  locked  up  in  prisons  and  let  out  again,  and  they 
continue  to  live  without  passports. 

All  the  peasants  are  obliged  to  serve  as  hundred-men, 
ten-men,  and  so  forth.  Suddenly  a  peasant  refuses  in 
Kharkov  to  perform  this  office,  explaining  his  refusal  by 
this,  that,  according  to  the  Christian  law  which  he  pro- 
fesses, he  cannot  bind,  lock  up,  and  lead  a  man  from  one 
place  to  another.  The  same  is  asserted  by  a  peasant  in 
Tver,  in  Tambov.  The  peasants  are  cursed,  beaten,  locked 
up,  but  they  stick  to  their  determination  and  do  not  do 
what  is  contrary  to  their  faith.  And  they  are  no  longer 
chosen  as  hundred-men,  and  that  is  the  end  of  it. 

All  the  citizens  must  take  part  in  court  proceedings  in 
the  capacity  of  jurymen.  Suddenly  the  greatest  variety 
of  men,  wheelwrights,  professors,  merchants,  peasants, 
gentlemen,  as  though  by  agreement,  all  refuse  to  serve, 
not  for  causes  which  are  recognized  by  the  law,  but 
because  the  court  itself,  according  to  their  conviction,  is 
an  illegal,  non-Christian  thing,  wliich  ought  not  to  exist. 
These  men  are  fined,  \vithout  being  allowed  publicly  to 
express  the  motives  of  their  refusal,  and  others  are  put 
in  their  places.  The  same  is  done  to  those  who  on  the 
same  grounds  refuse  to  be  witnesses  at  court.  And  noth- 
ing more  happens. 

All  men  of  twenty-one  years  of  age  are  obliged  to  draw 
lots.  Suddenly  one  young  man  in  Moscow,  another  in 
Tver,  a  third  in  Kharkov,  a  fourth  in  Kiev,  appear,  as 
though  by  previous  agreement,  in  court,  and  declare  that 
they  will  neither  swear  nor  serve,  because  they  are  Chris- 
tians. Here  are  the  details  of  one  of  the  first  cases  (since 
then  these  refusals  have  become  more  and  more  frequent), 
with  which  I  am  acquainted.^  In  all  the  other  cases 
approximately   the  same  was   done.     A  young   man   of 

1  All  the  details  of  this  and  the  preceding  cases  are  authentic.  — 
Author's  Note. 


232      THE    KINGDOM    OF    GOD    IS    WITHIN   YOU 

medium  culture  refuses  in  the  Moscow  Council  to  serve. 
No  attention  is  paid  to  his  words,  and  he  is  ordered  to 
pronounce  the  words  of  the  oath,  just  like  the  rest.  He 
refuses,  pointing  out  the  definite  place  in  the  Gospel 
where  taking  an  oath  is  prohibited.  No  attention  is  paid 
to  his  arguments,  and  they  demand  that  he  fulfil  their 
command,  but  he  does  not  do  so.  Then  it  is  assumed 
that  he  is  a  sectarian  and  so  understands  Christianity  in- 
correctly, that  is,  not  in  the  way  the  clergy  in  the  govern- 
ment pay  understand  it,  and  so  the  young  man  is  sent 
under  convoy  to  the  priests,  to  be  admonished.  The 
priests  begin  to  admonish  the  young  man,  but  their  ad- 
monitions in  the  name  of  Christ  to  renounce  Christ  have 
apparently  no  effect  upon  the  young  man,  and  he  is  sent 
back  to  the  army,  having  been  declared  incorrigible.  The 
young  man  still  refuses  to  take  the  oath  and  openly  de- 
clines to  fulfil  his  military  duties.  This  case  is  not  pro- 
vided for  in  the  laws.  It  is  impossible  to  admit  a  refusal 
to  do  the  wiU  of  the  authorities,  and  it  is  equally  impos- 
sible to  rate  this  as  a  case  of  simple  disobedience.  In  a 
consultation  the  military  authorities  determine  to  get  rid 
of  the  troublesome  young  man  by  declaring  him  to  be  a 
revolutionist,  and  send  him  under  guard  into  the  office  of 
the  secret  police.  The  police  and  the  gendarmes  examine 
the  young  man,  but  nothing  of  what  he  says  fits  in 
with  the  crimes  dealt  with  in  their  departments,  and 
there  is  absolutely  no  way  of  accusing  him  of  revolution- 
ary acts,  or  of  plotting,  since  he  declares  that  he  does  not 
wish  to  destroy  anything,  but,  on  the  contrary,  rejects  all 
violence,  and  conceals  nothing,  but  seeks  an  opportunity 
for  saying  and  doing  in  a  most  open  manner  what  he  says 
and  does.  And  the  gendarmes,  though  no  laws  are  bind- 
ing on  them,  hke  the  clergy,  find  no  cause  for  an  accusa- 
tion and  return  the  young  man  to  the  army.  Again  the 
chiefs  confer  and  decide  to  enlist  the  young  man  in 
the    army,  though  he  refuses  to  take  the  oath.     He  is 


THE   KINGDOM    OF   GOD   IS   WITHIN   YOU     233 

dressed  up,  entered  on  the  lists,  and  sent  under  guard 
to  the  place  where  the  troops  are  distributed.  Here 
the  chief  of  the  section  into  which  he  enters  again  de- 
mands of  the  young  man  the  fulfilment  of  military  duties, 
and  he  again  refuses  to  obey,  and  in  the  presence  of  other 
soldiers  gives  the  cause  for  his  refusal,  saying  that,  as  a 
Christian,  he  cannot  voluntarily  prepare  himself  to  commit 
murder,  which  was  prohibited  even  by  the  laws  of  Moses. 
The  case  takes  place  in  a  provincial  city.  It  evokes 
interest  and  even  sympathy,  not  only  among  outsiders, 
but  also  among  officers,  and  so  the  superiors  do  not  dare 
to  apply  the  usual  disciplinary  measures  for  a  refusal  to 
serve.  However,  for  decency's  sake  the  young  man  is 
locked  up  in  prison,  and  an  inquiry  is  sent  to  the  higher 
military  authority,  requesting  it  to  say  what  is  to  be 
done.  From  the  official  point  of  view  a  refusal  to  take 
part  in  military  service,  in  which  the  Tsar  himself  serves 
and  which  is  blessed  by  the  church,  presents  itself  as 
madness,  and  so  they  write  from  St.  Petersburg  that, 
since  the  young  man  is,  no  doubt,  out  of  his  mind,  no 
severe  measures  are  to  be  used  against  him,  but  he  is  to 
be  sent  to  an  insane  asylum,  where  his  mental  health  is 
to  be  investigated  and  he  is  to  be  cured.  He  is  sent 
there  in  the  hope  that  he  will  stay  there,  just  as  happened 
ten  years  before  with  another  young  man,  who  in  Tver 
refused  to  do  military  service  and  who  was  tortured  in 
an  insane  asylum  until  he  gave  in.  But  even  this  meas- 
ure does  not  save  the  military  authorities  from  the  incon- 
venient young  man.  The  doctors  examine  him,  are  very 
much  interested  in  him,  and,  finding  in  him  no  symptoms 
whatever  of  any  mental  trouble,  naturally  return  him  to 
the  army.  He  is  received,  and,  pretending  that  his  refusal 
and  motives  are  forgotten,  they  again  propose  to  him  that 
he  go  to  the  exercises ;  but  he  again,  in  the  presence  of 
other  soldiers,  refuses,  and  gives  the  cause  for  his  refusal. 
This  case  more  and   more   attracts  the  attention  of  the 


234     THE    KINGDOM    OF    GOD    IS    WITHIN   YOU 

soldiers  and  the  inhabitants  of  the  town.  Again  they 
write  to  St.  Petersburg,  and  from  there  comes  the  decision 
that  the  young  man  be  transferred  to  the  army  at  the 
frontier,  where  it  is  in  a  state  of  siege,  and  where  he  may 
be  shot  for  refusing  to  serve,  and  where  the  matter  may 
pass  unnoticed,  since  in  that  distant  country  there  are  few 
Russians  and  Christians,  and  mostly  natives  and  Moham- 
medans. And  so  they  do.  The  young  man  is  attached 
to  the  troops  located  in  the  Transcaspian  Territory,  and 
with  criminals  he  is  despatched  to  a  chief  who  is  knowQ 
for  his  determination  and  severity. 

During  aU  this  time,  with  all  these  transportations 
from  one  place  to  another,  the  young  man  is  treated 
rudely :  he  is  kept  cold,  hungi-y,  and  dirty,  and  his  life  in 
general  is  made  a  burden  for  him.  But  all  these  tortures 
do  not  make  him  change  his  determination.  In  the 
Transcaspian  Territory,  when  told  to  stand  sentry  with 
his  gun,  he  again  refuses  to  obey.  He  does  not  refuse  to 
go  and  stand  near  some  haystacks,  whither  he  is  sent,  but 
he  refuses  to  take  his  gun,  declaring  that  under  no  con- 
dition would  he  use  violence  against  any  one.  All  this 
takes  place  in  the  presence  of  other  soldiers.  It  is  impos- 
sible to  let  such  a  case  go  unpunished,  and  the  young 
man  is  tried  for  violation  of  discipline.  The  trial  takes 
place,  and  the  young  man  is  sentenced  to  incarceration  in 
a  military  prison  for  two  years.  He  is  again  sent  by 
Stapes  with  other  criminals  to  the  Caucasus  and  is  shut 
up  in  a  prison,  where  he  falls  a  prey  to  the  uncontrolled 
power  of  the  jailer.  There  he  is  tormented  for  one  year 
and  six  months,  but  he  still  refuses  to  change  his  decision 
about  taking  up  arms,  and  he  explains  to  all  those  with 
whom  he  comes  in  contact  why  he  does  not  do  so,  and  at 
the  end  of  his  second  year  he  is  discharged  before  the 
expiration  of  his  term,  by  counting,  contrary  to  the  law, 
his  time  in  prison  as  part  of  his  service,  only  to  get  rid  of 
him  as  nuicklj  as  possible. 


THE   KINGDOM    OF    GOD   IS   WITHIN   YOU     235 

Just  like  this  man,  as  though  having  plotted  together, 
act  other  men  in  various  parts  of  IJussia,  and  in  all  those 
cases  the  mode  of  the  government's  action  is  as  timid, 
indefinite,  and  secretive.  Some  of  these  men  are  sent  to 
insane  asylums,  others  are  enlisted  as  scribes  and  are 
transferred  to  service  in  Siberia,  others  are  made  to  serve 
in  the  forestry  department,  others  are  locked  up  in  prisons, 
and  others  are  fined.  Even  now  a  few  such  men  who 
have  refused  are  sitting  in  prisons,  not  for  the  essential 
point  in  the  case,  the  rejection  of  the  legality  of  the  gov- 
ernment's action,  but  for  the  non-fulfilment  of  the  private 
demands  of  the  government.  Thus  an  officer  of  the 
reserve,  who  did  not  keep  the  authorities  informed  of  his 
residence  and  w^ho  declared  that  he  would  not  again  serve 
as  a  miUtary  man,  was  lately,  for  not  fulfilhng  the  com- 
mands of  the  authorities,  fined  thirty  roubles,  which,  too, 
he  refused  to  pay  voluntarily.  Thus  several  peasants  and 
soldiers,  who  lately  refused  to  take  part  in  military  exer- 
cises and  take  up  arms,  were  locked  up  for  disobedience 
and  contempt. 

And  such  cases  of  refusing  to  comply  with  the  govern- 
ment demands  which  are  contrary  to  Christianity,  espe- 
cially refusals  to  do  military  service,  have  of  late  occurred 
not  in  Russia  alone,  but  even  elsewhere.  Thus,  I  know 
that  in  Scrvia  men  of  the  so-called  sect  of  Nazarenes  con- 
stantly refuse  to  do  military  service,  and  the  Austrian 
government  has  for  several  years  been  vainly  struggling 
with  them,  subjecting  them  to  imprisonment.  In  the 
year  1885  there  were  130  such  refusals.  In  Switzerland, 
I  know  men  were  incarcerated  in  the  Chillou  Fortress  in 
the  year  1890  for  refusing  to  do  military  service,  and 
they  did  not  change  their  determination  in  consequence 
of  their  imprisonment.  Such  refusals  have  also  happened 
in  Prussia.  I  know  of  an  under-oflicer  of  the  Guard,  who 
in  1891  declared  to  the  authorities  in  BerUn  that  as  a 
Christian  he  would  not  continue  to  serve,  and,  in  spite  of 


236      THE    KINGDOM    OF    GOD    IS    WITHIN    YOU 

all  admonitions,  threats,  and  punishments,  he  stuck  to  his 
decision.  In  France  there  has  of  late  arisen  in  the  south 
a  community  of  men,  who  bear  the  name  of  Hinschists 
(this  information  is  received  from  the  Peace  Herald,  July, 
1891),  the  members  of  which  on  the  basis  of  the  Christian 
profession  refuse  to  do  military  service,  and  at  first  were 
inscribed  in  hospitals,  but  now,  having  increased  in 
numbers,  are  subjected  to  punishments  for  disobedience, 
but  still  refuse  to  take  up  arms. 

The  socialists,  communists,  anarchists,  with  their  bombs, 
riots,  and  revolutions,  are  by  no  means  so  terrible  to  the 
governments  as  these  scattered  people,  who  from  various 
sides  refuse  to  do  military  service,  —  all  of  them  on  the 
basis  of  the  same  well-known  teaching.  Every  govern- 
ment knows  how  and  why  to  defend  itself  against  revolu- 
tionists, and  they  have  means  for  it,  and  so  are  not  afraid 
of  these  external  enemies.  But  what  are  the  governments 
to  do  against  those  men  who  point  out  the  uselessness, 
superfluity,  and  harmfulness  of  all  governments,  and  do 
not  struggle  with  them,  but  only  have  no  use  for  them, 
get  along  without  them,  and  do  not  wish  to  take  part  in 
them  ? 

The  revolutionists  say,  "  The  governmental  structure  is 
bad  for  this  and  that  reason,  —  it  is  necessary  to  put  this 
or  that  in  its  place."  But  a  Christian  says,  "  I  know 
nothing  of  the  governmental  structure,  about  its  being 
good  or  bad,  and  do  not  wish  to  destroy  it  for  the  very 
reason  that  I  do  not  know  whether  it  is  good  or  bad,  but 
for  the  same  reason  I  do  not  wish  to  sustain  it.  I  not 
only  do  not  wish  to,  but  even  cannot  do  so,  because  what 
is  demanded  of  me  is  contrary  to  my  conscience." 

What  is  contrary  to  a  Christian's  conscience  is  all 
obligations  of  state,  —  the  oath,  the  taxes,  the  courts, 
the  army.  But  on  all  these  obligations  the  state  is 
founded. 

The  revolutionary  enemies  struggle  with  the  state  from 


THE    KINGDOM    OF    GOD    IS    WITHIN    YOU     237 

without ;  but  Christianity  does  not  struggle  at  all,  —  it 
inwardly  destroys  all  the  foundations  of  government. 

Among  the  Kussiau  people,  where,  especially  since  the 
time  of  Peter  I.,  the  protest  of  Christianity  against  the 
government  has  never  ceased,  where  the  structure  of  life 
is  such  that  men  have  gone  away  by  whole  communities 
to  Turkey,  to  China,  to  uninhabitable  lands,  and  not  only 
are  in  no  need  of  the  government,  but  always  look  upon 
it  as  an  unnecessary  burden,  and  only  bear  it  as  a  calam- 
ity, be  it  Turkish,  Russian,  or  Chinese,  —  among  the  Eus- 
sian  people  there  have  of  late  been  occurring  more  and 
more  frequently  cases  of  the  Christian  conscious  emanci- 
pation of  separate  individuals  from  submission  to  the  gov- 
ernment. And  now  especially  these  manifestations  are 
very  terrible  to  the  government,  because  those  who  refuse 
frequently  do  not  belong  to  the  so-called  lower  uncultured 
classes,  but  to  the  people  with  a  medium  or  higher  educa- 
tion, and  because  these  men  no  longer  base  their  refusals 
on  some  mystical  exclusive  beliefs,  as  was  the  case  for- 
merly, nor  connect  them  with  some  superstition  or  savage 
practices,  as  is  the  case  with  the  Self-Consumers  and 
Runners,  but  put  forth  the  simplest  and  clearest  truths, 
which  are  accessible  to  all  men  and  recognized  by 
them  all. 

Thus  they  refuse  to  pay  their  taxes  voluntarily,  be- 
cause the  taxes  are  used  for  acts  of  violence,  for  sal- 
aries to  violators  and  military  men,  for  the  construction 
of  prisons,  fortresses,  cannon,  while  they,  as  Christians, 
consider  it  sinful  and  immoral  to  take  part  in  these 
things.  Those  who  refuse  to  take  the  common  oath  do 
so  because  to  promise  to  obey  the  authorities,  that  is, 
men  who  are  given  to  acts  of  violence,  is  contrary  to  the 
Christian  teaching ;  they  refuse  to  take  their  oath  in 
courts,  because  the  oath  is  directly  forbidden  in  the  Gos- 
pel. They  decline  to  serve  in  the  police,  because  in  con- 
nection with  these  duties  they  have  to  use  force  against 


238      THE    KINGDOM    OF    GOD    IS    WITHIN   YOU 

their  own  brothers  and  torment  them,  whereas  a  Christian 
may  not  do  so.  They  decline  to  take  part  in  court  pro- 
ceedings, because  they  consider  every  court  proceeding  a 
fulfilment  of  the  law  of  revenge,  which  is  incompatible 
with  the  Christian  law  of  forgiveness  and  love.  They 
decline  to  take  part  in  all  military  preparations  and  in 
the  army,  because  they  do  not  wish  to  be  and  cannot  be 
executioners,  and  do  not  want  to  prepare  themselves  for 
the  office  of  executioner. 

All  the  motives  of  these  refusals  are  such  that,  no 
matter  how  despotic  a  government  may  be,  it  cannot 
punish  them  openly.  To  punish  them  for  such  refusals, 
a  government  must  itself  irretrievably  renounce  reason 
and  the  good ;  whereas  it  assures  men  that  it  serves  only 
in  the  name  of  reason  and  of  the  good. 

What  are  the  governments  to  do  against  these  men  ? 

Indeed,  the  governments  can  kill  off,  for  ever  shut  up 
in  prisons  and  at  hard  labour  their  enemies,  who  wish  by 
the  exercise  of  violence  to  overthrow  them ;  they  can 
bury  in  gold  half  of  the  men,  such  as  they  may  need,  and 
bribe  them ;  they  can  subject  to  themselves  millions  of 
armed  men,  who  will  be  ready  to  destroy  all  the  enemies 
of  the  governments.  But  what  can  they  do  with  men 
who,  not  wishing  to  destroy  anything,  nor  to  establish 
anything,  wish  only  for  their  own  sakes,  for  the  sake  of 
their  lives,  to  do  nothing  which  is  contrary  to  the  Chris- 
tian law,  and  so  refuse  to  fulfil  the  most  common  obliga- 
tions, which  are  most  indispensable  to  the  governments  ? 

If  they  were  revolutionists,  who  preach  violence  and 
murder,  and  who  practise  all  these  things,  it  would  be 
easy  to  oppose  them :  part  of  them  would  be  bribed,  part 
deceived,  part  frightened  into  subjection ;  and  those  who 
could  not  be  bribed,  or  deceived,  or  frightened,  would  be 
declared  malefactors  and  enemies  of  society,  would  be  exe- 
cuted or  locked  up,  and  the  crowd  would  applaud  the 
action  of  the  government.     If  they  were  some  horrible 


THE    KINGDOM    OF    GOD   IS   WITHIN   YOU     239 

sectarians  who  preached  a  peculiar  faith,  it  would  be  pos- 
sible, thanks  to  those  superstitions  of  falsehood,  which  by 
them  are  mixed  in  with  their  doctrine,  to  overthrow  what- 
ever truth  there  is  in  their  faith.  But  what  is  to  be  done 
with  men  who  preach  neither  revolution,  nor  any  special 
religious  dogmas,  but  only,  because  they  do  not  wish  to 
harm  any  one,  refuse  to  take  the  oath  of  allegiance,  to  pay 
taxes,  to  take  part  in  court  proceedings,  in  military  serv- 
ice, and  in  duties  on  which  the  whole  structure  of  the 
government  is  based  ?  What  is  to  be  done  with  such 
men  ?  It  is  impossible  to  bribe  them :  the  very  risk 
which  they  take  shows  their  unselfishness.  Nor  can  they 
be  deceived  by  claiming  that  God  wants  it  so,  because 
their  refusal  is  based  on  the  explicit,  undoubted  law  of 
God,  which  is  professed  by  the  very  men  who  wish  to 
make  them  act  contrary  to  it.  Still  less  is  it  possible 
to  intimidate  them  with  threats,  because  the  privations 
and  sufferings  to  which  they  are  subjected  for  their  faith 
only  strengthen  their  desire,  and  because  it  says  distinctly 
in  their  law  that  God  must  be  obeyed  more  than  men, 
and  that  they  should  not  fear  those  who  may  ruin  their 
bodies,  but  that  which  may  ruin  both  their  bodies  and 
their  souls.  Nor  can  they  be  executed  or  locked  up  for 
ever.  These  men  have  a  past,  and  friends,  and  their 
manner  of  thinking  and  acting  is  known;  all  know  them 
as  meek,  good,  peaceful  men,  and  it  is  impossible  to 
declare  them  to  be  malefactors  who  ought  to  be  removed 
for  the  safety  of  society.  The  execution  of  men  who  by 
all  men  are  recognized  to  be  good  will  only  call  forth 
defenders  of  the  refusal  and  commentators  on  it ;  and  the 
causes  of  the  refusal  need  but  be  made  clear,  in  order  that 
it  may  become  clear  to  all  men  that  the  causes  which 
make  these  Christians  refuse  to  comply  with  the  demands 
of  the  state  are  the  same  for  all  other  men,  and  that  all 
men  ought  to  have  done  so  long  ago. 

In  the  presence  of  the  refusals  of  the  Chiistians  the 


I 


240     THE    KINGDOM    OF    GOD    IS    WITHIN    YOU 

governments  are  in  a  desperate  plight.  They  see  thai 
the  prophecy  of  Christianity  is  being  fulfilled,  —  it  tears 
asunder  the  fetters  of  the  fettered  and  sets  free  the  men 
who  lived  in  slavery,  and  they  see  that  this  liberation 
will  inevitably  destroy  those  who  keep  others  in  slavery. 
The  governments  see  this ;  they  know  that  their  hours  are 
numbered,  and  are  unable  to  do  anything.  All  they  can 
do  for  their  salvation  is  to  defer  the  hour  of  their  ruin. 
This  they  do,  but  their  situation  is  none  the  less  desperate. 

The  situation  of  the  governments  is  like  the  situation 
of  a  conqueror  who  wants  to  save  the  city  that  is  fired  by 
its  own  inhabitants.  He  no  sooner  puts  out  the  fire  in 
one  place  than  it  begins  to  burn  in  two  other  places ;  he 
no  sooner  gives  way  to  the  fire  and  breaks  off  what  is 
burning  in  a  large  building,  than  even  this  building 
begins  to  burn  from  two  sides.  These  individual  fires  are 
still  rare,  but  having  started  with  a  spark,  they  will  not 
stop  until  everything  is  consumed. 

And  just  as  the  governments  find  themselves  in  such 
unprotected  straits  in  the  presence  of  men  who  profess 
Christianity,  and  when  but  very  little  is  wanting  for  this 
force,  which  seems  so  powerful  and  which  was  reared 
through  so  many  centuries,  to  fall  to  pieces,  the  public 
leaders  preach  that  it  is  not  only  unnecessary,  but  even 
harmful  and  immoral,  for  every  individual  to  try  and  free 
himself  from  slavery.  It  is  as  though  some  people,  to 
free  a  dammed  up  river,  should  have  all  but  cut  through 
a  ditch,  when  nothing  but  an  opening  is  necessary  for  the 
water  to  flow  into  this  ditch  and  do  the  rest,  and  there 
should  appear  some  people  who  would  persuade  them  that, 
rather  than  let  off  the  water,  they  should  construct  above 
the  river  a  machine  with  buckets,  which,  drawing  the 
water  up  on  one  side,  would  drop  it  into  the  same  river 
from  the  other  side. 

But  the  matter  has  gone  too  far :  the  governments  feel 
their  indefensibleness  and  weakness,  and  the  men  of  the 


THE    KINGDOM    OF    GOD    IS    WITHIN    YOU     241 

Christian  consciousness  are  awakening  from  their  lethargy 
and  are  beginning  to  feel  their  strength. 

"  I  brought  the  fire  upon  earth,"  said  Christ,  "  and  how 
I  long  for  it  to  burn  up ! " 

And  this  fire  is  beginning  to  burn  up. 


X. 

Christianity  in  its  true  meaning  destroys  the  state. 
Thus  it  was  understood  from  the  very  beginning,  and 
Christ  was  crucified  for  this  very  reason,  and  thus  it  has 
always  been  understood  by  men  who  are  not  fettered  by 
the  necessity  of  proving  the  justification  of  the  Christian 
state.  Only  when  the  heads  of  the  states  accepted  the 
external  nominal  Christianity  did  they  begin  to  invent  all 
those  impossible  finely  spun  theories,  according  to  which 
Christianity  was  compatible  with  the  state.  But  for  every 
sincere  and  serious  man  of  our  time  it  is  quite  obvious  that 
true  Christianity  —  the  teaching  of  humility,  of  forgive- 
ness of  offences,  of  love  —  is  incompatible  with  the  state, 
with  its  magnificence,  its  violence,  its  executions,  and  its 
wars.  The  profession  of  true  Christianity  not  only  ex- 
cludes the  possibility  of  recognizing  the  state,  but  even 
destroys  its  very  foundations. 

But  if  this  is  so,  and  it  is  true  that  Christianity  is 
incompatible  with  the  state,  there  naturally  arises  the 
question :  "  What  is  more  necessary  for  the  good  of  hu- 
manity, what  more  permanently  secures  the  good  of  men, 
the  political  form  of  life,  or  its  destruction  and  the  sub- 
stitution of  Christianity  in  its  place  ? " 

Some  men  say  that  the  state  is  most  necessary  for 
humanity,  that  the  destruction  of  the  political  form 
would  lead  to  the  destruction  of  everything  worked  out 
by  humanity,  that  the  state  has  been  and  continues  to  be 
the  only  form  of  the  development  of  humanity,  and  that 

all  that  evil  which  we  see  among  the  nations  who  live  in 

242 


THE    KINGDOM    OF    GOD   IS    WITHIN   YOU 


243 


the  political  form  is  not  due  to  this  form,  but  to  the 
abuses,  which  can  be  mended  without  destruction,  and 
that  humanity,  without  impairing  the  political  form,  can 
develop  and  reach  a  high  degree  of  well-being.  And  the 
men  who  think  so  adduce  in  confirmation  of  their  opinion 
philosophic,  historic,  and  even  rehgious  arguments,  which 
to  them  seem  incontrovertible.  But  there  are  men  who 
assume  the  opposite,  namely,  that,  as  there  was  a  time 
when  humanity  lived  without  a  political  form,  this  form 
is  only  temporary,  and  the  time  must  arrive  when  men 
shall  need  a  new  form,  and  that  this  time  has  arrived 
even  now.  And  the  men  who  think  so  also  adduce  in 
confirmation  of  their  opinion  philosophic,  and  historic,  and 
religious  arguments,  which  also  seem  incontrovertible  to 
them. 

It  is  possible  to  write  volumes  in  the  defence  of  the 
first  opinion  (they  have  been  written  long  ago,  and  there 
is  still  no  end  to  them),  and  there  can  be  written  much 
against  it  (though  but  lately  begun,  many  a  brilliant  thing 
has  been  written  against  it). 

It  is  impossible  to  prove,  as  the  defenders  of  the  state 
claim,  that  the  destruction  of  the  state  will  lead  to  a  social 
chaos,  mutual  rapine,  murder,  and  the  destruction  of  all 
public  institutions,  and  the  return  of  humanity  to  barba- 
rism ;  nor  can  it  be  proved,  as  the  opponents  of  the  state 
claim,  that  men  have  already  become  so  wise  and  good 
that  they  do  not  rob  or  kill  one  another,  that  they  prefer 
peace  to  hostility,  that  they  will  themselves  without  the 
aid  of  the  state  arrange  everything  they  need,  and  that 
therefore  the  state  not  only  does  not  contribute  to  all  this, 
but,  on  the  contrary,  under  the  guise  of  defending  men, 
exerts  a  harmful  and  bestializing  influence  upon  them. 
It  is  impossible  to  prove  either  the  one  or  tlie  other  by 
means  of  abstract  reflections.  Still  less  can  it  be  proved 
by  experience,  since  the  question  consists  in  this,  whether 
the  experiment  is  to  be  made  or  not.     The  question  as  to 


244     THE    KINGDOM    OF    GOD    IS    WITHIN    YOU 

whether  the  time  has  come  for  abolishing  the  state,  or  not, 
would  be  insoluble,  if  there  did  not  exist  another  vital 
method  for  an  incontestable  solution  of  the  same. 

Quite  independently  of  anybody's  reflections  as  to 
whether  the  chicks  are  sufficiently  matured  for  him 
to  drive  the  hen  away  from  the  nest  and  let  the  chicks 
out  of  their  eggs,  or  whether  they  are  not  yet  sufficiently 
matured,  the  incontestable  judges  of  the  case  will  be  the 
chicks  themselves,  when,  unable  to  find  enough  room  in 
their  eggs,  they  will  begin  to  pick  them  with  their  bills, 
and  will  themselves  come  out  of  them. 

The  same  is  true  of  the  question  whether  the  time  for 
destroying  the  poHtical  form  and  for  substituting  another 
form  has  come,  or  not.  If  a  man,  in  consequence  of  the 
higher  consciousness  matured  in  him,  is  no  longer  able  to 
comply  with  the  demands  of  the  state,  no  longer  finds 
room  in  it,  and  at  the  same  time  no  longer  is  in  need  of 
the  preservation  of  the  political  form,  the  question  as  to 
whether  men  have  matured  for  the  change  of  the  pohtical 
form,  or  not,  is  decided  from  an  entirely  different  side, 
and  just  as  incontestably  as  for  the  chick  that  has  picked 
its  shell,  into  which  no  power  in  the  world  can  again 
return  it,  by  the  men  themselves  who  have  outgrown  the 
state  and  who  cannot  be  returned  to  it  by  any  power  in 
the  world. 

"  It  is  very  likely  that  the  state  was  necessary  and  even 
now  is  necessary  for  all  those  purposes  which  you  ascribe 
to  it,"  says  the  man  who  has  made  the  Christian  life-concep- 
tion his  own,  "  but  all  I  know  is  that,  on  the  one  hand,  I  no 
longer  need  the  state,  and,  on  the  other,  I  can  no  longer 
perform  those  acts  which  are  necessary  for  the  existence 
of  the  state.  Arrange  for  yourselves  what  you  need  for 
your  lives :  I  cannot  prove  either  the  common  necessity, 
or  the  common  harm  of  the  state  ;  all  I  know  is  what 
I  need  and  what  not,  what  I  may  do  and  what  not,  I 
know  for  myself  that  I  do  not  need  any  separation  from 


THE    KINGDOM    OF    GOD    IS    WITHIN    YOU      245 

the  other  nations,  and  so  T  cannot  recognize  my  exchisive 
belonging  to  some  one  nation  or  state,  and  my  subjection 
to  any  government ;  I  know  in  my  own  case  that  I  do  not 
need  all  those  government  offices  and  courts,  which  are  the 
product  of  violence,  and  so  I  cannot  take  part  in  any  of 
them  ;  I  know  in  my  own  case  that  I  do  not  need  to  attack 
other  nations  and  kill  them,  nor  defend  myself  by  taking 
up  arms,  and  so  I  cannot  take  part  in  wars  and  in  prepa- 
rations for  them.  It  is  very  likely  that  there  are  some 
people  who  cannot  regard  all  that  as  necessary  and  indis- 
pensable. I  cannot  dispute  with  them,  —  all  I  know  con- 
cerning myself,  but  that  I  know  incoutestably,  is  that  I  do 
not  need  it  all  and  am  not  able  to  do  it.  I  do  not  need 
it,  and  I  cannot  do  it,  not  because  I,  my  personality,  do  not 
want  it,  but  because  He  who  has  sent  me  into  life,  and  has 
given  me  the  incontestable  law  for  guidance  in  my  life, 
does  not  want  it." 

No  matter  what  arguments  men  may  adduce  in  proof 
of  the  danger  of  abohshing  the  power  of  the  state  and  that 
this  abolition  may  beget  calamities,  the  men  who  have 
outgrown  the  political  form  can  no  longer  find  their  place 
in  it.  And,  no  matter  what  arguments  may  be  adduced 
to  a  man  who  has  outgrown  the  political  form,  about  its 
indispensableness,  he  cannot  return  to  it,  cannot  take  part 
in  the  affairs  which  are  denied  by  his  consciousness,  just 
as  the  full-grown  chicks  can  no  longer  return  into  the 
shell  wdiich  they  have  outgrown. 

"  But  even  if  this  is  so,"  say  the  defenders  of  the  exist- 
in<T  order,  "  the  abolition  of  the  violence  of  state  would  be 
possible  and  desirable  only  if  all  men  became  Christians. 
So  long  as  this  is  not  the  case,  so  long  as  among  men 
who  only  call  themselves  Christians  there  are  men  who 
are  no  Christians,  evil  men,  who  for  the  sake  of  their 
personal  lust  are  prepared  to  do  harm  to  others,  the  aboli- 
tion of  the  power  of  state  would  not  only  fail  to  be  a 
good   for   all   the  rest,   but  would    even   increase   their 


246      THE   KINGDOM    OF    GOD    IS    WITHIN   YOU 

wretchedness.  The  aholition  of  the  political  form  of  life 
is  undesirable,  not  only  when  there  is  a  small  proportion 
of  tide  Christians,  but  even  when  all  shall  be  Christians, 
while  in  their  midst  or  all  about  them,  among  other 
nations,  there  shall  remain  non-Christians,  because  the 
non-Christians  will  with  impunity  rob,  violate,  kill  the 
Christians  and  make  their  life  miserable.  What  will 
happen  will  be  that  the  evil  men  will  with  impunity  rule 
the  good  and  do  violence  to  them.  And  so  the  power 
of  state  must  not  be  abolished  until  all  the  bad,  rapacious 
men  in  the  world  are  destroyed.  And  as  this  will  not 
happen  for  a  long  time  to  come,  if  at  all,  this  power,  in 
spite  of  the  attempts  of  individual  Christians  at  emancipa- 
ting themselves  from  the  power  of  state,  must  be  main- 
tained for  the  sake  of  the  majority  of  men."  Thus  speak 
the  defenders  of  the  state.  "  Without  the  state  the  evil 
men  do  violence  to  the  good  and  rule  over  them,  but  the 
power  of  state  makes  it  possible  for  the  good  to  keep 
the  evil  in  check,"  they  say. 

But,  in  asserting  this,  the  defenders  of  the  existing 
order  of  things  decide  in  advance  the  justice  of  the  position 
which  it  is  for  them  to  prove.  In  saying  that  without 
the  power  of  state  the  evil  men  would  rule  over  the  good, 
they  take  it  for  granted  that  the  good  are  precisely  those 
who  at  the  present  time  have  power,  and  the  bad  the 
same  who  are  now  subjugated.  But  it  is  precisely  this 
that  has  to  be  proved.  This  would  be  true  only  if  in  our 
world  took  place  what  really  does  not  take  place,  but  is 
supposed  to  take  place,  in  China,  namely,  that  the  good 
are  always  in  power,  and  that,  as  soon  as  at  the  helm  of 
the  government  stand  men  who  are  not  better  than  those 
over  whom  they  rule,  the  citizens  are  obliged  to  depose 
them.  Thus  it  is  supposed  to  be  in  China,  but  in  reality 
this  is  not  so,  and  cannot  be  so,  because,  in  order  to  over- 
throw the  power  of  the  violating  government,  it  is  not 
enough  to  have  the  right  to  do  so,  —  one  must  also  have 


THE   KINGDOM    OF   GOD   IS    WITHIN    YOU     247 

the  force.  Consequently  this  is  only  assumed  to  he  so 
even  in  China ;  but  in  our  Christian  world  this  has  never 
even  been  assumed.  In  our  world  there  is  not  even  any 
foundation  for  assuming  that  better  men  or  the  best 
should  rule,  and  not  those  who  have  seized  the  power 
and  retain  it  for  themselves  and  for  their  descendants. 
Better  men  are  absolutely  unable  to  seize  the  power  and 
to  retain  it. 

In  order  to  get  the  power  and  retain  it,  it  is  necessary 
to  love  power ;  but  love  of  power  is  not  connected  with 
goodness,  but  with  qualities  which  are  the  opposite  of 
goodness,  such  as  pride,  cunning,  cruelty. 

Without  self-aggrandizement  and  debasement  of  others, 
without  hypocrisy,  deceit,  prisons,  fortresses,  executions, 
murders,  a  power  can  neither  arise  nor  maintain  itself. 

"  If  the  power  of  state  be  abolished,  the  more  evil  men 
will  rule  over  the  less  evil  ones,"  say  the  defenders  of 
the  state.  But  if  the  Egyptians  subjugated  the  Jews,  the 
Persians  the  Egyptians,  the  Macedonians  the  Persians, 
the  Komans  the  Greeks,  the  barbarians  the  Ptomans,  is  it 
possible  that  all  those  who  have  subjugated  were  better 
than  those  whom  they  subjugated  ? 

And  similarly,  in  the  transference  of  the  power  in  one 
state  from  one  set  of  persons  to  another,  has  the  power 
always  passed  into  the  hands  of  those  who  were  better  ? 
When  Louis  XVI.  was  deposed,  and  Eobespierre  and 
later  Napoleon  ruled,  who  did  rule  ?  Better  or  worse 
men  ?  And  when  did  better  men  rule,  when  men  from 
A^ersailles  or  from  the  Comnmne  were  in  power  ?  or  when 
Charles  I.  or  Cromwell  was  at  the  head  of  the  govern- 
ment ?  or  when  Peter  III.  was  Tsar  or  when  he  was  killed, 
and  the  sovereign  was  Catherine  for  one  part  of  Russia 
and  Pugach^v  for  the  other  ?  Who  was  then  evil  and 
who  good  ? 

All  men  in  power  assert  that  their  power  is  necessary 
in  order  that  the  evil  men  may  not  do  violence  to  the 


248     THE   KINGDOM    OF   GOD   IS   WITHIN   TOU 

good,  meaniug  by  this  that  they  are  those  same  good  men, 
who  protect  others  against  the  evil  men. 

But  to  rule  means  to  do  violence,  and  to  do  violence 
means  to  do  what  the  other  man,  on  whom  the  violence 
is  exerted,  does  not  wish  to  have  done  to  him,  and  what, 
no  doubt,  he  who  exerts  the  violence  would  not  wish  to 
have  done  to  himself ;  consequently,  to  rule  means  to  do 
to  another  what  we  do  not  wish  to  have  done  to  ourselves, 
that  is,  to  do  evil. 

To  submit  means  to  prefer  suffering  to  violence.  But 
to  prefer  suffering  to  violence  means  to  be  good,  or  at 
least  less  evil  than  those  who  do  to  another  what  they 
do  not  wish  to  have  done  to  themselves. 

And  so  all  the  probabilities  are  in  favour  of  the  fact 
that  not  those  who  are  better  than  those  over  whom  they 
rule,  but,  on  the  contrary,  those  who  are  worse,  have  al- 
ways been  and  even  now  are  in  power.  There  may  also 
be  worse  men  among  those  who  submit  to  the  power,  but 
it  cannot  be  that  better  men  should  rule  over  worse  men. 

This  was  impossible  to  assume  in  case  of  the  pagan 
inexact  definition  of  goodness  ;  but  with  the  Christian 
lucid  and  exact  definition  of  goodness  and  evil,  it  is 
impossible  to  think  so.  If  more  or  less  good  men,  more 
or  less  bad  men,  cannot  be  distinguished  in  the  pagan 
world,  the  Christian  conception  of  good  and  evil  has  so 
clearly  defined  the  symptoms  of  the  good  and  the  evil, 
that  they  can  no  longer  be  mistaken.  According  to  Christ's 
teaching  the  good  are  those  who  humble  themselves,  suffer, 
do  not  resist  evil  with  force,  forgive  offences,  love  their 
enemies ;  the  evil  are  those  who  exalt  themselves,  rule, 
struggle,  and  do  violence  to  people,  and  so,  according  to 
Christ's  teaching,  there  is  no  doubt  as  to  where  the  good 
are  among  the  ruling  and  the  subjugated.  It  even  sounds 
ridiculous  to  speak  of  ruling  Christians. 

The  non- Christians,  that  is,  those  who  base  their  lives 
on  the  worldly  good,  must  always  rule  over  Christians, 


THE    KINGDOM    OF    GOD    IS    WITHIN    YOU     249 

over  those  who  assume  that  their  lives  consist  in  the 
renunciation  of  this  good. 

Thus  it  has  always  been  and  it  has  become  more  and 
more  definite,  in  proportion  as  the  Christian  teaching  has 
been  disseminated  and  elucidated. 

The  more  the  true  Christianity  spread  and  entered  into 
the  consciousness  of  men,  the  less  it  was  possible  for 
Christians  to  be  among  the  rulers,  and  the  easier  it  grew 
for  non-Christians  to  rule  over  Christians. 

"  The  abolition  of  the  violence  of  state  at  a  time  when 
not  all  men  in  society  have  become  true  Christians  would 
have  this  effect,  that  the  bad  would  rule  over  the  good 
and  would  with  impunity  do  violence  to  them,"  say  the 
defenders  of  the  existing  order  of  life. 

"  The  bad  will  rule  over  the  good  and  will  do  violence 
to  them." 

But  it  has  never  been  different,  and  it  never  can  be. 
Thus  it  has  always  been  since  the  beginning  of  the  world, 
and  thus  it  is  now.  The  bad  always  rule  over  the  good 
and  always  do  violence  to  them.  Cain  did  violence  to 
Abel,  cunning  Jacob  to  trustful  Esau,  deceitful  Laban 
to  Jacob ;  Caiaphas  and  Pilate  ruled  over  Christ,  the 
Eoman  emperors  ruled  over  a  Seneca,  an  Epictetus,  and 
good  Komans  who  lived  in  their  time.  John  IV.  with  his 
oprichniks,  the  drunken  syphilitic  Peter  with  his  fools, 
the  harlot  Catherine  with  her  lovers,  ruled  over  the  indus- 
trious religious  Pussians  of  their  time  and  did  violence  to 
them.  William  rules  over  the  Germans,  Stambulov  over 
the  Bulgarians,  Russian  officials  over  the  Russian  people. 
The  Germans  ruled  over  the  Italians,  now  they  rule  over 
Hungarians  and  Slavs ;  the  Turks  have  ruled  over  Greeks 
and  Slavs  ;  the  English  rule  over  Hindoos  ;  the  Mongolians 
rule  over  the  Chinese. 

Thus,  whether  the  political  violence  be  abolished  or 
not,  the  condition  of  the  good  men  who  are  violated  by 
the  bad  will  not  be  changed  thereby. 


250     THE   KINGDOM    OF    GOD    IS   WITHIN   YOU 

It  is  absolutely  impossible  to  frighten  men  with  this, 
that  the  bad  will  rule  over  the  good,  because  what  they 
are  frightened  with  is  precisely  what  has  always  been  and 
cannot  be  otherwise. 

The  whole  pagan  history  of  humanity  consists  of  only 
those  cases  when  the  worse  seized  the  power  over  the  less 
bad,  and,  having  seized  it,  maintained  it  by  cruelties  and 
cunning,  and,  proclaiming  themselves  as  guardians  of  jus- 
tice and  defenders  of  the  good  against  the  bad,  ruled  over 
the  good.  As  to  the  rulers'  saying  that,  if  it  were  not  for 
their  power,  the  worse  would  do  violence  to  the  good,  it 
means  only  this,  that  the  violators  in  power  do  not  wish 
to  cede  this  power  to  other  violators,  who  may  wish  to 
take  it  from  them.  But,  in  saying  this,  the  rulers  only 
give  themselves  away.  They  say  that  their  power,  that 
is,  violence,  is  necessary  for  the  defence  of  men  against 
some  other  violators,  or  such  as  may  still  appear.^ 

The  exercise  of  violence  is  dangerous  for  the  very 
reason  that,  as  soon  as  it  is  exercised,  all  the  arguments 
adduced  by  the  violators  can,  not  only  with  the  same,  but 
even  with  greater  force,  be  applied  against  them.  They 
speak  of  the  past,  and  more  frequently  of  the  imaginary 
future  of  violence,  but  themselves  without  cessation  com- 
mit acts  of  violence.  "  You  say  that  men  used  to  rob 
and  kill  others,  and  you  are  afraid  that  men  will  rob  and 
kill  one  another,  if  your  power  does  not  exist.  That  may 
be  so  or  not,  but  your  ruining  thousands  of  men  in  pris- 
ons, at  hard  labour,  in  fortresses,  in  exile ;  your  ruining 


1  Comically  striking  in  this  respect  is  the  naive  assertion  of  the 
Russian  authorities  in  doing  violence  to  other  nationalities,  the  Poles, 
Baltic  Germans,  Jews.  The  Russian  government  practises  extortion 
on  its  subjects,  for  centuries  has  not  troubled  itself  about  the  Little 
Russians  in  Poland,  nor  about  the  Letts  in  the  Baltic  provinces,  nor 
about  the  Russian  peasants  who  have  been  exploited  by  all  tnanner 
of  men,  and  suddenly  it  becomes  a  defender  of  the  oppressed  airainst 
the  oppressors,  those  very  oppressors  whom  it  oppresses.  — Author's 
Note. 


THE   KINGDOM    OF   GOD   IS    WITHIN   YOU     251 

millions  of  families  with  your  militarism,  aud  destroy- 
ing millions  of  people  physically  and  morally,  is  not 
imaginary,  but  real  violence,  against  which,  according  to 
your  own  statement,  people  ought  to  fight  by  exercising 
violence.  Consequently,  those  evil  men,  against  whom, 
according  to  your  own  reflection,  it  is  absolutely  necessary 
to  exercise  violence,  are  you  yourselves,"  is  what  the  vio- 
lated ought  to  say  to  the  violators,  and  the  non-Christians 
have  always  spoken  and  thought  and  acted  in  this  man- 
ner. If  the  violated  are  worse  than  those  who  exercise 
violence,  they  attack  them  and  try  to  overthrow  them, 
and,  under  favourable  conditions,  do  overthrow  them, 
or,  what  is  most  usual,  enter  the  ranks  of  the  violators 
and  take  part  in  their  acts  of  violence. 

Thus  the  very  thing  with  which  the  defenders  of  the 
state  frighten  men,  that,  if  there  did  not  exist  a  violating 
power,  the  bad  would  be  ruling  over  the  good,  is  what 
without  cessation  has  been  accomplished  in  the  life  of 
humanity,  and  so  the  abolition  of  political  violence  can  in 
no  case  he  the  cause  of  the  increase  of  the  violence  of  the 
bad  over  the  good. 

When  the  violence  of  the  government  is  destroyed, 
acts  of  violence  will,  probably,  be  committed  by  other 
men  than  before ;  but  the  sum  of  the  violence  will  in  no 
case  be  increased,  simply  because  the  power  will  pass 
from  the  hands  of  one  set  of  men  into  those  of  another. 

"  The  violence  of  state  will  be  stopped  only  when  the 
bad  men  in  society  shall  be  destroyed,"  say  the  defenders 
of  the  existing  order,  meaning  by  this  that,  since  there 
will  always  be  bad  men,  violence  will  never  come  to  a 
stop.  That  would  be  true  only  if  what  they  assume 
actually  existed,  namely,  that  the  violators  are  better,  and 
that  the  only  means  for  the  emancipation  of  men  from 
evil  is  violence.  In  that  case  violence  could,  indeed, 
never  be  stopped.  But  as  this  is  not  the  case,  and  the 
very  opposite  is  true,  namely,  that  it  is  not  the  better 


252      THE    KINGDOM    OF    GOD    IS    WITHIN   YOU 

men  who  exercise  violence  against  the  bad,  but  the  bad 
who  do  violence  to  the  good,  and  that  outside  of  violence, 
which  never  puts  a  stop  to  evil,  there  is  another  means 
for  the  abolition  of  violence,  the  assertion  that  violence 
will  never  stop  is  not  correct.  Violence  grows  less  and 
less,  and  must  evidently  stop,  but  not,  as  the  defenders  of 
the  existing  order  imagine,  because  men  who  are  subject 
to  violence  will  in  consequence  of  the  influence  exerted 
upon  them  by  the  governments  become  better  and  better 
(in  consequence  of  this  they  will,  on  the  contrary,  always 
become  worse),  but  because,  since  all  men  are  constantly 
growing  better  and  better,  even  the  worst  men  in  power, 
growing  less  and  less  evil,  will  become  sufficiently  good 
to  be  incapable  of  exercising  violence. 

The  forward  movement  of  humanity  takes  place,  not 
in  this  way,  that  the  best  elements  of  society,  seizing  the 
power  and  using  violence  against  those  men  who  are  in 
their  power,  make  them  better,  as  the  conservatives  and 
revolutionists  think,  but,  in  the  first  and  chief  place,  in 
that  all  men  in  general  unswervingly  and  without  cessa- 
tion more  and  more  consciously  acquire  the  Christian 
life-conception,  and  in  the  second  place,  in  that,  even 
independently  of  the  conscious  spiritual  activity  of  men, 
men  unconsciously,  in  consequence  of  the  very  process 
of  seizure  of  power  by  one  set  of  men  and  transference 
to  another  set,  and  involuntarily  are  brought  to  a  more 
Christian  relation  to  life.  This  process  takes  place  in 
the  following  manner  :  the  worst  elements  of  society,  hav- 
ing seized  the  power  and  being  in  possession  of  it,  under 
the  influence  of  the  sobering  quality  which  always  ac- 
companies it,  become  less  and  less  cruel  and  less  able  to 
make  use  of  the  cruel  forms  of  violence,  and,  in  conse- 
quence of  this,  give  place  to  others,  in  whom  again  goes 
on  the  process  of  softening  and,  so  to  speak,  unconscious 
Christianization. 

What  takes  place  in  men  is  something  hke  the  process  of 


THE   KINGDOM    OF    GOD   IS   WITHIN   YOU     253 

boiling.  All  the  men  of  the  majority  of  the  non-Christian 
life-conception  strive  after  power  and  struggle  to  obtain 
it.  In  this  struggle  the  most  cruel  and  coarse,  and  the 
least  Christian  elements  of  society,  by  doing  violence  to 
the  meeker,  more  Christian  people,  who  are  more  sensible 
to  the  good,  rise  to  the  higher  strata  of  society.  And 
here  with  the  men  in  this  condition  there  takes  place 
what  Christ  predicted,  saying :  "  Woe  unto  you  that  are 
rich,  that  are  full  now,  and  when  all  are  glorified." 
What  happens  is  that  men  in  power,  who  are  in  posses- 
sion of  the  consequences  of  power,  —  of  glory  and  wealth, 
—  having  reached  certain  different  aims,  which  they  have 
set  to  themselves  in  their  desires,  recognize  their  vanity 
and  return  to  the  position  which  they  left.  Charles  V., 
John  IV.,  Alexander  I.,  having  recognized  all  the  vanity 
and  evil  of  power,  renounced  it,  because  they  saw  all  its 
evil  and  were  no  longer  able  calmly  to  make  use  of  vio- 
lence as  of  a  good  deed,  as  they  had  done  before. 

But  it  is  not  only  a  Charles  and  an  Alexander  who 
travel  on  this  road  and  recognize  the  vanity  and  evil  of 
power :  through  this  unconscious  process  of  softening  of 
manners  passes  every  man-  who  has  acquired  the  power 
toward  which  he  has  been  striving,  not  only  every  minis- 
ter, general,  millionaire,  merchant,  but  also  every  head  of 
an  office,  who  has  obtained  the  place  he  has  been  ten 
years  waiting  for,  every  well-to-do  peasant,  who  has  laid 
by  a  hundred  or  two  hundred  roubles. 

Through  this  process  pass  not  only  separate  individuals, 
but  also  aggregates  of  men,  whole  nations. 

The  temptations  of  power  and  of  everything  which  it 
gives,  of  wealth,  honours,  luxurious  life,  present  them- 
selves as  a  worthy  aim  for  the  activity  of  men  only  so 
long  as  the  power  is  not  attained  ;  but  the  moment  a 
man  attains  it,  they  reveal  their  emptiness  and  slowly 
lose  their  force  of  attraction,  like  clouds,  which  have 
form  and  beauty  only  from  a  distance :    one  needs  but 


254      THE    KINGDOM    OF    GOD    IS    WITHIN    YOU 

enter  ^them,  in  order  that  that  which  seemed  beautiful  in 
them  should  disappear. 

Men  who  have  attained  power  and  wealth,  frequently 
the  very  men  who  have  gained  them,  more  frequently 
their  descendants,  stop  being  so  anxious  for  power  and 
so  cruel  in  attaining  it. 

Having  through  experience,  under  the  influence  of  Chris- 
tianity, learned  the  vanity  of  the  fruits  of  violence,  men, 
at  times  in  one,  at  others  in  a  few  generations,  lose  those 
vices  which  are  evoked  by  the  passion  for  power  and 
wealth,  and,  becoming  less  cruel,  do  not  hold  their  posi- 
tion, and  are  pushed  out  of  power  by  other,  less  Christian, 
more  evil  men,  and  return  to  strata  of  society  lower  in 
position,  but  higher  in  morahty,  increasing  the  average  of 
the  Christian  consciousness  of  all  men.  But  immediately 
after  them  other,  worse,  coarser,  less  Christian  elements 
of  society  rise  to  the  top,  again  are  subjected  to  the  same 
process  as  their  predecessors,  and  again  in  one  or  a  few 
generations,  having  experienced  the  vanity  of  the  fruits 
of  violence  and  being  permeated  by  Christianity,  descend 
to  the  level  of  the  violated,  and  again  make  place  for  new, 
less  coarse  violators  than  the  preceding  ones,  but  coarser 
than  those  whom  they  oppress.  Thus,  despite  the  fact 
that  the  power  remains  externally  the  same  that  it  was, 
there  is  with  every  change  of  men  in  power  a  greater  in- 
crease in  the  number  of  men  who  by  experience  are 
brought  to  the  necessity  of  accepting  the  Christian  life- 
conception,  and  with  every  change  the  coarsest,  most 
cruel,  and  least  Christian  of  all  enter  into  the  possession 
of  the  power,  but  they  are  such  as  are  constantly  less 
coarse  and  cruel  and  more  Christian  than  their  predeces- 
sors. 

Violence  selects  and  attracts  the  worst  elements  of 
society,  works  them  over,  and,  improving  and  softening 
them,  returns  them  to  society. 

Such  is  the  process  by  means  of  which  Christianity,  in 


THE    KINGDOM    OF    GOD    IS    WITHIN    YOU      255 

spite  of  the  violence  which  is  exercised  by  the  power  of 
the  state  and  which  impedes  the  forward  movement 
of  humanity,  takes  possession  of  men  more  and  more. 
Christianity  is  penetrating  into  the  consciousness  of  men, 
not  only  despite  the  violence  exerted  by  the  power,  but 
even  by  means  of  it. 

And  thus  the  assertion  of  the  defenders  of  the  pohtical 
structure  that,  if  the  violence  of  the  state  be  abolished, 
the  evil  men  will  rule  over  the  good,  not  only  does  not 
prove  that  this  (the  ruling  of  the  bad  over  the  good)  is 
daugerous,  for  it  is  precisely  what  is  taking  place  now, 
but,  on  the  contrary,  proves  that  the  violence  of  the  state, 
which  gives  the  bad  a  chance  to  rule  over  the  good,  is 
the  very  evil  which  it  is  desirable  to  destroy,  and  which 
is  continuously  destroyed  by  life  itself. 

"  But  even  if  it  were  true  that  the  violence  of  the  state 
will  come  to  an  end  when  those  who  are  in  power  shall 
become  Christian  enough  to  renounce  the  power  of  their 
own  choice,  and  there  shall  no  longer  be  found  any  men 
who  are  prepared  to  take  their  places,  and  if  it  is  true 
that  this  process  is  taking  place,"  say  the  defenders  of  the 
existing  order,  "  when  will  that  be  ?  If  eighteen  hundred 
years  have  passed  and  there  are  still  so  many  volunteers 
who  are  ready  to  rule,  and  so  few  who  are  ready  to  sub- 
mit, there  is  no  probability  that  this  will  happen  very 
soon,  or  ever  at  all. 

"  If  there  are,  as  there  have  been  among  all  men,  such 
as  prefer  to  refuse  power  rather  than  to  use  it,  the  supply 
of  men  who  prefer  ruling  to  submitting  is  so  great  that  it 
is  hard  to  imagine  the  time  when  it  shall  be  exhausted. 

"  For  this  process  of  the  Christianization  of  all  men  to 
take  place,  for  all  men  one  after  another  to  pass  over  from 
the  pagan  concept  of  life  to  the  Christian,  and  voluntarily 
renounce  power  and  wealth,  and  for  no  one  to  desire  to 
make  use  of  them,  it  is  necessary  that  not  only  all  those 
rude,    semisavage    men,    who    are    entirely    incapable    of 


256     THE    KINGDOM    OF    GOD    IS    WITHIN   YOU 

adopting  Christianity  and  following  it,  and  of  whom  there 
are  always  such  a  great  number  amidst  every  Christian 
society,  but  also  all  savage  and  non-Christian  nations  in 
general,  of  whom  there  are  so  many  outside  the  Christian 
society,  should  be  made  Christian.  And  so,  even  if  we 
admit  that  the  process  of  Christianization  will  some  day 
be  accomplished  in  the  case  of  all  men,  we  must  assume, 
judging  from  how  much  the  matter  has  advanced  in 
eighteen  hundred  years,  that  this  will  happen  in  several 
times  eighteen  hundred  years,  —  and  so  it  is  impossible 
and  useless  to  think  now  of  the  impossible  abolition  of 
power,  and  all  we  should  think  of  is  that  the  power 
should  be  vested  in  the  best  of  hands." 

Thus  retort  the  defenders  of  the  existing  order.  And 
this  reflection  would  be  quite  correct  if  the  transition  of 
men  from  one  concept  of  life  to  another  took  place  only 
by  force  of  the  one  process  where  every  man  learns  indi- 
vidually and  one  after  another  by  experience  the  vanity 
of  power,  and  by  an  inner  way  reaches  the  Christian 
truths. 

This  process  takes  place  without  cessation,  and  by  this 
way  men  one  after  another  pass  over  to  the  side  of  Chris- 
tianity. 

But  men  pass  over  to  the  side  of  Christianity  not  by 
this  inner  path  alone ;  there  is  also  an  external  method, 
with  which  the  gradualness  of  this  transition  is  destroyed. 

The  transition  of  men  from  one  structure  of  life  to  an- 
other does  not  always  take  place  in  the  manner  in  which 
the  sand  is  poured  out  from  an  hour-glass,  —  one  kernel 
of  sand  after  another,  from  the  first  to  the  last,  —  but 
rather  like  water  pouring  into  a  vessel  that  is  immerged 
in  the  water,  when  it  at  first  admits  the  water  evenly  and 
slowly  at  one  side,  and  then,  from  the  weight  of  the  water 
already  taken  in,  suddenly  dips  down  fast  and  almost  all 
at  once  receives  all  the  water  which  it  can  hold. 

The  same  occurs  with  societies  of  men  at  the  transition 


THE    KINGDOM    OF    GOD    IS    WITHIN    YOU      257 

from  oue  concept,  and  so  from  one  structure  of  life,  to  an- 
other. It  is  only  at  first  that  one  after  another  slowly 
and  gradually  receives  the  new  truth  by  an  inner  way 
and  follows  it  through  life ;  but  after  a  certain  diffusion 
it  is  no  longer  received  in  an  internal  manner,  nor  gradu- 
ally, but  all  at  once,  almost  involuntarily. 

And  so  there  is  no  truth  in  the  reflection  of  the  defend- 
ers of  the  existing  order  that,  if  in  the  course  of  eighteen 
hundred  years  only  a  small  part  of  mankind  has  passed 
over  to  the  side  of  Christianity,  it  will  take  several  times 
eighteen  hundred  years  before  the  rest  of  humanity  will 
pass  over  to  its  side ;  there  is  no  truth  in  it,  because  with 
this  reflection  no  attention  is  paid  to  any  other  than  the 
internal  attainment  of  the  truth,  and  the  transition  from 
one  form  of  life  to  another. 

This  other  method  of  attaining  a  newly  revealed  truth 
and  transition  to  a  new  structure  of  life  consists  in  this, 
that  men  do  not  attain  the  truth  simply  because  they 
perceive  it  with  a  prophetic  feeling  or  experience  of  life, 
but  also  because  at  a  certain  stage  of  the  dissemination  of 
the  truth  all  men  who  stand  on  a  lower  stage  of  develop- 
ment accept  it  all  at  once,  out  of  confidence  in  those  who 
have  accepted  it  in  an  internal  way,  and  apply  it  to  life. 

Every  new  truth,  which  changes  the  composition  of 
human  life  and  moves  humanity  forward,  is  at  first  ac- 
cepted by  only  a  very  small  number  of  men,  who  under- 
stand it  in  an  internal  w^ay.  The  rest,  who  out  of  confi- 
dence had  accepted  the  previous  truth,  on  which  the 
existing  order  is  based,  always  oppose  the  dissemination 
of  the  new  truth. 

But  since,  in  the  first  place,  men  do  not  stand  still,  but 
incessantly  move  forward,  comprehending  the  truth  more 
and  more,  and  approaching  it  with  their  lives,  and,  in  the 
second  place,  all  of  them,  through  their  age,  education, 
and  race,  are  predisposed  to  a  gradation  of  men,  from 
those  who  are  most  capable    to    comprehend    newly  re- 


258     THE    KINGDOM    OF    GOD   IS    WITHIN    YOU 

vealed  truths  in  an  internal  way  to  those  who  are  least 
capable  to  do  so,  the  men  who  stand  nearest  to  those  who 
have  attained  the  truth  in  an  internal  way  one  after  an- 
other, at  first  after  long  periods  of  time,  and  then  more 
and  more  frequently,  pass  over  to  the  side  of  the  new 
truth,  and  the  number  of  men  who  recognize  the  new 
truth  grows  larger  and  larger,  and  the  truth  grows  all  the 
time  more  and  more  comprehensible. 

The  greater  the  number  of  men  who  attain  the  truth 
and  the  more  the  truth  is  comprehensible,  the  more  confi- 
dence is  evoked  in  the  rest  of  the  men,  who  in  their 
ability  to  comprehend  stand  on  a  lower  stage,  and  the 
easier  does  the  attainment  of  the  truth  grow  for  them, 
and  the  greater  is  the  number  who  make  the  truth  their 
own.  Thus  the  movement  keeps  accelerating  and  accel- 
erating, expanding  and  expanding,  like  a  snowball,  until 
there  germinates  a  public  opinion  which  is  in  accord  with 
the  new  truth,  and  the  remaining  mass  of  men  no  longer 
singly,  but  in  a  body,  under  the  pressure  of  this  force, 
passes  over  to  the  side  of  the  new  truth,  and  a  new  struc- 
ture of  life  is  established,  which  is  in  agreement  with  this 
truth. 

Men  who  pass  over  to  the  side  of  a  new  truth  which 
has  reached  a  certain  degree  of  dissemination  always  do 
so  all  at  once,  in  a  mass,  and  they  are  like  that  ballast 
with  which  every  vessel  is  laden  all  at  once  for  its  stable 
equihbrium  and  regular  course.  If  there  were  no  ballast, 
the  vessel  would  not  stay  in  the  water,  and  would  be 
changing  its  course  with  the  least  change  in  conditions. 
This  ballast,  though  at  first  it  seems  to  be  superfluous 
and  even  to  retard  the  ship's  motion,  is  a  necessary  condi- 
tion of  its  regular  motion. 

The  same  is  true  of  that  mass  of  men  who,  not  one  by 
one,  but  always  all  together,  under  the  influence  of  a  new 
public  opinion,  pass  over  from  one  concept  of  life  to  an- 
other.    By  its  inertia  this  mass  always  retards  the  rapid, 


THE    KINGDOM    OF    GOD    IS    WITHIN    TOU      259 

frequent  transitions,  unverified  by  human  wisdom,  from 
one  structure  of  life  to  another,  and  for  a  long  time  retains 
every  truth  which,  verified  by  a  long  experience  of  a 
struggle,  has  entered  into  the  consciousness  of  humanity. 

And  so  there  is  no  truth  in  the  reflection  that,  if  only 
a  small,  a  very  small,  part  of  humanity  has  attained  the 
Christian  truth  in  the  course  of  eighteen  centuries,  the 
whole  of  humanity  will  attain  it  only  in  many,  many 
times  eighteen  hundred  years,  that  is,  that  it  is  so  far 
away  that  we  of  the  present  time  need  not  even  think  of 
it.  It  is  untrue,  because  the  men  who  stand  on  a  lower 
stage  of  development,  those  very  nations  and  people  whom 
the  defenders  of  the  existing  order  represent  as  a  hin- 
drance for  the  1-ealization  of  the  Christian  structure  of  life, 
are  the  same  people  who  always  at  once,  in  a  mass,  pass 
over  to  the  side  of  a  truth  which  is  accepted  by  public 
opinion. 

Therefore  the  change  in  the  life  of  humanity,  the  one 
in  consequence  of  which  men  in  power  will  renounce  the 
power  and  among  the  men  who  submit  to  power  there 
will  not  be  found  such  as  are  desirous  of  seizing  it,  will 
not  arrive  when  all  men  one  after  another  to  the  very 
last  shall  have  consciously  attained  the  Christian  life- 
conception,  but  when  there  arises  a  definite,  easily  com- 
prehensible Christian  public  opinion  which  will  conquer 
all  that  inert  mass  that  is  unable  by  an  internal  way  to 
attain  the  truths  and  so  is  always  subject  to  the  effect  of 
public  opinion. 

But  public  opinion  to  arise  and  be  diffused  does  not 
need  hundreds  and  tliousands  of  years,  and  has  the  prop- 
erty of  acting  infectiously  upon  people  and  with  great 
rapidity  embracing  large  numbers  of  men. 

"  But  if  it  is  even  true,"  the  defenders  of  the  existing 
order  will  say, "  that  public  opinion,  at  a  certain  stage  of 
its  definiteness  and  lucidity,  is  able  to  make  the  inert 
mass  of  men  outside  the  Christian  societies,  —  the  non- 


260      THE    KINGDOM    OF    GOD    IS    WITHIN   YOU 

Christian  nations,  —  and  corrupt  and  coarse  men,  who 
live  within  the  societies,  submit  to  it,  what  are  the  symp- 
toms that  this  Christian  pubhc  opinion  has  arisen  and 
may  take  the  place  of  violence  ? 

"  It  is  not  right  for  us  to  take  the  risk  and  reject  vio- 
lence, by  which  the  existing  order  is  maintained,  and  to 
depend  on  the  impalpable  and  indefinite  force  of  public 
opinion,  leaving  it  to  the  savage  men  outside  and  inside 
the  societies  with  impunity  to  rob,  kill,  and  in  every  way 
violate  the  Christians. 

"  If  with  the  aid  of  the  power  we  with  difficulty  eddy 
away  from  the  non-Christian  elements,  which  are  ever 
ready  to  inundate  us  and  destroy  all  the  progress  of  the 
Christian  civilization,  is  there,  in  the  first  place,  a  proba- 
bility that  public  opinion  can  take  the  part  of  this  force 
and  make  us  secure,  and,  in  the  second,  how  are  we  to 
find  that  moment  when  public  opinion  has  become  so 
strong  that  it  can  take  the  place  of  the  power  ?  To  remove 
the  power  and  to  depend  for  our  self-defence  on  nothing 
but  public  opinion  means  to  act  as  senselessly  as  would  a 
man  who  in  a  menagerie  would  throw  away  his  weapons 
and  let  out  all  the  lions  and  tigers  from  their  cages, 
depending  on  the  fact  that  the  animals  in  the  cages  and 
in  the  presence  of  heated  rods  appeared  tame. 

"  And  so  the  men  who  have  the  power,  who  by  fate  or 
by  God  are  placed  in  the  position  of  the  ruling,  have 
no  right  to  risk  the  ruin  of  all  the  progress  of  civilization, 
only  because  they  would  like  to  make  an  experiment  as 
to  whether  public  opinion  can  take  the  place  of  the  pro- 
tection of  power,  and  so  must  not  give  up  their  power." 

The  French  writer,  Alphonse  Karr,  now  forgotten,  has 
said  somewhere,  when  speaking  of  the  impossibility  of 
abolishing  capital  punishment,  "  Que  Alessieurs  les  assas- 
sins  commencent  par  nous  donner  Vexemple"  and  many 
times  after  that  have  I  heard  the  repetition  of  this  joke 
by  men  who  thought  that  with  these  words  they  gave  a 


THE    KINGDOM    OF    GOD    IS    WITHIN    YOU      261 

conclusive  and  clever  argument  against  the  abolition 
of  capital  punishment.  And  yet  it  is  impossible  more 
lucidly  to  express  all  that  falseness  of  the  argument  of 
those  w^^ho  think  that  the  governments  cannot  give  up 
their  pov^er  so  long  as  men  are  capable  of  it,  than  by  this 
very  joke. 

"  Let  the  assassins,"  say  the  defenders  of  the  violence  of 
state,  "  set  us  the  example,  by  abolishing  murder,  and 
then  we  shall  abohsh  it."  But  the  assassins  say  the 
same,  only  with  greater  right.  The  assassins  say,  "  Let 
those  who  have  undertaken  to  teach  and  guide  us  set 
us  the  example  of  abolishing  murder,  and  then  we  will 
follow  them."  And  they  do  not  say  so  for  a  joke,  but  in 
all  seriousness,  because  such  indeed  is  the  state  of  affairs. 

"  We  cannot  desist  from  violence,  because  we  are  on  ail 
sides  surrounded  by  violators." 

Nothing  in  our  day  interferes  more  than  this  false 
consideration  with  the  forward  motion  of  humanity  and 
the  establishment  among  it  of  that  structure  of  life  which 
is  already  proper  for  its  present  consciousness. 

The  men  in  power  are  convinced  that  it  is  only  violence 
that  moves  and  guides  men,  and  so  they  boldly  use  vio- 
lence for  the  maintenance  of  the  present  order  of  things. 
But  the  existing  order  is  not  maintained  through  violence, 
but  through  public  opinion,  the  effect  of  which  is  impaired 
by  violence. 

Thus  the  activity  of  violence  weakens  and  impairs  pre- 
cisely what  it  intends  to  maintain. 

Violence,  in  the  best  case,  if  it  does  not  pursue  only 
the  personal  ends  of  men  in  power,  always  denies  and 
condemns  by  the  one  immovable  form  of  the  law  what 
for  the  most  part  has  been  denied  and  condemned  before 
by  public  opinion,  but  with  this  difference,  that,  wliile 
public  opinion  denies  and  condenms  all  acts  which  are 
contrary  to  the  moral  law,  embracing  in  its  condemnation 
the  most  varied  propositions,  the  law  which  is  supported 


262      THE    KINGDOM    OF    GOD    IS    WITHIN   YOU 

by  violence  condemns  and  persecutes  only  a  certain,  very 
narrow  order  of  acts,  thus,  as  it  were,  justifying  all  the 
acts  of  the  same  order  wliich  have  not  entered  into  its 
definition.  Public  opinion  has  ever  since  the  time  of 
Moses  considered  avarice,  debauchery,  and  cruelty  to  be 
evil,  and  has  condemned  them ;  and  this  public  opinion 
denies  and  condemns  every  kind  of  a  manifestation  of 
avarice,  —  not  only  the  acquisition  of  another  man's  prop- 
erty by  means  of  violence,  deceit,  and  cunning,  but  also 
a  cruel  usufruct  of  the  same ;  it  condemns  every  kind  of 
debauchery,  be  it  fornication  with  a  concubine,  or  a  slave, 
a  divorced  wife,  or  even  one's  own  wife ;  it  condemns 
every  cruelty  which  is  expressed  in  assaults,  in  bad  treat- 
ment, in  the  murder,  not  only  of  men,  but  also  of  animals. 
But  the  law,  which  is  based  on  violence,  prosecutes  only 
certain  forms  of  avarice,  such  as  theft,  rascality,  and  cer- 
tain forms  of  debauchery  and  cruelty,  such  as  the  viola- 
tion of  marital  fidelity,  murders,  crippling,  —  therefore,  as 
it  were,  permitting  all  those  phases  of  avarice,  debauchery, 
and  cruelty  which  do  not  fit  in  with  the  narrow  definition, 
which  is  subject  to  misinterpretations. 

But  not  only  does  violence  distort  public  opinion,  -^  it 
also  produces  in  men  that  pernicious  conviction  that  men 
are  not  moved  by  spiritual  force,  which  is  the  source  of 
every  forward  movement  of  humanity,  but  by  violence, 
—  that  very  action  which  not  only  does  not  bring  people 
nearer  to  truth,  but  always  removes  them  from  it.  This 
delusion  is  pernicious  in  that  it  compels  men  to  neglect 
the  fundamental  force  of  their  life,  —  their  spiritual  ac- 
tivity, —  and  to  transfer  all  their  attention  and  energy 
to  the  superficial,  idle,  and  for  the  most  part  harmful, 
activity  of  violence. 

This  delusion  is  like  the  one  men  would  be  in  if  they 
wished  to  make  a  locomotive  move  by  turning  its  wheels 
W'ith  their  hands,  forgetting  entirely  that  the  prime  cause 
of  its  motion  is  the  expansion  of  steam  and  not  the  mo- 


THE    KINGDOM    OF    GOD    IS    WITHIN    YOU      263 

tion  of  the  wheels.  Men  who  would  turn  the  wheels  with 
their  hands  and  with  levers  would  produce  nothing  but  a 
semblance  of  motion,  in  the  meantime  bending  the  wheels 
and  interfering  with  the  possibility  of  the  locomotive's  real 
motion. 

It  is  this  that  men  do  when  they  want  to  move  men 
by  means  of  external  violence. 

Men  say  that  a  Christian  life  without  violence  cannot 
be  established,  because  there  are  savage  nations  outside  of 
Christian  society,  —  in  Africa,  in  Asia  (some  people  repre- 
sent the  Chinese  as  such  a  peril  for  our  civilization),  —  and 
there  are  such  savage,  corrupt,  and,  according  to  the  new 
theory  of  heredity,  confirmed  criminals  amidst  Christian 
societies ;  and  that  violence  is  needed  for  the  purpose  of 
keeping  either  from  destroying  our  civilization. 

But  those  savage  men,  outside  and  within  the  societies, 
with  whom  we  frighten  ourselves  and  others,  have  never 
submitted  to  violence,  and  are  not  even  now  conquered 
by  it.  ^ 

Nations  have  never  subjugated  other  nations  by  violence 
alone.  If  a  nation  which  subjugated  another  stood  on  a 
lower  stage  of  de"^'elopment,  there  was  always  repeated 
the  phenomenon  that  it  did  not  introduce  its  structure  of 
life  by  means  of  violence,  but,  on  the  contrary,  always 
submitted  to  the  structure  of  life  which  existed  in  the 
conquered  nation.  If  a  nation,  crushed  by  force,  is  sub- 
jugated or  close  to  subjugation,  it  is  so  only  through 
public  opinion,  and  by  no  means  through  violence,  which, 
on  the  contrary,  provokes  the  nation  more  and  more. 

If  men  have  ever  been  subjugated  by  whole  nations  to 
a  new  religious  confession,  and  by  whole  nations  have  been 
baptized  or  have  passed  over  to  Mohammedanism,  these 
transformations  did  not  take  place  because  men  in  power 
compelled  them  to  do  so  (violence  has,  on  the  contrary, 
more  frequently  encouraged  the  movements  in  the  oppo- 
site direction),  but  because  pubHc  opinion  compelled  them 


264      THE    KINGDOM    OF    GOD    IS    WITHIN    YOU 

to  do  so ;  but  the  nations  that  were  compelled  by  force  to 
accept  the  faiths  of  their  conquerors  have  never  accepted 
them. 

The  same  is  true  in  respect  to  those  savage  elements 
which  exist  within  the  societies:  it  is  not  the  increase 
nor  the  decrease  of  the  severity  of  punishments,  nor  the 
change  of  prisons,  nor  the  increase  of  the  police,  that 
diminish  or  increase  the  number  of  crimes,  —  it  is  changed 
only  in  consequence  of  the  change  in  public  opinion. 
No  severities  have  eradicated  duels  and  vendettas  in  some 
countries.  No  matter  how  much  the  Circassians  may  be 
punished  for  theft,  they  continue  to  steal  out  of  bravado, 
because  not  one  maiden  will  marry  a  man  who  has  not 
shown  his  dariug,  by  stealing  a  horse,  or  at  least  a  sheep. 
If  men  shall  stop  fighting  duels  and  Circassians  shall  stop 
steahng,  this  will  not  be  so  because  they  are  afraid  of 
punishment  (the  fear  of  being  punished  only  increases  the 
charm  of  the  daring),  but  because  public  opinion  will  be 
changed.  The  same  is  true  in  all  other  crimes.  Violence 
can  never  destroy  what  is  accepted  by  public  opinion. 
On  the  contrary,  public  opinion  need  only  be  diametrically 
opposed  to  violence  to  destroy  its  every  action,  as  has 
always  been  the  case  with  every  martyrdom. 

We  do  not  know  what  would  happen  if  no  violence 
were  exerted  against  hostile  nations  and  criminal  elements 
of  society.  But  that  the  employment  of  violence  at  the 
present  time  does  not  subjugate  either  of  them,  that  we 
know  from  protracted  experience. 

Indeed,  how  can  we  subjugate  by  force  the  nations 
whose  whole  education,  all  whose  traditions,  even  relig- 
ious teaching,  leads  them  to  see  the  highest  virtue  in  a 
struggle  with  their  enslavers  and  in  striving  after  liberty  ? 
And  how  are  we  forcibly  to  eradicate  crimes  in  the  midst 
of  our  societies,  when  what  by  the  governments  are  con- 
sidered to  be  crimes  are  considered  to  be  virtues  by  public 
opinion.     It  is  possible  by  means  of  violence  to  destroy 


THE    KINGDOM    OF    GOD    IS    WITHIN    YOU      265 

such  nations  and  such  men,  as  is  indeed  done,  but  it  is 
impossible  to  subjugate  them. 

The  judge  of  everything,  the  fundamental  force  which 
moves  men  and  nations,  has  always  been  the  one  invis- 
ible, impalpable  force,  —  the  resultant  of  all  the  spiritual 
forces  of  a  certain  aggregate  of  men  and  of  all  humanity, 
which  is  expressed  in  pubhc  opinion. 

Violence  only  weakens  this  force,  retards,  and  distorts 
it,  and  puts  in  its  place  auother  activity,  which  is  not 
only  not  useful,  but  even  harmful  for  the  forward  move- 
ment of  liumanity. 

To  subjugate  to  Cliristianity  all  the  wild  people  out- 
side the  Christian  world,  —  all  the  Zulus,  Manchurians, 
and  Chinese,  whom  many  consider  to  be  wild,  —  and  the 
savages  within  the  Christian  world,  there  is  one,  only  one 
means,  —  the  dissemination  among  these  nations  of  a 
Christian  public  opinion,  which  is  established  only  through 
a  Christian  life.  Christian  acts.  Christian  examples.  And 
so  in  order  to  conquer  the  nations  which  have  remained 
unconquered  by  Clnistianity,  the  men  of  our  time,  who 
possess  one,  and  only  one,  means  for  this  purpose,  do 
precisely  the  opposite  of  what  might  attain  their  end. 

To  conquer  to  Christianity  the  wild  nations,  who  do 
not  touch  us  and  who  do  not  in  any  way  provoke  us  to 
oppress  them,  we  —  instead  of  leaving  them  first  of  all 
alone,  and,  in  case  of  necessity  or  of  a  wish  to  get  in  closer 
relations  with  them,  acting  upon  them  only  through  a 
Christian  relation  to  them,  through  the  Christian  teaching 
as  proved  by  truly  Christian  acts  of  suffering,  humihty, 
abstinence,  purity,  brotherhood,  love  — begin  by  this,  that 
we  open  among  them  new  markets  for  our  commerce,  with 
nothing  but  our  advantage  in  view,  seize  their  laud,  that 
is,  rob  them,  sell  them  w4ne,  tobacco,  opium,  that  is, 
corrupt  them,  and  establish  among  them  our  order,  teach 
them  violence  and  all  its  methods,  that  is,  the  following 
of  nothing  but  the  animal  law  of  struggle,  below  which 


266     THE    KINGDOM    OF    GOD    IS    WITHIN   YOU 

no  man  can  descend,  and  we  do  everything  which  can  be 
done  in  order  to  conceal  from  them  whatever  of  Chris- 
tianity there  is  in  us.  And  after  that  we  send  to  them 
about  two  dozen  missionaries,  who  prattle  some  hypocrit- 
ical ecclesiastic  absurdities  and,  in  the  shape  of  incon- 
trovertible proofs  of  the  impossibility  of  applying  the 
Christian  truths  to  life,  adduce  these  our  experiments  at 
the  Christianization  of  the  savages. 

The  same  is  true  of  the  so-called  criminals,  who  live 
within  our  societies.  To  subjugate  these  men  to  Christi- 
anity, there  is  but  one,  the  only  way,  —  the  Christian 
public  opinion,  which  can  be  established  among  these  men 
only  by  means  of  the  true  Christian  teaching,  confirmed 
by  a  true.  Christian  example  of  life. 

And  so,  to  preach  this  Christian  teaching  and  confirm 
it  by  a  Christian  example,  we  establish  among  these  people 
agonizing  prisons,  guillotines,  gallows,  capital  punishments, 
preparations  for  murder,  for  which  we  use  all  our  strength  ; 
we  estabhsh  for  the  common  people  idolatrous  doctrines, 
which  are  to  stupefy  them  ;  we  establish  the  governmental 
sale  of  intoxicants,  —  wine,  tobacco,  opium ;  we  establish 
even  prostitution ;  we  give  the  land  to  those  who  do  not 
need  it ;  we  establish  spectacles  of  senseless  luxury  amidst 
wretchedness  ;  we  destroy  every  possibility  of  every  sem- 
blance of  a  Christian  public  opinion  ;  we  cautiously  des- 
troy the  established  Christian  public  opinion,  —  and  then 
we  quote  these  very  men,  who  have  carefully  been  cor- 
rupted by  ourselves,  and  whom  we  lock  up,  like  wild 
beasts,  in  places  from  which  they  cannot  get  away,  and  in 
which  they  grow  more  bestial  still,  or  whom  we  kill,  as 
examples  of  the  impossibihty  of  acting  upon  them  other- 
wise than  through  violence. 

What  takes  place  is  like  what  happens  when  conscien- 
tious ignorant  physicians  place  a  patient  who  has  been 
cured  by  the  force  of  Nature  under  most  unhygienic  con- 
ditions and  stuff  him  full  of  poisonous  medicines,  and  then 


THE    KINGDOM    OF    GOD    IS    WITHIN    YOU     267 

claim  that  it  was  only  thanks  to  their  hygiene  and  care 
that  the  patient  did  not  die,  whereas  the  sick  man  would 
have  been  well  long  ago,  if  they  had  left  him  alone. 

Violence,  which  is  put  forth  as  the  instrument  for  main- 
taining the  Christian  structure  of  life,  not  only  does  not 
produce  this  effect,  but,  on  the  contrary,  prevents  the 
social  structure  from  being  what  it  could  and  should  be. 
The  social  structure  is  such  as  it  is,  not  thanks  to  violence, 
but  in  spite  of  it. 

And  so  there  is  no  truth  in  the  assertion  of  the  de- 
fenders of  the  existing  order,  that,  if  violence  barely  keeps 
the  evil  non-Christian  elements  of  humanity  from  attack- 
ing us,  the  abolition  of  violence  and  the  suljstitution  of 
public  opinion  for  it  will  not  protect  humanity.  It  is  not 
true,  because  violence  does  not  protect  humanity,  but,  on 
the  contrary,  deprives  humanity  of  the  one  possibility  of 
a  true  protection  through  the  establishment  and  diffusion 
of  the  Christian  public  opinion  as  regards  the  existing 
order  of  life.  Only  with  the^  abolition  of  violence  will 
Christian  public  opinion  cease  to  be  corrupt,  and  receive 
the  possibiUty  of  an  unimpeded  diffusion,  and  men  will 
not  direct  their  strength  toward  what  they  do  not 
need,  but  toward  the  one  spiritual  force  which  moves 
them. 

"  But  how  can  we  reject  the  visible,  palpable  protection 
of  the  policeman  with  his  revolver,  and  depend  on  some- 
thing invisible,  impalpable,  —  the  public  opinion  ?  Does 
it  still  exist,  or  not  ?  Above  all  else,  we  know  the  order 
of  things  in  which  we  live.  Be  it  good  or  bad,  we  know 
its  defects  and  are  used  to  it ;  we  know  how  to  act,  what 
to  do  under  present  conditions ;  but  what  \vill  happen 
when  we  reject  them  and  depend  on  something  invisible, 
impalpable,  and  entirely  unknown  ?  "  And  the  uncertainty 
upon  which  men  enter,  when  rejecting  the  known  order 
of  things,  seems  terrible  to  them. 

It  is  all  very  well  to  be  afraid  of  the  uncertainty,  when 


:i68      THE    KINGDOM    OF    GOD    IS    WITHIN    YOU 

our  position  is  firm  and  secure;  but  our  position  is  not 
only  not  secure,  —  we  know  for  certain  that  we  are  stand- 
ing on  the  brink  of  perdition. 

If  we  have  to  be  afraid  of  something,  let  us  be  afraid  of 
what  is  really  terrible,  and  not  of  what  we  only  imagine 
to  be  terrible. 

In  our  fear  to  make  an  effort  to  tear  ourselves  away 
from  the  conditions  which  ruin  us,  only  because  the  future 
is  not  quite  certain  to  us,  we  resemble  the  passengers  of  a 
sinking  ship,  who,  for  fear  of  stepping  into  a  boat  which 
is  to  take  them  to  the  shore,  retreat  to  their  cabins  and 
refuse  to  come  out  from  them ;  or  those  sheep  which,  out 
of  fear  of  the  fire  which  has  enveloped  the  whole  yard, 
press  close  under  the  penthouses  and  do  not  walk  through 
the  open  gates. 

How  can  we,  who  are  standing  on  the  threshold  of  a  war 
of  inner  revolutions,  which  is  terrifying  by  its  wretched- 
ness and  destructiveness,  and  in  comparison  with  which, 
as  those  who  are  preparing  it  say,  the  terrors  of  the  year 
'93  will  be  play,  speak  of  a  danger  which  is  threatened 
us  by  the  Dahomeans,  the  Zulus,  etc.,  who  live  far,  far 
away,  and  do  not  think  of  attacking  us,  and  by  those  few 
thousands  of  robbers,  thieves,  and  nmrderers,  whom  we 
ourselves  have  stupefied  and  corrupted,  and  whose  number 
is  not  at  all  diminishing  as  the  result  of  all  our  courts, 
prisons,  and  capital  punishments  ? 

Besides,  this  fear  of  the  abolition  of  the  visible  protec- 
tion of  the  policeman  is  preeminently  a  fear  of  city  people, 
that  is,  of  people  who  live  under  abnormal  and  artificial 
conditions.  Men  who  live  under  normal  conditions  of 
life,  not  amidst  cities,  but  amidst  Nature,  struggling  with 
it,  live  without  this  protection  and  know  how  little  violence 
can  protect  them  against  the  actual  dangers  with  which 
they  are  surrounded.  In  this  fear  there  is  something 
morbid,  which  depends  mainly  on  those  false  conditions 
under  which  many  of  us  live  and  have  grown  up. 


m 


THE    KINGDOM    OF    GOD    IS    WITHIN    YOU      1^69 

An  alienist  told  me  how  one  summer  day  he  was 
accompanied  l)y  his  insane  patients  as  far  as  the  gate  of 
the  hospital  which  he  was  leaving.  "  Come  with  me 
to  the  city,"  the  doctor  proposed  to  them.  The  patients 
agreed  to  it,  and  a  small  crowd  followed  the  doctor.  But 
the  farther  they  proceeded  along  the  street,  where  took 
place  the  free  motion  of  sound  men,  the  more  did  they  feel 
timid,  and  the  more  did  they  press  close  to  the  doctor, 
retarding  his  walk.  Finally,  they  all  began  to  ask  him  to 
take  them  back  to  the  hospital,  to  their  senseless,  but 
habitual  mode  of  life,  to  their  guards,  their  blows,  their 
long  sleeves,  their  solitary  cells. 

Even  thus  men  press  close  and  hanker  after  their 
senseless  structure  of  life,  their  factories,  courts,  prisons, 
capital  punishments,  wars,  though  Christianity  calls  them 
to  freedom,  to  the  free,  rational  life  of  the  future,  the 
imminent  age. 

Men  say,  "  By  what  shall  we  be  made  secure,  when  the 
existing  order  is  destroyed  ?  What  will  the  new  orders  be 
which  will  take  the  place  of  those  of  the  present  time, 
and  in  what  will  they  consist  ?  So  long  as  we  do  not 
know  how  our  life  will  be  composed,  we  shall  not  move 
on  or  budge  from  our  place." 

This  demand  is  what  the  explorer  of  new  countries 
might  put  forth,  in  demanding  a  detailed  description  of 
the  country  into  which  he  is  entering. 

If  the  life  of  the  individual  man,  in  passing  from  one 
age  to  another,  were  fully  known  to  him,  he  would  have 
no  reason  for  living.  The  same  is  true  of  the  life  of 
humanity :  if  it  had  a  programme  of  the  life  which  awaits 
it  as  it  enters  upon  its  new  age,  this  would  be  the  surest 
symptom  that  it  is  not  living,  does  not  move  on,  but  is 
wliirling  about  in  one  spot. 

The  conditions  of  the  new  structure  of  life  cannot  be 
known  to  us,  because  they  have  to  be  worked  out  by  our- 
selves.    In  this  alone  does  life  consist,  namely,  in  recog- 


270     THE    KINGDOM    OF    GOD    IS    WITHIN    YOU 


nizing  the  unknown  and  conforming  our  activity  to  this 


new  cognition. 


In  this  does  the  life  of  every  individual  and  the  life  of 
human  societies  and  of  humanity  consist. 


XI. 

The  condition  of  Christian  humanity,  with  its  prisons, 
hard  labour,  gallows,  with  its  factories,  accumulations  of 
capital,  with  its  taxes,  churches,  saloons,  houses  of  ill 
fame,  ever  growing  armaments,  and  millions  of  stupefied 
men,  who  are  ready,  like  chained  dogs,  to  thrust  them- 
selves upon  those  the  masters  may  set  them  on,  would  be 
terrible  if  it  were  the  product  of  violence,  whereas  it  is 
above  all  the  product  of  public  opinion.  But  what  is  es- 
tablished by  public  opinion  not  only  can  be,  but  actually 
is,  destroyed  by  it. 

Hundreds  of  millions  in  money,  tens  of  millions  of 
disciplined  men,  implements  of  destruction  of  wonderful 
power,  with  an  organization  which  of  late  has  been  carried 
to  the  higliest  degree  of  perfection,  with  a  whole  army 
of  men  whose  calling  it  is  to  deceive  and  hypnotize  the 
masses,  and  all  this,  by  means  of  electricity,  which  anni- 
hilates space,  subjected  to  men,  who  not  only  consider 
such  a  structure  of  society  to  be  advantageous  for  them, 
but  even  such  that  without  it  they  would  inevitably 
perish,  and  who,  therefore,  use  every  effort  of  their  minds 
in  order  to  maintain  it,  —  what  an  invincible  force,  one 
would  think ! 

And  yet,  one  needs  but  get  a  conception  of  what  it  all 
tends  to  and  wliat  no  one  can  keep  back,  —  that  among 
men  there  will  be  established  a  Christian  public  opinion, 
with  the  same  force  and  universality  as  the  pagan  public 
opinion,  and  that  it  will  take  the  place  of  the  pagan  one, 
that  the  majority  of  men  will  be  just  as  ashamed  of  all 
participation  in  violence  and  its  exploitation  as  men  are 

271 


272      THE    KINGDOM    OF    GOD    IS    WITHIN    YOU 

now  ashamed  of  rascality,  stealing,  beggary,  cowardice, 
and  immediately  this  complex  and  apparently  powerful 
structure  of  life  falls  of  its  own  accord,  without  any 
struggle.  It  is  not  necessary  for  anything  new  to  enter 
into  the  consciousness  of  men,  but  only  for  the  mist  to  dis- 
appear, which  conceals  from  men  the  true  meaning  of  some 
acts  of  violence,  in  order  that  this  may  happen  and  the 
growing  Christian  public  opinion  should  get  the  better  of 
the  obsolescent  pagan  public  opinion,  which  admitted  and 
justified  acts  of  violence.  All  that  is  needed  is  that  men 
should  feel  as  much  ashamed  of  doing  acts  of  violence, 
of  taking  part  in  them,  and  exploiting  them,  as  it  is  now 
a  disgrace  to  pass  for  a  rascal,  a  thief,  a  coward,  a  beggar. 
And  it  is  precisely  this  that  is  beginning  to  happen.  We  do 
not  notice  it,  just  as  men  do  not  notice  any  motion,  when 
they  move  together  with  everything  surrounding  them. 

It  is  true,  the  structure  of  life  in  its  main  features 
remains  as  violent  in  nature  as  it  was  one  hundred  years 
ago,  and  not  only  the  same,  but  in  some  relations,  espe- 
cially in  the  preparations  for  war  and  in  the  wars  them- 
selves, it  appears  to  be  even  more  cruel ;  but  the  germinating 
Christian  public  opinion,  which  at  a  certain  stage  of  its 
development  is  to  change  the  whole  pagan  structure  of 
life,  is  beginning  to  be  active.  The  dried-up  tree  stands 
apparently  as  firm  as  before,  —  it  even  looks  firmer,  be- 
cause it  is  rougher,  —  but  it  is  already  weakened  at  the 
pith  and  is  getting  ready  to  fall.  The  same  is  true  of 
the  present  structure  of  life,  which  is  based  on  violence. 
The  external  condition  of  men  is  the  same :  some  are  the 
violators,  as  before,  and  others  are  the  violated ;  but  the 
view  of  the  violators  and  the  violated  upon  the  meaning 
and  worth  of  the  position  of  either  has  changed. 

The  violating  people,  that  is,  those  who  take  part  in 
the  government,  and  those  who  make  use  of  the  violence, 
that  is,  the  rich,  no  longer  represent,  as  formerly,  the 
flower  of  society  and  the  ideal  of  human  well-being  and 


THE    KINGDOM    OF    GOD    IS    WITHIN    YOU      273 

grandeur,  toward  which  all  the  violated  used  to  strive. 
Now  very  frequeutly  it  is  not  so  much  the  violated  who 
strive  after  the  position  of  the  violators  and  try  to  imitate 
them,  as  the  violators,  who  frequently  of  their  own  free 
will  renounce  the  advantages  of  their  position,  choose  the 
condition  of  the  violated,  and  try  in  simplicity  of  life  to 
emulate  the  violated. 

To  say  nothing  of  the  now  openly  despised  occupations 
and  offices,  such  as  those  of  spies,  agents  of  secret  police, 
usurers,  saloon-keepers,  a  large  number  of  occupations 
of  violators,  which  formerly  used  to  be  considered  respect- 
able, such  as  those  of  policemen,  courtiers,  members  of 
courts,  the  administration,  the  clergy,  the  military,  monop- 
olists, bankers,  not  only  are  not  considered  by  all  to 
be  desirable,  but  are  even  condemned  by  a  certain  most 
respectable  circle  of  men.  There  are  now  men  who  volun- 
tarily renounce  these  positions,  which  heretofore  were 
considered  to  be  above  reproach,  and  who  prefer  less 
advantageous  positions,  which  are  not  connected  "with 
violence. 

It  is  not  only  men  of  the  state,  but  also  rich  men,  who, 
not  from  a  religious  feeling,  as  used  to  be  the  case,  but 
only  from  a  peculiar  sensitiveness  for  the  germinating 
public  opinion,  refuse  to  receive  their  inherited  fortunes, 
considering  it  just  to  use  only  so  nmch  as  they  earn  by 
their  own  labour. 

The  conditions  of  the  participant  in  the  government 
and  of  the  rich  man  no  longer  present  themselves,  as  they 
presented  themselves  formerly  and  even  now  present 
themselves  among  the  non-Christian  nations,  as  unques- 
tionably honourable  and  worthy  of  respect  and  as  divine 
blessings.  Very  sensitive,  moral  men  (tliey  are  for  the 
most  part  the  most  highly  cultured)  avoid  these  conditions 
and  prefer  more  modest  ones,  which  are  independent  of 
violence. 

The  best  young  men,  at  an  age  when  they  are  not  yet 


274  THE  KINGDOM  OF  GOD  IS  WITHIN  YOU 

corrupted  by  life  and  when  they  choose  a  career,  prefer 
the  activities  of  physicians,  technologists,  teachers,  artists, 
writers,  even  simply  of  agriculturists,  who  live  by  their 
own  labour,  to  positions  in  courts,  in  the  administration, 
in  the  church,  and  in  the  army,  which  are  paid  by  the 
government,  or  the  positions  of  men  who  live  on  their 
own  incomes. 

The  majority  of  monuments  which  are  now  erected  are 
no  longer  in  commemoration  of  men  of  state,  of  generals, 
and  less  certainly  not  of  the  rich,  but  of  the  learned,  of 
artists,  of  inventors,  of  men  who  have  not  only  had  noth- 
ing in  common  with  the  governments,  or  with  the  authori- 
ties, but  who  frequently  have  struggled  against  them.  It 
is  not  so  much  men  of  state  and  rich  men,  as  learned  men 
and  artists,  who  are  extolled  in  poetry,  represented  in 
plastic  art,  and  honoured  with  festive  jubilees. 

The  best  men  of  our  time  tend  toward  these  most 
ho^noured  positions,  and  so  the  circle  from  which  the  men 
of  state  and  the  rich  come  is  growing  smaller  and  smaller, 
so  that  in  intellect,  culture,  and  especially  in  moral  quali- 
ties, the  men  who  now  stand  at  the  head  of  govern- 
ments, and  the  rich  no  longer  represent,  as  in  olden  times, 
the  flower  of  society,  but,  on  the  contrary,  stand  below  the 
average. 

As  in  Eussia  and  in  Turkey,  so  in  America  and  in 
France,  no  matter  how  much  the  governments  may  change 
their  officials,  the  majority  of  them  are  selfish  and  venal 
men,  who  stand  on  so  low  a  level  of  morality  that  they 
do  not  satisfy  even  those  low  demands  of  simple  integrity 
which  the  governments  make  upon  them.  We  now  fre- 
quently get  to  hear  the  naive  regrets  of  men  of  state,  be- 
cause the  best  men  by  some  strange  accident,  as  they 
think,  are  always  in  the  hostile  camp.  It  is  as  though 
men  should  complain  that  by  a  strange  accident  it  is 
always  men  with  little  refinement,  who  are  not  particu- 
larly good,  that  become  hangmen. 


THE    KINGDOM    OF    GOD    IS    WITHIN    YOU     275 

The  luajority  of  rich  meu,  similarly,  iu  our  time  are  no 
longer  composed  of  the  most  refined  and  cultured  men  of 
society,  as  used  to  be  the  case,  but  of  coarse  accumulators 
of  wealth,  who  are  interested  only  in  their  enrichment,  for 
the  most  part  by  dishonest  means,  or  of  degenerating  de- 
scendants of  these  accumulators,  who  not  only  do  not  play 
any  prominent  part  in  society,  but  in  the  majority  of  cases 
are  subject  to  universal  contempt. 

Not  only  is  the  circle  of  meu,  from  which  the  servants 
of  the  government  and  the  rich  men  are  chosen,  growing 
all  the  time  smaller  and  smaller,  and  more  and  more 
debased,  but  these  men  themselves  no  longer  ascribe  to 
the  positions  which  they  hold  their  former  significance, 
and  frequently,  being  ashamed  of  them,  to  the  disadvan- 
tage of  the  cause  which  they  serve,  neglect  to  carry  out 
what  by  their  position  they  are  called  upon  to  do.  Kings 
and  emperors  have  the  management  of  hardly  anything, 
hardly  ever  have  the  courage  to  make  internal  changes 
and  to  enter  into  new  external  political  conditions,  but 
for  the  most  part  leave  the  solution  of  these  questions  to 
state  institutions  or  to  public  opinion.  All  their  duties 
reduce  themselves  to  being  the  representatives  of  state 
unity  and  supremacy.  But  even  this  duty  they  are  per- 
forming worse  and  worse.  The  majority  of  them  not 
only  do  not  keep  themselves  in  their  former  inaccessible 
grandeur,  but,  on  the  contrary,  are  becoming  more  and 
more  democratized,  and  even  keep  low  company,  throwing 
off  their  last  external  prestige,  that  is,  violating  precisely 
what  they  are  called  upon  to  maintain. 

The  same  takes  place  among  the  military.  The  military 
men  of  the  higher  ranks,  instead  of  encouraging  the  coarse- 
ness and  cruelty  of  the  soldiers,  which  are  necessary  for 
their  business,  themselves  disseminate  culture  among  the 
military,  preach  humauitarianism,  and  frequently  them- 
selves share  the  socialistic  convictions  of  the  masses,  and 
jeject  war.     In  the  late  plots  against  the  Eussian  govern- 


276     THE    KINGDOM    OF    GOD    IS    WITHIN    YOU 

ment,  many  of  those  mixed  up  with  them  were  army  men. 
The  number  of  these  military  plotters  is  growing  larger 
and  larger.  Very  frequently  it  happens,  as  was  the  case 
lately,  that  the  soldiers,  who  are  called  upon  to  pacify  the 
inhabitants,  refuse  to  shoot  at  them.  Military  bravado  is 
directly  condemned  by  army  men  themselves,  and  fre- 
quently serves  as  a  subject  for  ridicule. 

The  same  is  true  of  judges  and  prosecuting  attorneys : 
judges,  whose  duty  it  is  to  judge  and  sentence  criminals, 
manage  the  proceedings  in  such  a  way  as  to  discharge 
them,  so  that  the  Eussian  government,  to  have  men  sen- 
tenced that  it  wants  to  have  sentenced,  never  subjects 
them  to  common  courts,  but  turns  them  over  to  so-called 
military  courts,  which  represent  but  a  semblance  of 
courts.  The  same  is  true  of  prosecuting  attorneys,  who 
frequently  refuse  to  prosecute,  and,  instead  of  prosecuting, 
circumvent  the  law,  defending  those  whom  they  should 
prosecute.  Learned  jurists,  who  are  obliged  to  justify  the 
violence  of  power,  more  and  more  deny  the  right  to  punish, 
and  in  its  place  introduce  theories  of  irresponsibility,  and 
even  not  of  the  correction,  but  of  the  cure  of  those  whom 
they  call  criminals. 

Jailers  and  superintendents  of  hard-labour  convicts  for 
the  most  part  become  defenders  of  those  whom  they  are 
supposed  to  torture.  Gendarmes  and  spies  constantly 
save  those  whom  they  are  supposed  to  ruin.  Clerical  per- 
sons preach  toleration,  often  also  the  negation  of  violence, 
and  the  more  cultured  among  them  try  in  their  sermons 
to  avoid  the  lie  which  forms  the  whole  meaning  of  their 
position  and  which  they  are  called  upon  to  preach. 
Executioners  refuse  to  carry  out  their  duties,  so  that  in 
Russia  capital  punishment  can  frequently  not  be  carried 
out  for  want  of  executioners,  since,  in  spite  of  the  advan- 
tages lield  out  to  make  hard-labour  convicts  become 
executioners,  there  is  an  ever  decreasing  number  of  such 
as  are  willing  to  take  up  the    duty.     Governors,  rural 


THE    KINGDOM    OF    GOD    IS    WITHIN    YOU      277 

judges  and  of&cers,  collectors  of  taxes,  publicans,  pityiug 
the  people,  frequently  try  to  find  excuses  for  not  collect- 
ing the  taxes  from  them.  Rich  men  cannot  make  up 
their  minds  to  use  their  wealth  for  themselves  alone,  but 
distribute  it  for  public  purposes.  Landowners  erect  on 
their  lands  hospitals  and  schools,  and  some  of  them  even 
renounce  the  ownership  of  land  and  transfer  it  to  the 
agriculturists,  or  establish  communes  on  it.  Manufac- 
turers build  hospitals,  schools,  houses  for  their  workmen, 
and  establish  savings-banks  and  pensions ;  some  establish 
companies,  in  which  they  take  an  equal  share  with  other 
shareholders.  Capitalists  give  part  of  their  capital  for 
public,  educational,  artistic,  philanthropic  institutions. 
Unable  to  part  from  their  wealth  during  their  lifetime, 
many  of  them  will  it  away  after  their  death  in  favour  of 
public  institutions. 

All  these  phenomena  might  appear  accidental,  if  they 
did  not  all  reduce  themselves  to  one  common  cause,  just 
as  it  might  seem  accidental  that  the  buds  should  swell  on 
some  of  the  trees  in  spring,  if  we  did  not  know  that  the 
cause  of  it  is  the  common  spring,  and  that,  if  the  buds 
have  begun  to  swell  on  some  of  the  trees,  the  same  no 
doul)t  will  happen  with  all  of  the  trees. 

The  same  is  true  in  the  manifestation  of  the  Christian 
public  opinion  as  regards  the  significance  of  violence  and 
of  what  is  based  upon  it.  If  this  public  opinion  is  al- 
ready influencing  some  very  sensitive  men,  and  causes 
them,  each  in  his  own  business,  to  renounce  the  privileges 
which  violence  grants,  or  not  to  use  them,  it  will  continue 
to  act  on  others,  and  will  act  until  it  will  change  the 
whole  activity  of  men  and  will  liring  tliem  in  agreement 
with  that  Christian  consciousness  whicli  is  already  liWng 
among  tlie  leading  men  of  humanity. 

And  if  tliere  now  are  rulers  who  do  not  have  the 
courage  to  undertake  anything  in  the  name  of  their  own 
power,  and  who  try  as  much  as  possible  to  resemble,  not 


278      THE    KINGDOM    OF    GOD    IS    WITHIN    YOU 

monarchs,  but  the  simplest  mortals,  aud  who  show  their 
readiness  to  renounce  their  prerogatives  and  to  become 
the  first  citizens  of  their  republics  ;  and  if  there  are  now 
army  men  who  understand  all  the  evil  and  sinfulness  of 
war  and  do  not  wish  to  shoot  at  men  belonging  to  another 
nation,  or  to  their  own ;  aud  judges  and  prosecuting 
attorneys,  who  do  not  wish  to  prosecute  and  condemn 
criminals  ;  and  clergymen,  who  renounce  their  lie  ;  and 
publicans,  who  try  as  little  as  possible  to  perform  what 
they  are  called  upon  to  perform  ;  and  rich  men,  who  give 
up  their  wealth,  —  the  same  will  inevitably  happen  with 
other  governments,  other  army  men,  other  members  of  the 
court,  clergymen,  publicans,  and  rich  men.  And  when 
there  shall  be  no  men  to  hold  these  positions,  there  will 
be  none  of  these  positions  and  no  violence. 

But  it  is  not  by  this  road  alone  that  public  opinion 
leads  men  to  the  abolition  of  the  existing  order  and  the 
substitution  of  another  for  it.  In  proportion  as  the 
positions  of  violence  become  less  and  less  attractive,  and 
there  are  fewer  and  fewer  men  willing  to  occupy  them, 
their  uselessness  becomes  more  and  more  apparent. 

In  the  Christian  world  there  are  the  same  rulers  and 
governments,  the  same  courts,  the  same  publicans,  the 
same  clergy,  the  same  rich  men,  landowners,  manufac- 
turers, and  capitalists,  as  before,  but  there  is  an  entirely 
different  relation  of  men  toward  men  and  of  the  men 
themselves  toward  their  positions. 

It  is  still  the  same  rulers,  the  same  meetings,  and 
chases,  and  feasts,  and  balls,  and  uniforms,  and  the  same 
diplomats,  aud  talks  about  alliances  and  wars ;  the 
same  parliaments,  iu  which  they  still  discuss  Eastern  and 
African  questions,  and  alliances,  aud  breaches  of  relations, 
and  Home  Rule,  and  an  eight-hour  day.  And  the  minis- 
tries give  way  to  one  another  in  the  same  way,  and  there 
are  the  same  speeches,  the  same  incidents.  But  men  who 
see  how  one  article  iu  a  newspaper  changes  the  state  of 


TUE    KINGDOM    OF    GOD   IS    WITHIN    YOU      279 

affairs  more  than  dozens  of  meetings  of  monarch s  and 
sessions  of  parliaments,  see  more  and  more  clearly  that 
it  is  not  the  meetiugs  and  rendezvous  and  the  discus- 
sions in  the  parliaments  that  guide  the  affairs  of  men,  but 
something  independent  of  all  this,  which  is  not  centred 
anywhere. 

There  are  the  same  generals,  and  officers,  and  soldiers, 
and  guns,  and  fortresses,  and  parades,  and  manoeuvres,  but 
there  has  been  no  war  for  a  year,  tun,  twenty  years,  and, 
besides,  one  can  depend  less  on  the  military  for  the  sup- 
pression of  riots,  and  it  is  getting  clearer  and  clearer 
that,  therefore,  generals,  and  officers,  and  soldiers  are 
only  members  of  festive  processions,  —  objects  of  amuse- 
ment for  rulers,  large,  rather  expensive  corps-de-ballet. 

Tliere  are  the  same  prosecutors  and  judges,  and  the 
same  proceedings,  but  it  is  getting  clearer  and  clearer 
that,  since  civil  cases  are  decided  on  the  basis  of  all  kinds 
of  cousiderations  except  that  of  justice,  and  since  criminal 
cases  have  no  sense,  because  punishments  attain  no  pur- 
pose admitted  even  by  the  judges,  these  institutions  have 
no  other  significance  than  that  of  serving  as  a  means 
for  supporting  men  who  are  not  fit  for  anything  more 
useful. 

There  are  the  same  clergymen,  and  bishops,  and 
churches,  and  synods,  but  it  is  becoming  clearer  and  clearer 
to  all  men  that  these  men  have  long  ago  ceased  to  believe 
in  what  they  preach,  and  that,  therefore,  they  cannot  con- 
vince any  one  of  the  necessity  of  believing  in  what  they 
themselves  do  not  beheve. 

There  are  the  same  collectors  of  taxes,  but  they  are 
becoming  less  and  less  capable  of  taking  away  by  force 
people's  property,  and  it  is  becoming  clearer  and  clearer 
that  people  can  without  collectors  of  taxes  collect  all  that 
is  necessary  by  subscribing  it  voluntarily. 

There  are  the  same  rich  men,  but  it  is  becoming  clearer 
and  clearer  that  they  can  be  useful  only  in  proportion  as 


280     THE   KINGDOM    OF    GOD   IS    WITHIN   YOU 

they  cease  to  be  personal  managers  of  their  wealth  and 
give  to  society  all,  or  at  least  a  part,  of  their  fortunes. 

When  all  this  shall  become  completely  clear  to  all,  it 
will  be  natural  for  men  to  ask  themselves,  "  But  why 
should  we  feed  and  maintain  all  these  kings,  emperors, 
presidents,  and  members  of  all  kinds  of  Chambers  and 
ministries,  if  nothing  results  from  all  their  meetings  and 
discussions  ?  Would  it  not  be  better,  as  some  jester  said, 
to  make  a  queen  out  of  rubber  ? " 

"  And  what  good  to  us  are  the  armies,  with  their  gener- 
als, and  music,  and  cavalry,  and  drums  ?  What  good 
are  they  when  there  is  no  war  and  no  one  wants  to  con- 
quer any  one,  and  when,  even  if  there  is  a  war,  the  other 
nations  do  not  let  us  profit  from  it,  and  the  troops  refuse 
to  shoot  at  their  own  people  ? " 

"  And  what  good  are  judges  and  prosecutors  who  in 
civil  cases  do  not  decide  according  to  justice  and  in  crim- 
inal cases  know  themselves  that  all  punishments  are 
useless  ? " 

"  And  of  what  use  are  collectors  of  taxes  who  unwill- 
ingly collect  the  taxes,  while  what  is  needed  is  collected 
without  them  ? " 

"  And  of  what  use  is  the  clergy,  which  has  long  ago 
ceased  to  believe  in  what  it  preaches  ? " 

"  And  of  what  use  is  capital  in  private  hands,  when  it 
can  be  of  use  only  by  becoming  the  common  possession  ? " 

And  having  once  asked  themselves  this,  people  cannot 
help  but  come  to  the  conclusion  that  they  ought  not  to 
support  all  these  useless  institutions. 

But  not  only  will  the  men  who  support  these  institu- 
tions arrive  at  the  necessity  of  abolishing  them,  —  the 
men  themselves  who  occupy  these  positions  will  simul- 
taneously or  even  earlier  be  brought  to  the  necessity  of 
giving  up  their  positions. 

Public  opinion  more  and  more  condemns  violence,  and 
so  men,  more  and  more  submitting  to  public  opinion,  are 


THE    KINGDOM    OF    GOD    IS    WITHIN    YOU      281 

less  and  less  desirous  of  holding  their  positions,  which 
are  maintained  by  violence,  and  those  who  hold  these 
positions  are  less  and  less  able  to  make  use  of  violence. 

But  by  not  using  violence,  and  yet  remaining  in  posi- 
tions which  are  conditioned  by  violence,  the  men  who 
occupy  these  positions  become  more  and  more  useless. 
And  this  uselessness,  which  is  more  and  more  felt  by 
those  who  maintain  these  positions  and  by  those  who 
hold  them,  will  finally  be  such  that  there  will  be  found 
no  men  to  maintain  them  and  none  who  would  be  willing 
to  hold  them. 

Once  I  was  present  in  Moscow  at  some  discussions 
about  faith,  which,  as  usual,  took  place  during  Quasimodo 
week  near  a  church  in  Hunter's  Eow.  About  twenty 
men  were  gathered  on  the  sidewalk,  and  a  serious  discus- 
sion on  religion  was  going  on.  At  the  same  time  there 
was  some  kind  of  a  concert  in  the  adjoining  building  of 
the  Assembly  of  Noblemen,  and  an  officer  of  police,  notic- 
ing a  crowd  of  people  gathered  near  the  church,  sent  a 
mounted  gendarme  to  order  them  to  disperse.  The  officer 
had  personally  no  desire  that  they  should  disperse.  The 
crowd  of  twenty  men  were  in  nobody's  way,  but  the 
officer  had  been  standing  there  the  whole  morning,  and 
he  had  to  do  something.  The  gendarme,  a  young  lad, 
with  his  right  arm  jauntily  akimbo  and  clattering  sword, 
rode  up  to  us  and  shouted  commandingly,  "  Scatter ! 
What  are  you  doing  there  ?  "  Everybody  looked  at  the 
gendarme,  and  one  of  the  speakers,  a  modest  man  in  a 
long  coat,  said  calmly  and  kindly  :  "  We  are  talking  about 
something  important,  and  there  is  no  reason  why  we 
should  scatter.  Young  man,  you  had  better  get  down 
and  listen  to  what  we  are  talking  about,  —  it  will  do 
you  good,"  and  turning  away,  he  continued  his  discourse. 
The  gendarme  made  no  reply,  wheeled  his  horse  around, 
and  rode  off. 

The  same  thing  must  happen  in  all  matters  of  violence. 


282      THE    KINGDOM    OF    GOD    IS    WITHIN    TOTT 

The  officer  feels  ennui,  he  has  nothing  to  do ;  the  poor 
fellow  is  placed  in  a  position  where  he  must  command. 
He  is  deprived  of  all  human  life,  and  all  he  can  do  is  to 
look  and  command,  to  command  and  look,  though  his 
commands  and  his  watching  are  of  no  earthly  use.  In 
such  a  condition  all  those  unfortunate  rulers,  ministers, 
members  of  parliaments,  governors,  generals,  officers, 
bishops,  clergymen,  even  rich  men  are  now  partly  and 
soon  will  be  completely.  They  can  do  nothing  else  but 
command,  and  they  command  and  send  their  messengers, 
as  the  officer  sends  his  gendarme,  to  be  in  people's  way, 
and  since  the  people  whom  they  trouble  turn  to  them 
with  the  request  that  they  be  left  alone,  they  imagine 
that  they  are  indispensable. 

But  the  time  is  coming,  and  will  soon  be  here,  when  it 
shall  be  quite  clear  for  all  men  that  they  are  not  any 
good  and  are  only  in  the  way  of  people,  and  the  people 
whom  they  bother  will  say  to  them  kindly  and  meekly, 
as  that  man  in  the  long  overcoat,  "  Please,  do  not  bother 
us."  And  all  the  messengers  and  senders  will  have  to 
follow  that  good  advice,  that  is,  stop  riding  with  arms 
akimbo  among  the  people,  bothering  them,  and  get  down 
from  their  hobbies,  take  off  their  attire,  listen  to  what 
people  have  to  say,  and,  joining  them,  take  hold  with 
them  of  the  true  human  work. 

The  time  is  coming,  and  will  inevitably  come,  when  all 
the  institutions  of  violence  of  our  time  will  be  destroyed 
in  consequence  of  their  too  obvious  uselessness,  silliness, 
and  even  indecency. 

The  time  must  come,  when  with  the  men  of  our  world, 
who  hold  positions  that  are  given  by  violence,  will  hap- 
pen what  happened  with  the  king  in  Andersen's  fable, 
"  The  New  Eoyal  Garment,"  when  a  small  child,  seeing 
the  naked  king,  naively  called  out,  "  Behold,  he  is  naked  ! " 
and  all  those  who  had  seen  it  before,  but  had  not  ex- 
pressed it,  could  no  longer  conceal  it. 


THE    KINGDOM    OF    GOD    IS    WITHIN    YOU      283 

The  point  of  the  fable  is  this,  that  to  the  king,  a  lover 
of  new  garments,  there  come  some  tailors  who  promise  to 
make  him  an  extraordinary  garment.  The  king  hires  the 
tailors,  and  they  begin  to  sew,  having  informed  him  that 
the  peculiarity  of  their  garment  is  this,  that  he  who  is 
useless  in  his  office  cannot  see  the  garments. 

The  courtiers  come  to  see  the  work  of  the  tailors,  but 
they  see  nothing,  as  the  tailors  stick  their  needles  into 
empty  space.  But,  mindful  of  the  condition,  all  the 
courtiers  say  that  they  see  the  garment,  and  they  praise  it. 
The  king  does  the  same.  The  time  arrives  for  the  proces- 
sion, when  the  king  is  to  appear  m  his  new  garment. 
The  king  undresses  himself  and  puts  on  his  new  gar- 
ments, that  is,  he  remains  naked,  and  goes  naked  through 
the  city.  But,  mindful  of  the  condition,  no  one  dares  to 
say  that  there  are  no  garments,  until  a  small  child  calls 
out,  "  Behold,  he  is  naked  !  " 

The  same  tiling  must  happen  with  all  those  who  from 
inertia  hold  offices  which  have  long  ago  become  useless, 
when  the  first  man  who  is  not  interested  (as  the  proverb 
has  it,  "  One  hand  washes  the  other  "),  in  concealing  the 
uselessness  of  these  institutions,  will  point  out  their  use- 
lessness  and  will  naively  call  out,  "  But,  good  people,  they 
have  long  ago  ceased  to  be  good  for  anything." 

The  condition  of  Christian  humanity,  with  its  for- 
tresses, guns,  dynamite,  cannon,  torpedoes,  prisons,  gallows, 
churches,  factories,  custom-houses,  palaces,  is  indeed  ter- 
rible;  but  neither  fortresses,  nor  cannon,  nor  guns  shoot 
themselves  at  any  one,  prisons  do  not  themselves  lock 
any  one  up,  the  gallows  does  not  hang  any  one,  the 
churches  do  not  of  themselves  deceive  any  one,  the  custom- 
houses hold  no  one  back,  palaces  and  factories  do  not 
erect  and  maintain  themselves,  but  everything  is  done 
by  men.  But  when  men  understand  that  this  ought  not 
to  be  done,  there  will  be  none  of  these  things. 

Men  are  already  beginning  to  understand  this.     If  not 


284     THE   KINGDOM    OF    GOD   IS    WITHIN   YOU 

all  men  understand  it  as  yet,  the  leaders  among  men  do, 
those  after  whom  follow  all  other  men.  And  what  the 
leaders  have  once  come  to  understand,  they  can  never  stop 
understanding,  and  what  the  leaders  have  come  to  under- 
stand, all  other  men  not  only  can,  but  inevitably  must 
understand. 

Thus  the  prediction  that  the  time  will  come  when  all 
men  shall  be  instructed  by  God,  shall  stop  warring,  shall 
forge  the  swords  into  ploughshares  and  the  spears  into 
pruniug-hooks,  that  is,  translating  into  our  language,  when 
all  the  prisons,  fortresses,  barracks,  palaces,  churches,  shall 
remain  empty,  and  all  the  gallows,  guns,  cannon,  shall 
remain  unused,  is  no  longer  a  dream,  but  a  definite,  new 
form  of  life,  toward  which  humanity  is  moving  with  ever 
increasing  rapidity. 

But  when  shall  this  be  ? 

Eighteen  liundred  years  ago  Christ  answered  this  ques- 
tion by  saying  that  the  end  of  the  present  world,  that  is, 
of  the  pagan  structure  of  the  world,  would  come  when 
the  calamities  of  men  should  be  increased  to  their  farthest 
, limit  and  at  the  same  time  the  gospel  of  the  kingdom  of 
iGod,  that  is,  the  possibility  of  a  new,  violenceless  struc- 
'ture  of  the  world,  should  be  preached  in  all  the  world 
'  (Matt.  xxiv.  3-28). 

I      "  But  of  that  day  and  hour  knoweth  no  man,  but  my 
'Father  only"  (Matt.  xxiv.  36),  is  what  Christ  says,  for  it 
may  come  any  time,  at  any  moment,  even  when  we  do 
not  expect  it. 

In  reply  to  the  question  when  this  hour  shall  arrive, 
'.Christ  says  that  we  cannot  know  it ;  but  for  the  very 
reason  that  we  do  not  know  the  time  of  its  coming,  we 
should  not  only  be  at  all  times  prepared  to  meet  it,  as 
must  be  the  goodman  watching  the  house,  and  the  virgins 
with  their  lamps  going  forth  to  meet  the  bridegroom,  but 
also  we  should  work  with  all  our  strength  for  the  coming 
of  that  hour,  as  the  servants  had  to  work  for  the  talents 


THE    KINGDOM    OF    GOD    IS    WITHIN    YOU      285 

given  to  them  (Matt.  xxiv.  43 ;  xxv.  1-30).  In  reply  to 
the  question  when  this  hour  should  come,  Christ  admon- 
ished ail  men  to  work  with  all  their  strength  for  its 
quicker  coming. 

There  can  Ije  no  other  answer.  People  can  nowise 
know  when  the  day  and  the  hour  of  the  kingdom  of  God 
shall  arrive,  because  the  coming  of  that  hour  depends  on 
no  one  but  the  men  themselves. 

The  answer  is  the  same  as  that  of  the  sage,  who  in 
reply  to  the  question  of  a  passer-by,  how  far  it  was  to  the 
city,  answered,  "  Go." 

How  can  we  know  how  far  it  is  to  the  goal  toward 
which  humanity  is  moving,  since  we  do  not  know  how 
humanity,  on  whom  it  depends  whether  to  go  or  not,  to 
stop,  to  temper  the  motion,  or  to  accelerate  it,  will  move 
toward  that  goal  ? 

All  we  can  know  is,  what  we,  who  compose  humanity, 
must  do,  and  what  not,  in  order  that  the  kingdom  of  God 
may  come.  That  we  all  know.  And  every  one  need  but 
begin  to  do  what  we  must  do,  and  stop  doing  what  we 
must  not  do ;  every  one  of  us  need  only  live  by  all  that 
light  which  is  within  us,  in  order  that  the  promised 
kingdom  of  God,  toward  which  the  heart  of  every  man  is 
drawn,  may  come  at  once. 


XII. 

CONCLUSION 


I  HAD  ended  this  two  years'  labour,  when,  on  the  ninth 
of  September,  I  happened  to  travel  on  a  train  to  a  local- 
ity in  the  Governments  of  Tula  and  Ryazan,  where  the 
peasants  had  been  starving  the  year  before,  and  were 
starving  still  more  in  the  present  year.  At  one  of  the  sta- 
tions the  train  in  which  I  was  travelling  met  a  special 
train  which,  under  the  leadership  of  the  governor,  was 
transporting  troops  with  guns,  cartridges,  and  rods  for  the 
torture  and  killing  of  those  very  famine-stricken  peasants. 

The  torturing  of  the  peasants  with  rods  for  the  purpose 
of  enforcing  the  decision  of  the  authorities,  although  cor- 
poral punishment  was  abohshed  by  law  thirty  years  ago, 
has  of  late  been  applied  more  and  more  freely  in  Russia. 

I  had  heard  of  it,  had  even  read  in  newspapers  of  the 
terrible  tortures  of  which  the  Governor  of  Nizhni-Nov- 
gorod, Barauov,  is  said  to  have  boasted,  of  the  tortures 
which  had  taken  place  in  Chernigov,  Tambov,  Saratov, 
Astrakhan,  Ort^l,  but  not  once  had  I  had  a  chance  to  see 
men  in  the  process  of  executing  these  deeds. 

Here  I  saw  ^vith  my  own  eyes  good  Russians,  men  who 
are  permeated  with  the  Christian  spirit,  travelling  with 
guns  and  rods,  to  kill  and  torture  their  starving  brothers. 

The  cause  that  brought  them  out  was  the  following : 

In  one  of  the  estates  of  a  wealthy  landowner  the  peas- 
ants had  raised  a  forest  on  a  pasture  which  they  owned 

280 


THE    KIXGDOM    OF    GOD    IS    WITniN"   TOU      287 

in  common  with  the  proprietor  (had  raised,  that  is,  had 
watched  it  during  its  growth),  and  had  always  made  use 
of  it,  and  so  regarded  this  forest  as  their  own,  at  least  as 
a  common  possession  ;  but  the  proprietor,  appropriating  to 
himself  this  forest,  began  to  cut  it  down.  The  peasants 
handed  in  a  complaint.  The  judge  of  the  first  instance 
irregularly  (I  say  "  irregularly,"  using  the  word  employed 
by  the  prosecuting  attorney  and  the  governor,  men  who 
ought  to  know  the  case)  decided  the  case  in  favour  of  the 
proprietor.  All  the  higher  courts,  among  them  the  senate, 
though  they  could  see  that  the  case  had  been  decided 
irregularly,  confirmed  the  decision,  and  the  forest  was 
adjudged  to  the  proprietor.  The  proprietor  began  to  cut 
down  the  forest,  but  the  peasants,  unable  to  believe  that 
such  an  obvious  injustice  could  be  done  tliem  by  a  higher 
court,  did  not  submit  to  the  decree,  and  drove  away  the 
workmen  who  were  sent  to  cut  down  the  forest,  declaring 
that  the  forest  belonged  to  them,  and  that  they  would 
petition  the  Tsar,  but  would  not  allow  the  proprietor  to 
cut  down  the  forest. 

The  case  was  reported  to  St.  Petersburg,  whence  the 
governor  was  ordered  to  enforce  the  decree  of  the  court. 
The  governor  asked  for  troops,  and  now  the  soldiers, 
armed  with  bayonets,  ball-cartridges,  and,  besides,  a  supply 
of  rods,  purposely  prepared  for  this  occasion  and  carried 
in  a  separate  car,  were  travelling  to  enforce  this  decree 
of  the  higher  authorities. 

The  enforcement  of  the  decree  of  the  higher  authorities 
is  accomplished  by  means  of  killing,  of  torturing  men,  or 
by  means  of  a  threat  of  doing  one  or  the  other,  according 
as  to  whether  any  opposition  is  shown  or  not. 

In  the  first  case,  if  the  peasants  show  any  opposition, 
the  following  takes  place  in  Eussia  (the  same  things 
happen  wherever  there  are  a  state  structure  and  prop- 
erty rights) :  the  chief  makes  a  speech  and  demands  sub- 
mission.    Tlie  excited  crowd,  generally  deceived   by  its 


288      THE    KINGDOM    OF    GOD    IS    WITHIN    YOU 

leaders,  does  not  understand  a  word  that  the  representa- 
tive of  the  power  says  in  official  book  language,  and 
continues  to  be  agitated.  Then  the  chief  declares  that  if 
they  do  not  submit  and  disperse,  he  will  be  compelled  to 
have  recourse  to  arms.  If  the  crowd  does  not  submit 
even  then,  the  chief  commands  his  men  to  load  their  guns 
and  shoot  above  the  heads  of  the  crowd.  If  the  crowd 
does  not  disperse  even  then,  he  commands  the  soldiers  to 
shoot  straight  into  the  crowd,  at  haphazard,  and  the  sol- 
diers shoot,  and  in  the  street  fall  wounded  and  killed 
men,  and  then  the  crowd  generally  runs  away,  and  the 
troops  at  the  command  of  the  chiefs  seize  those  who  pre- 
sent themselves  to  them  as  the  main  rioters,  and  lead 
them  away  under  guard. 

After  that  they  pick  up  the  blood-stained,  dying, 
maimed,  killed,  and  wounded  men,  frequently  also 
women  and  children ;  the  dead  are  buried,  and  the 
maimed  are  sent  to  the  hospital.  But  those  who  are 
considered  to  be  the  plotters  are  taken  to  the  city  and 
tried  by  a  special  military  court.  If  on  their  part  there 
was  any  violence,  they  are  sentenced  to  be  hanged. 
Then  they  put  up  a  gallows  and  with  the  help  of  ropes 
choke  to  death  a  few  defenceless  people,  as  has  many 
times  been  done  in  Russia  and  as  is  being  done,  and 
must  be  done  where  the  public  structure  is  based  on 
violence.     Thus  they  do  in  case  of  opposition. 

In  the  second  case,  when  the  peasants  submit,  there 
takes  place  something  special  and  peculiarly  Eussian. 
What  happens  is  this :  the  governor  arrives  at  the  place 
of  action,  makes  a  speech  to  the  people,  rebuking  them 
for  their  disobedience,  and  either  stations  troops  in  the 
farms  of  the  village,  where  the  soldiers,  quartering  at 
times  as  much  as  a  month  at  a  time,  ruin  the  peasants, 
or,  satisfied  with  threatening  them,  graciously  pardons  the 
people  and  returns  home,  or,  which  happens  more  fre- 
quently than  anything  else,  announces  to  them  that  the 


THE    KINGDOM    OF    GOD    IS   WITHIN   YOU     289 

instigators  ought  to  be  punished,  and  arbitrarily,  without 
trial,  selects  a  certain  number  of  men,  who  are  declared 
to  be  the  instigators  and  in  his  presence  are  subjected  to 
tortures. 

In  order  to  give  an  idea  as  to  how  these  things  are 
done,  I  will  describe  an  affair  which  took  place  at  Or^l 
and  received  the  approval  of  the  higher  authorities. 

What  happened  in  Or^l  was  this :  just  as  here,  in  the 
Government  of  Tula,  a  proprietor  wanted  to  take  away 
some  property  from  certain  peasants,  and  the  peasants 
opposed  him,  just  as  they  did  here.  The  point  was  that 
the  landed  proprietor  wanted  without  the  consent  of  the 
peasants  to  keep  the  water  in  his  mill-pond  at  so  high  a 
level  that  their  fields  were  inundated.  The  peasants 
objected.  The  proprietor  entered  a  complaint  before  the 
County  Council  chief.  The  County  Council  chief  illegally 
(as  was  later  declared  by  the  court)  decided  the  case  in 
favour  of  the  proprietor,  by  permitting  him  to  raise  the 
water.  The  proprietor  sent  his  workmen  to  raise  the 
ditch  through  which  the  water  ran  down.  The  peasants 
were  provoked  by  this  irregular  decision,  and  called  out 
their  wives,  to  prevent  the  proprietor's  workmen  from 
raising  the  ditch.  The  women  w^etit  to  the  dam,  over- 
turned the  carts,  and  drove  off  the  workmen.  The  pro- 
prietor entered  a  complaint  against  the  women  for  taking 
the  law  into  their  hands.  The  County  Council  chief 
ordered  one  woman  from  each  peasant  farm  in  the  whole 
village  to  be  locked  up  ('■  in  the  cold  room ").  The 
decision  could  not  well  be  carried  out ;  since  there  were 
several  women  on  each  farm,  it  was  impossible  to  deter- 
mine which  of  them  was  liable  to  arrest,  and  so  the  police 
did  not  carry  out  the  decree.  The  proprietor  complained 
to  the  governor  of  the  inactivity  of  the  police,  and  the 
governor,  without  looking  into  the  matter,  gave  the  rural 
chief  the  strict  order  immediately  to  enforce  the  decision 
of  the  County  Council  chief.     Obeying  the  higher  author- 


290      THE    KINGDOM    OF    GOD    IS    WITHIN    YOU 

ities,  the  rural  chief  arrived  in  the  village  and,  with  a 
disrespect  for  men  which  is  characteristic  of  the  Eussian 
authorities,  commanded  the  policemen  to  seize  one  woman 
from  each  house.  But  since  there  were  was  more  than 
one  woman  in  each  house,  and  it  was  impossible  to  tell 
which  one  of  them  was  subject  to  incarceration,  there 
began  quarrels,  and  opposition  was  shown.  In  spite  of 
these  quarrels  and  this  opposition,  the  rural  chief  com- 
manded that  one  woman,  no  matter  who  she  be,  be  seized 
in  each  house  and  led  to  a  place  of  confinement.  The 
peasants  began  to  defend  their  wives  and  mothers,  did  not 
give  them  up,  and  upon  this  occasion  beat  the  police  and 
the  rural  chief.  There  appeared  the  first  terrible  crime, — 
an  assault  on  the  authorities,  —  and  this  new  crime  was 
reported  to  the  city.  And  so  the  governor,  like  the  Gov- 
ernor of  Tula,  arrived  on  a  special  train  with  a  battalion  of 
soldiers,  with  guns  and  rods,  having  made  use  of  the  tele- 
graph, of  telephones,  and  of  the  railway,  and  brought 
with  him  a  learned  doctor,  who  was  to  watch  the  hy- 
gienic conditions  of  the  flogging,  thus  fully  personifying 
Dzhingis  Khan  with  the  telegraphs,  as  predicted  by 
Herzen. 

Near  the  township  office  stood  the  troops,  a  squad  of 
policemen  with  red  cords,  to  which  is  attached  the  revolver, 
official  persons  from  among  the  peasants,  and  the  accused. 
Bound  about  stood  a  crowd  of  one  thousand  people  or 
more.  Upon  driving  up  to  the  township  office,  the  gov- 
ernor alighted  from  his  carriage,  delivered  a  speech  pre- 
viously prepared,  and  called  for  the  guilty  and  for  a 
bench.  This  command  was  not  understood  at  first.  But 
a  policeman,  whom  the  governor  always  took  with  him, 
and  who  attended  to  the  preparation  of  the  tortures,  which 
had  more  than  once  been  employed  in  the  Government, 
explained  that  what  was  meant  was  a  bench  for  flogging. 
A  bench  was  brought,  the  rods,  which  had  been  carried  on 
the  train,  were  piled  up,  and  the  executioners  were  called 


THE    KINGDOM    OF    GOD    IS    WITHIN    YOU      291 

for.  These  had  been  previously  chosen  from  among  the 
horse-thieves  of  the  village,  because  the  soldiers  refused 
to  perform  this  duty. 

When  everything  was  ready,  the  governor  commanded 
the  first  of  the  twelve  men  pointed  out  by  the  proprietor 
as  the  most  guilty  to  step  forward.  The  one  that  came 
out  was  the  father  of  a  family,  a  respected  member  of 
society  of  about  forty  years  of  age,  who  had  bravely  de- 
fended the  rights  of  society  and  so  enjoyed  the  respect  of 
the  inhabitants.  He  was  led  up  to  the  bench,  his  body 
was  bared,  and  he  was  ordered  to  lie  down. 

The  peasant  tried  to  beg  for  mercy,  but  when  he  saw 
that  this  was  useless,  he  made  the  sign  of  the  cross  and 
lay  down.  Two  policemen  rushed  forward  to  hold  him 
down.  The  learned  doctor  stood  near  by,  ready  to  offer 
learned  medical  aid.  The  prisoners,  spitting  into  their 
hands,  swished  the  rods  and  began  to  strike.  However, 
it  turned  out  that  the  bench  was  too  narrow  and  that  it 
was  too  difficult  to  keep  the  writhing,  tortured  man  upon 
it.  Then  the  governor  ordered  another  bench  to  be 
brought  and  to  be  cleated  to  the  first.  Putting  their 
hands  to  their  visors  and  muttering  :  "  Yes,  your  Excel- 
lency," some  men  hurriedly  and  humbly  fulfilled  the 
commands  ;  meanwhile  the  half-naked,  pale,  tortured  man, 
frowning  and  looking  earthward,  waited  with  trembling 
jaws  and  bared  legs.  When  the  second  bench  was  at- 
tached, he  was  again  put  down,  and  the  horse-thieves 
began  to  beat  him  again.  The  back,  hips,  and  thighs, 
and  even  the  sides  of  the  tortured  man  began  more  and 
more  to  be  covered  with  wales  and  bloody  streaks,  and 
with  every  blow  there  were  heard  dull  sounds,  which  the 
tortured  man  was  unable  to  repress.  Tn  the  surrounding 
crowd  were  heard  the  sobs  of  the  wives,  mothers,  chil- 
dren, relatives  of  the  tortured  man  and  of  all  those  who 
were  selected  for  the  punishment. 

The  unfortunate   governor,  intoxicated  by  his   power, 


292      THE    KINGDOM    OF    GOD    IS    WITHIN    YOU 

thought  that  he  could  not  do  otherwise,  and,  bending 
his  fingers,  counted  the  blows,  and  without  stopping 
smoked  cigarettes,  to  light  which  several  officious  persons 
hastened  every  time  to  hand  him  a  lighted  match.  When 
fifty  blows  had  been  dealt,  the  peasant  stopped  crying  and 
stirring,  and  the  doctor,  who  had  been-  educated  in  a 
Crown  institution  for  the  purpose  of  serving  his  Tsar  and 
country  with  his  scientific  knowledge,  walked  over  to  the 
tortured  man,  felt  his  pulse,  listened  to  the  beating  of  his 
heart,  and  announced  to  the  representative  of  power  that 
the  punished  man  had  lost  consciousness  and  that  accord- 
ing to  the  data  of  science  it  might  be  dangerous  to  his  life 
to  continue  the  punishment.  But  the  unfortunate  gov- 
ernor, who  was  now  completely  intoxicated  by  the  sight 
of  blood,  commanded  the  men  to  go  on,  and  the  torture 
lasted  until  they  had  dealt  seventy  blows,  to  which  num- 
ber it  for  some  reason  seemed  to  him  necessary  to  carry 
the  number  of  the  blows.  When  the  seventieth  blow  was 
dealt,  the  governor  said,  "  Enough  !  The  next !  "  And 
the  disfigured  man,  with  his  swollen  back,  was  lifted  up 
and  carried  away  in  a  swoon,  and  another  was  taken  up. 
The  sobs  and  groans  of  the  crowd  became  louder ;  but  the 
representative  of  the  governmental  power  continued  the 
torture. 

Thus  they  flogged  the  second,  third,  fourth,  fifth,  sixth, 
seventh,  eighth,  ninth,  tenth,  eleventh,  twelfth  man, — 
each  man  receiving  seventy  blows.  All  of  them  begged 
for  mercy,  groaned,  cried.  The  sobs  and  groans  of  the 
mass  of  women  grew  louder  and  more  heartrending,  and 
the  faces  of  the  men  grew  gloomier  and  gloomier  ;  but  the 
troops  stood  all  about  them,  and  the  torture  did  not  stop 
until  the  work  was  accomplished  in  the  measure  which 
for  some  reason  appeared  indispensable  to  the  caprice  of 
the  unfortunate,  half-drunken,  deluded  man,  called  a  gov- 
ernor. 

Not  only  were  officials,  officers,  soldiers    present,  but 


THE    KINGDOM    OF    GOD    IS    WITHIN    YOU      29S 

with  their  presence  they  took  part  in  this  matter  and 
kept  this  order  of  the  fiilfihnent  of  the  state  act  from  be- 
ing impaired  on  the  part  of  the  crowd. 

When  I  asked  one  of  the  governors  why  these  tortures 
are  committed  on  men,  when  they  have  ah-eady  submitted 
and  troops  are  stationed  in  the  village,  he  replied  to  me, 
with  the  significant  look  of  a  man  who  has  come  to  know 
all  the  intricacies  of  state  wisdom,  that  this  is  done  be- 
cause experience  has  shown  that  if  the  peasants  are  not 
subjected  to  torture  they  wiU  again  counteract  the  decrees 
of  the  power,  while  the  performance  of  the  torture  in  the 
case  of  a  few  men  for  ever  confirms  the  decrees  of  the 
authorities. 

And  so  now  the  Governor  of  Tula  was  travelling  with 
his  officials,  officers,  and  soldiers,  in  order  to  perform  just 
such  a  work.  In  just  the  same  manner,  that  is,  by  means 
of  murder  or  torture,  were  to  bs  carried  out  the  decree  of 
the  higher  authorities,  which  consisted  in  this,  that  a 
young  fellow,  a  lauded  proprietor,  who  had  an  income 
of  one  hundred  thousand  roubles  per  year,  was  to  receive 
another  three  thousand  roubles,  for  a  forest  which  he  had 
in  a  rascally  manner  taken  away  from  a  whole  society 
of  hungry  and  cold  peasants,  and  be  able  to  spend  this 
money  in  two  or  three  weeks  in  the  restaurants  of  Mos- 
cow, St.  Petersburg,  or  Paris.  It  was  to  do  such  a  .deed 
that  the  men  whom  I  met  were  travelling. 

Fate,  as  though  on  ])urpose,  after  my  two  years'  tension 
of  thought  in  one  and  the  same  direction,  for  the  first 
time  in  my  life  brought  me  in  contact  with  this  phenom- 
enon, which  showed  me  with  absolute  obviousness  in  prac- 
tice what  had  become  clear  to  me  in  theory,  namely,  that 
the  whole  structure  of  our  life  is  not  based,  as  men  who 
enjoy  an  advantageous  position  in  the  existing  order  of 
things  are  fond  of  imagining,  on  any  juridical  j)rinciples, 
but  on  the  simplest,  coarsest  violence,  on  the  uuirder  and 
torture  of  men. 


294     THE    KINGDOM    OF    GOD    IS    WITHIN    YOU 

Men  who  own  large  tracts  of  land  or  have  large  capitals, 
or  who  receive  large  salaries,  which  are  collected  from  the 
working  people,  who  are  in  need  of  the  simplest  necessi- 
ties, as  also  those  who,  as  merchants,  doctors,  artists, 
clerks,  savants,  coachmen,  cooks,  authors,  lackeys,  lawyers, 
live  parasitically  about  these  rich  people,  are  fond  of  be- 
lieving that  those  prerogatives  which  they  enjoy  are  not 
due  to  violence,  but  to  an  absolutely  free  and  regular  ex- 
change of  services,  and  that  these  prerogatives  are  not 
only  not  the  result  of  assault  upon  people,  and  the  mur- 
der of  them,  like  what  took  place  this  year  in  Or^l  and 
in  many  other  places  in  Eussia,  and  continually  takes 
place  in  all  of  Europe  and  of  America,  but  has  even  no 
connection  whatsoever  with  these  cases  of  violence.  They 
are  fond  of  believing  that  the  privileges  which  they  enjoy 
exist  in  themselves  and  take  place  and  are  due  to  a  vol- 
untary agreement  among  people,  while  the  violence  exerted 
against  people  also  exists  in  itself  and  is  due  to  some  uni- 
versal and  higher  juridical,  pohtical,  and  economical  laws. 
These  men  try  not  to  see  that  they  enjoy  the  privileges 
which  they  enjoy  only  by  dint  of  the  same  thing  which 
now  would  force  the  peasants,  who  raised  the  forest  and 
who  were  very  much  in  need  of  it,  to  give  it  up  to  the 
rich  proprietor,  who  took  no  part  in  the  preservation 
of  the  forest  and  had  no  need  of  it,  that  is,  that  they 
would  be  flogged  or  killed  if  they  did  not  give  up  this 
forest. 

And  yet,  if  it  is  quite  clear  that  the  Or^l  mill  began  to 
bring  greater  returns  to  the  proprietor,  and  that  the  forest, 
which  the  peasants  raised,  is  turned  over  to  the  proprietor, 
only  in  consequence  of  assaults  or  murders,  or  the  threat 
of  them,  it  must  be  just  as  clear  that  all  the  other  exclu- 
sive rights  of  the  rich,  which  deprive  the  poor  of  their 
prime  necessities,  are  based  on  the  same  thing.  If  the 
peasants,  who  are  in  need  of  the  land  for  the  support  of 
their  families,  do  not  plough  the  land  which  adjoins  their 


THE    KINGDOM    OF    GOD    IS    WITHIN    YOU      295 

very  farms,  while  tliis  land,  which  is  capable  of  supporting 
something  like  one  thousand  families,  is  in  the  hands  of 
one  man,  —  a  Kussian,  Englishman,  Austrian,  or  some 
large  landed  proprietor, —  who  does  not  work  on  this  land, 
and  if  the  merchant,  buying  up  the  corn  from  the  needy 
agriculturists,  can  securely  keep  this  corn  in  his  granaries, 
amidst  starving  people,  and  sell  it  at  three  times  its  price 
to  the  same  agriculturists  from  whom  he  bought  it  at 
one-third  its  present  worth,  it  is  evident  that  this  takes 
place  from  the  same  causes.  And  if  one  man  cannot  buy 
cheap  goods,  which  are  sold  to  him  from  beyond  a  con- 
ventional line  called  a  border,  without  paying  customs 
dues  to  people  who  had  no  share  whatsoever  in  the  pro- 
duction of  the  goods ;  and  if  people  cannot  help  but  give 
up  their  last  cow  for  taxes,  which  are  distributed  by  the 
government  to  officials  and  are  used  for  the  maintenance 
of  soldiers  who  will  kill  these  very  taxpayers,  it  would 
seem  to  be  obvious  that  even  this  does  not  take  place  in 
consequence  of  some  abstract  rights,  but  in  consequence 
of  tlie  same  that  happened  in  Or^l  and  that  now  may 
happen  in  the  Government  of  Tula,  and  periodically  in 
one  form  or  another  takes  place  in  the  whole  world, 
wherever  there  is  a  state  structure  and  there  are  the  rich 
and  the  poor. 

Because  not  all  human  relations  of  violence  are  accom- 
panied by  tortures  and  murders,  the  men  who  enjoy  the 
exclusive  prerogatives  of  the  ruling  classes  assure  them- 
selves and  others  that  the  privileges  which  they  enjoy 
are  not  due  to  any  tortures  or  murders,  but  to  other  niys- 
sterious  common  causes,  abstract  rights,  and  so  forth. 
And  yet,  it  would  seem,  it  is  clear  that,  if  people,  though 
they  consider  this  to  be  an  injustice  (all  working  people 
now  do),  give  the  main  portion  of  their  work  to  the  capi- 
talist, the  landed  proprietor,  and  pay  taxes,  though  they 
know  that  bad  use  is  made  of  them,  they  do  so  first  of  all, 
not  because  they  recognize  any  abstract  rights,  of  which 


296      THE    KINGDOM    OF    GOD    IS    WITHIN"    YOU 

they  have  never  heard,  but  only  because  they  know  that 
they  will  be  flogged  and  killed,  if  they  do  not  do  so. 

But  if  there  is  no  occasion  to  imprison,  flog,  and  kill 
men,  every  time  the  rent  for  the  land  is  collected  by  the 
landed  proprietor,  and  the  man  in  need  of  corn  pays  to 
the  merchant  who  has  cheated  him  a  threefold  price,  and 
the  factory  hand  is  satisfied  with  a  wage  which  represents 
proportionately  half  the  master's  income,  and  if  a  poor 
man  gives  up  his  last  rouble  for  customs  dues  and  taxes, 
this  is  due  to  the  fact  that  so  many  men  have  been 
beaten  and  killed  for  their  attempts  to  avoid  doiug  what 
is  demanded  of  them,  that  they  keep  this  well  in  mind. 
As  the  trained  tiger  in  the  cage  does  not  take  the  meat 
which  is  placed  under  his  mouth,  and  does  not  lie  quiet, 
but  jumps  over  a  stick,  whenever  he  is  ordered  to  do  so, 
not  because  he  wants  to  do  so,  but  because  he  remembers 
the  heated  iron  rod  or  the  hunger  to  which  he  was  sub- 
jected every  time  he  did  not  obey,  —  even  so  men  who 
submit  to  what  is  not  advantageous  for  them,  what  even 
is  ruinous  to.  them,  do  so  because  they  remember  what 
happened  to  them  for  their  disobedience. 

But  the  men  who  enjoy  prerogatives  which  are  the 
result  of  old  violence,  frequently  forget,  and  like  to  forget, 
how  these  prerogatives  were  obtained.  We  need,  how- 
ever, only  think  of  history,  not  the  history  of  the  suc- 
cesses of  various  dynasties  of  rulers,  but  real  history,  the 
history  of  the  oppression  of  the  majority  by  a  small  num- 
ber of  men,  to  see  that  the  bases  of  all  the  prerogatives  of 
the  rich  over  the  poor  have  originated  from  nothing  but 
switches,  prisons,  hard  labour,  murders. 

We  need  but  think  of  that  constant,  stubborn  tendency 
of  men  to  increase  their  well-being,  which  guides  the 
men  of  our  time,  to  become  convinced  that  the  preroga- 
tives of  the  rich  over  the  poor  could  not  and  cannot  be 
maintained  in  any  other  way. 

There  may  be  oppressions,  assaults,  prisons,  executions, 


THE    KINGDOM    OF    GOD    IS    WITHIN    YOU     297 

which  have  not  for  their  purpose  the  preservation  of  the 
prerogatives  of  the  wealthy  classes  (though  this  is  very 
rare),  but  we  may  boldly  say  that  in  our  society,  for  each 
well-to-do,  comfortably  living  man,  there  are  ten  who 
are  exhausted  by  labour,  who  are  envious  and  greedy, 
and  who  frequently  suffer  with  their  whole  families, — 
all  the  prerogatives  of  the  rich,  all  their  luxury,  all  that 
superfluity  which  the  rich  enjoy  above  the  average 
labourer,  all  that  is  acquired  and  supported  only  by 
tortures,  incarcerations,  and  executions. 


The  train  which  I  came  across  the  ninth  of  September, 
and  wliich  carried  soldiers,  with  their  guns,  cartridges, 
and  rods,  to  the  starving  peasants,  in  order  to  secure  to 
the  rich  proprietor  the  small  forest,  which  he  had  taken 
from  tlie  peasants  and  which  the  peasants  were  in  dire 
need  of,  showed  me  with  striking  obviousness  to  what 
extent  men  have  worked  out  the  ability  of  committing 
acts  which  are  most  revolting  to  their  convictions  and 
to  their  conscience,  without  seeing  that  they  are  doing  so. 

The  special  train  with  which  I  fell  in  consisted  of  one 
car  of  the  first  class  for  the  governor,  the  officials,  and 
the  officers,  and  of  several  freight-cars,  which  were  cram- 
full  of  soldiers. 

The  dashing  young  soldiers,  in  their  clean  new  uni- 
forms, stood  crowding  or  sat  with  dangling  legs  in  the 
wide-open  doors  of  the  freight-cars.  Some  smoked,  others 
jostled  one  another,  jested,  laughed,  displaying  their 
teeth  ;  others  again  cracked  pumpkin  seeds,  spitting  out 
the  shells  with  an  air  of  self-confidence.  Some  of  them 
were  running  up  and  down  the  platform,  toward  the  water- 
barrel,  in  order  to  get  a  drink,  and,  upon  meeting  an 
officer,  tempered  their  gait,  went  through  the  stupid 
gesture  of  putting  their  hands  to  their  brows,  and  with 


298      THE    KINGDOM    OF    GOD    IS    WITHIN    YOU 

serious  faces,  as  though  they  were  doing  not  only  some- 
thing sensible,  but  even  important,  walked  past  them, 
seeing  them  off  with  their  eyes,  and  then  raced  more 
merrily,  thumping  with  their  feet  on  the  planks  of  the 
platform,  laughing,  and  chattering,  as  is  characteristic  of 
healthy,  good  lads,  who  in  good  company  travel  from  one 
place  to  another. 

They  were  travelHng  to  slay  their  hungry  fathers  and 
grandfathers,  as  though  going  to  some  very  jolly,  or  at 
least  very  usual,  piece  of  work. 

The  same  impression  was  conveyed  by  the  officials  and 
officers  in  gala-uniform,  who  were  scattered  on  the  plat- 
form and  in  the  hall  of  the  first  class.  At  the  table, 
which  was  covered  with  bottles,  dressed  in  his  semi- 
military  uniform,  sat  the  governor,  the  chief  of  the  expe- 
dition, eating  something,  and  speaking  calmly  about  the 
weather  with  an  acquaintance  whom  he  had  met,  as 
though  the  matter  which  he  was  about  to  attend  to  were 
so  simple  and  so  common  that  it  could  not  impair  his 
calm  and  his  interest  in  the  change  of  the  weather. 

At  some  distance  away  from  the  table,  not  partaking 
of  any  food,  sat  a  general  of  gendarmes,  with  an  impene- 
trable, but  gloomy  look,  as  though  annoyed  by  the  tedious 
formality.  On  all  sides  moved  and  chattered  officers,  in 
their  beautiful,  gold-bedecked  uniforms :  one,  sitting  at 
the  table,  was  finishing  a  bottle  of  beer ;  another,  stand- 
ing at  the  buffet,  munched  at  an  appetizing  patty,  shaking 
off  the  crumbs,  which  had  lodged  on  the. breast  of  his 
uniform,  and  throwing  the  money  on  the  table  with  a  self- 
confident  gesture ;  a  third,  vibrating  both  legs,  was  walk- 
ing past  the  cars  of  our  train,  ogling  the  feminine  faces. 

All  these  men,  who  were  on  their  way  to  torture  or 
kill  hungry,  defenceless  men,  the  same  that  fed  them,  had 
the  appearance  of  men  who  know  conclusively  that  they 
are  doing  what  is  right,  and  even  are  proud,  "  stuck  up," 
at  what  they  are  doing. 


THE    KINGDOM    OF    GOD    IS    WITHIN   YOU     299 

What  is  this  ? 

All  these  men  are  one  half-hour's  ride  away  from  the 
place  where,  to  secure  to  a  rich  fellow  some  three  thou- 
sand useless  roubles,  which  he  has  taken  away  from  a 
whole  community  of  starving  peasants,  they  may  be  com- 
pelled to  perform  the  most  terrible  acts  that  one  can 
imagine,  may  begin,  just  as  in  Or^l,  to  kill  or  to  torture 
innocent  men,  their  brothers,  and  they  calmly  approach 
the  place  and  time  where  and  when  this  may  happen. 

It  is  impossible  to  say  that  these  men,  all  these  officials, 
officers,  and  soldiers,  do  not  know  what  awaits  them,  be- 
cause they  prepared  themselves  for  it.  The  governor  had 
to  give  his  orders  concerning  the  rods,  the  officials  had  to 
purchase  birch  switches,  to  haggle  for  them,  and  to  enter 
this  item  as  an  expense.  The  military  gave  and  received 
and  executed  commands  concerning  the  ball-cartridges. 
All  of  them  know  that  they  are  on  the  w^ay  to  torture 
and,  perhaps,  to  kill  their  famished  brothers,  and  that 
they  will  begin  to  do  this,  perhaps,  within  an  hour. 

It  would  be  incorrect  to  say  tliat  they  do  this  from 
conviction,  —  as  is  frequently  said  and  as  they  themselves 
repeat,  —  from  the  conviction  that  they  do  this  because 
it  is  necessary  to  maintain  the  state  structure,  in  the 
first  place,  because  all  these  men  have  hardly  ever  even 
thouglit  of  the  state  structure  and  of  its  necessity  ;  in  the 
second  place,  they  can  in  no  way  be  convinced  that  the 
business  in  which  they  take  part  maintains  the  state, 
instead  of  destroying  it,  and,  in  the  third  place,  in  reality 
the  majority  of  these  men,  if  not  all,  will  not  only  never 
sacrifice  their  peace  and  pleasure  for  the  purpose  of  sup- 
porting the  state,  but  will  even  never  miss  a  chance  of 
making  use,  for  their  peace  and  pleasure,  of  everything 
they  can,  even  though  it  be  to  the  disadvantage  of  the 
state.  Consequently  they  do  not  do  so  for  the  sake  of 
the  abstract  principle  of  the  state. 

What  is  it,  then  ? 


300      THE    KINGDOM    OF    GOD   IS    WITHIN   YOU 

I  know  all  these  men.  If  I  do  not  know  them  per- 
sonally, I  know  approximately  their  characters,  their  past, 
their  manner  of  thought.  All  of  them  have  mothers,  and 
some  have  wives  and  children.  They  are,  for  the  most 
part,  good-hearted,  meek,  frequently  tender  men,  who 
despise  every  cruelty,  to  say  nothing  of  the  murder  of 
men,  and  many  of  them  would  be  incapable  of  killing  or 
torturing  animals  ;  besides,  they  are  all  people  who  pro- 
fess Christianity  and  consider  violence  exerted  against 
defenceless  men  a  low  and  disgraceful  matter.  Not  one 
of  these  men  would  be  able  for  the  sake  of  his  smallest 
advantage  to  do  even  one-hundredth  part  of  what  the 
Governor  of  Or^l  did  to  those  people ;  and  any  of  them 
would  even  be  offended,  if  it  were  assumed  that  in  his 
private  life  he  would  be  capable  of  doing  anything  like  it. 

And  yet,  here  they  are,  within  half  an  hour's  ride  from 
the  place,  where  they  may  be  led  inevitably  to  the  neces- 
sity of  doing  it. 

What  is  it,  then  ? 

But,  besides  these  people  who  are  travelling  on  the 
train,  and  who  are  ready  to  commit  murder  and  tortures, 
how  could  those  people  with  Vvdiom  the  whole  matter 
began,  —  the  proprietor,  the  superintendent,  the  judges, 
and  those  who  from  St.  Petersburg  prescribed  this  matter 
and  by  their  commands  are  taking  part  in  it,  —  how  could 
these  men,  the  minister,  the  emperor,  also  good  men,  who 
are  professing  the  Christian  religion,  have  undertaken  and 
ordered  such  a  thing,  knowing  its  consequences  ?  How 
can  even  those  who  do  not  take  part  in  this  matter,  the 
spectators,  who  are  provoked  at  every  special  case  of 
violence  or  at  the  torture  of  a  horse,  admit  the  perform- 
ance of  so  terrible  a  deed  ?  How  can  they  help  being 
provoked  at  it,  standing  on  the  road,  and  shouting,  "  No, 
we  shall  not  allow  hungry  people  to  be  killed  and  flogged 
for  not  giving  up  their  property,  which  has  been  seized 
from  them  by  force  "  ?     But  not  only  does  no  one  do  so, 


THE   KINGDOM   OF    GOD   IS   WITHIN    YOU     301 

—  the  majority  of  men,  even  those  who  were  the  instiga- 
tors of  the  whole  thing,  like  the  superintendent,  the  pro- 
prietor, the  judges,  and  those  who  were  the  participants 
in  it  and  who  gave  the  orders,  like  the  governor,  the 
minister,  the  emperor,  are  calm,  and  do  not  even  feel  any 
pangs  of  conscience.  Just  as  calm  are  apparently  all 
those  men  who  are  travelling  to  commit  this  evil  deed. 

The  spectators,  too,  it  seemed,  who  were  not  in  any 
way  interested  in  the  matter,  for  the  most  part  looked 
v/ith  sympathy,  rather  than  with  disapproval,  upon  the 
men  who  were  getting  ready  for  this  execrable  deed.  In 
the  same  car  with  me  there  was  travelling  a  merchant, 
a  lumber  dealer  from  the  peasant  class,  and  he  loudly 
proclaimed  his  sympathy  for  those  tortures  to  which  the 
peasants  were  about  to  be  subjected :  "  It  is  not  right  not 
to  obey  the  authorities,"  he  said  ;  "  that's  what  the  authori- 
ties are  for.  Just  wait,  they  will  have  their  fleas  driven 
out  of  them,  —  they  won't  think  of  rioting  after  that. 
Serves  them  right." 

What  is  it,  then  ? 

It  is  equally  impossible  to  say  that  all  these  men  — 
the  instigators,  pavtici})ants,  abettors  of  this  matter  —  are 
such  rascals  that,  knowing  all  the  baseness  of  what  they 
are  doing,  they,  either  for  a  salary,  or  for  an  advantage, 
or  out  of  fear  of  being  punished,  do  a  thing  which  is  con- 
trarv  to  their  convictions.  All  these  men  know  how,  in 
certain  situations,  to  defend  their  convictions.  Not  one 
of  these  officials  would  steal  a  purse,  or  read  another 
person's  letter,  or  bear  an  insult  without  demanding  satis- 
faction from  the  insulter.  Not  one  of  these  officers  would 
have  the  courage  to  cheat  at  cards,  not  to  pay  his  card 
debts,  to  betray  a  friend,  to  run  away  from  the  field  of 
battle,  or  to  abandon  his  flag.  Not  one  of  these  soldiers 
would  have  the  courage  to  s})it  out  the  sacrament  or  to 
eat  meat  on  Good  Friday.  All  these  men  are  prepared 
to  bear  all   kinds  of  privations,  sufferings,  and  dangers, 


302     THE    KINGDOM    OF    GOD    IS   WITHIN   YOU 

rather  than  do  something  which  they  consider  to  be  bad. 
Consequently,  there  is  in  these  men  a  counteracting  force, 
whenever  they  have  to  do  something  which  is  contrary  to 
their  convictions. 

Still  less  is  it  possible  to  say  that  all  these  men  are 
such  beasts  that  it  is  proper  and  not  at  all  painful  for 
them  to  do  such  things.  We  need  but  have  a  talk  with 
these  men,  to  see  that  all  of  them,  the  proprietor,  the 
judges,  the  minister,  the  Tsar,  the  governor,  the  officers, 
and  the  soldiers  not  only  in  the  depth  of  their  hearts  do 
not  approve  of  such  deeds,  but  even  suffer  from  the  con- 
sciousness of  their  part  in  them,  when  they  are  reminded 
of  the  significance  of  this  matter.  They  simply  try  not 
to  think  of  it. 

We  need  but  have  a  talk  vidth  them,  with  all  the 
participants  in  this  matter,  from  the  proprietor  to  the  last 
policeman  and  soldier,  to  see  that  all  of  them  in  the  depth 
of  their  hearts  know  that  this  is  a  bad  thing  and  that  it 
would  be  better  not  to  take  part  in  it,  and  that  they  suffer 
from  it. 

A  lady  of  liberal  tendencies,  who  was  travelling  on 
the  same  train  with  us,  upon  noticing  the  governor  and  the 
officers  in  the  hall  of  the  first  class,  and  learning  of 
the  purpose  of  their  journey,  began  on  purpose  in  a  loud 
voice,  so  as  to  be  heard,  to  curse  the  orders  of  our  time 
and  to  put  to  shame  the  men  who  were  taking  part  in 
this  matter.  All  persons  present  felt  ill  at  ease.  Nobody 
knew  whither  to  look,  but  no  one  dared  to  answer  her. 
The  passengers  looked  as  though  it  were  not  worth  while 
to  reply  to  such  empty  talk.  Eut  it  was  evident  from  the 
faces  and  fugitive  eyes  that  all  felt  ashamed.  This  also 
I  noticed  in  the  case  of  the  soldiers.  They,  too,  knew 
that  the  business  for  which  they  were  travelling  was  a  bad 
one,  but  they  did  not  wish  to  think  of  what  awaited  them. 

When  the  lumber  dealer  began  insincerely,  as  I  thought, 
merely  to  show  his  culture,  to  speak  of  how  necessary 


THE    KINGDOM    OF    GOD    IS    WITHIN   TOU      303 

such  measures  were,  the  soldiers  who  heard  it  turned  away 
from  him,  as  though  they  did  not  hear  him,  and  frowned. 

All  these  men,  both  those  who,  like  the  proprietor,  the 
superintendent,  the  minister,  the  Tsar,  participated  in 
the  performance  of  this  act,  and  those  who  are  just  now 
travelling  on  the  train,  and  even  those  who,  without  taking 
part  in  this  matter,  look  on  at  the  accompUshment  of  it, 
know  every  one  of  them  that  this  is  a  bad  business,  and 
are  ashamed  of  the  part  which  they  are  taking  in  it 
and  even  of  their  presence  during  its  execution. 

"Why,  then,  have  they  been  doing  and  tolerating  it  ? 

Ask  those  who,  like  the  proprietor,  started  this  matter, 
and  those  who,  like  the  judges,  handed  down  a  formally 
legal,  but  obviously  unjust  decision,  and  those  who  ordered 
the  enforcement  of  the  decree,  and  those  who,  like  the 
soldiers,  the  policemen,  and  the  peasants,  will  with  their 
own  hands  carry  it  into  execution,  —  who  will  beat  and 
kill  their  brothers,  —  all  of  them,  the  instigators,  and  the 
accomplices,  and  the  executors,  and  the  abettors  of  these 
crimes,  and  all  will  give  you  essentially  the  same  answer. 

The  men  in  authority,  who  provoked  the  matter  and 
cooperated  in  it  and  directed  it,  will  say  that  they  are 
doing  what  they  are  doing  because  such  matters  are  nec- 
essary for  the  maintenance  of  the  existing  order;  and 
the  maintenance  of  the  existing  order  is  necessary  for  the 
good  of  the  country  and  of  humanity,  for  the  possibility 
of  a  social  life  and  a  forward  movement  of  progress. 

The  men  from  the  lower  spheres,  the  peasants  and  the 
soldiers,  those  who  will  be  compelled  with  their  own 
hands  to  exercise  the  violence,  will  say  that  they  are 
doing  what  they  are  doing  because  this  is  prescribed  by 
the  higher  authorities,  and  that  the  higher  authorities 
know  what  they  are  doing.  That  the  authorities  consist 
of  the  very  men  who  ought  to  be  the  authorities  and  that 
they  know  what  they,  are  doing,  presents  itself  to  them 
as  an  incontestable  truth.     If  these  lower  executors  even 


304      THE    KINGDOM    OF    GOD    IS    WITHIN    YOU 

admit  the  possibility  of  an  error  or  delusion,  they  admit 
it  only  in  the  case  of  the  lower  authorities;  but  the 
highest  power,  from  whom  all  this  proceeds,  seems  to 
them  to  be  unquestionably  infallible. 

Though  explaining  the  motives  for  their  activities  in  a 
different  manner,  both  the  rulers  and  the  ruled  agree  in 
this,  that  they  do  what  they  do  because  the  existing  order 
is  precisely  the  one  which  is  indispensable  and  which  must 
exist  at  the  present  time,  and  which,  therefore,  it  is  the 
sacred  duty  of  every  person  to  maintain. 

On  this  recognition  of  the  necessity,  and  so  of  the 
unchangeableness  of  the  existing  order,  is  based  the  reflec- 
tion, which  has  always  been  adduced  by  all  the  partici- 
pants in  state  violence  in  their  justification,  that,  since  the 
present  order  is  unchangeable,  the  refusal  of  a  single  indi- 
vidual to  perform  the  duties  imposed  upon  him  will  not 
change  the  essence  of  the  matter,  and  will  have  no  other 
effect  than  that  in  place  of  the  person  refusing  there  will 
be  another  man,  who  may  perform  the  duty  less  well, 
that  is,  more  cruelly,  more  harmfully  for  those  men 
against  whom  the  violence  is  practised. 

This  conviction  that  the  existing  order  is  indispensable, 
and  so  unchangeable,  and  that  it  is  the  sacred  duty  of 
every  man  to  maintain  it,  is  what  gives  to  good  people 
and,  in  private  life,  to  moral  people  the  possibility  of  par- 
ticipating with  a  more  or  less  calm  conscience  in  such 
affairs  as  the  one  which  took  place  in  Or^l  and  the  one 
which  the  people  who  were  travelling  in  the  Tula  train 
were  getting  ready  to  act  in. 

But  on  what  is  this  conviction  based  ? 

It  is  naturally  agreeable  and  desirable  for  the  proprietor 
to  believe  that  the  existing  order  is  indispensable  and  un- 
changeable, because  it  is  this  very  existing  order  which 
secures  for  him  the  income  from  his  hundreds  and  thou- 
sands of  desyatmas,  thanks  to  which  he  leads  his  habitual 
idle  and  luxurious  life. 


THE    KINGDOM    OF    GOD    IS    WITHIN    YOU      305 

Naturally  enough,  the  judge,  too,  readily  believes  in  the 
necessity  of  the  order  in  consequence  of  which  he  receives 
fifty  times  as  much  as  the  most  industrious  labourer. 
This  is  just  as  comprehensible  in  the  case  of  the  supreme 
judge,  who  receives  a  salary  of  six  or  more  thousand,  and 
in  the  case  of  all  the  higher  officials.  Only  with  the 
present  order  can  he,  as  a  governor,  prosecvitor,  senator, 
member  of  various  councils,  receive  his  salary  of  several 
thousands,  without  which  he  would  at  once  perish  with 
all  his  family,  because,  except  by  the  position  which  he 
holds,  he  would  not  be  able,  with  his  ability,  industry, 
and  knowledge,  to  earn  one  hundredth  part  of  what  he  is 
getting.  In  the  same  situation  are  the  minister,  the 
emperor,  and  every  higher  authority,  but  with  this  differ- 
ence, that,  the  higher  they  are  and  the  more  exclusive 
their  position  is,  the  more  indispensable  it  is  for  them  to 
believe  that  the  existing  order  is  the  only  possible  order, 
because  outside  of  it  they  not  only  cannot  get  an  equal 
position,  but  will  have  to  stand  iiuich  lower  than  the  rest 
of  mankind.  A  man  who  voluntarily  hires  himself  out  as 
a  policeman  at  a  salary  of  ten  roubles,  which  he  can  easily 
get  in  any  other  position,  has  httle  need  of  the  preserva- 
tion of  the  existing  order,  and  so  can  get  along  without 
believing  in  its  unchangeableness.  But  a  king  or  an 
emperor,  who  in  his  position  receives  millions  ;  who  knows 
that  all  around  him  there  are  thousands  of  men  who  are 
willing  to  depose  him  and  take  his  place;  who  knows 
that  in  no  other  position  will  he  get  such  an  income  and 
such  honours ;  who  in  the  majority  of  cases,  with  a  more 
or  less  despotic  rule,  knows  even  this,  that,  if  he  should 
be  deposed,  he  would  be  tried  for  everything  he  did  while 
in  possession  of  his  power,  cannot  help  but  believe  in 
the  unchangeableness  and  sacredness  of  the  existing  order. 
The  higher  the.  position  which  a  man  occupies,  the  more 
advantageous  and,  therefore,  the  more  unstable  it  is,  and 
the  more  terrible  and  dangerous  a  fall  from  it  is,  the  more 


306      THE    KINGDOM    OF    GOD    IS    WITHIN    YOU 

does  a  man  who  holds  that  position  believe  in  the  un- 
changeableness  of  the  existing  order,  and  with  so  much 
greater  peace  of  mind  can  such  a  man,  as  though  not  for 
himself,  but  for  the  support  of  the  existing  order,  do  bad 
and  cruel  deeds. 

Thus  it  is  in  the  case  of  all  the  men  of  the  ruling 
classes  who  hold  positions  that  are  more  advantageous 
than  those  which  they  could  hold  without  the  existing 
order,  —  beginning  with  the  lowest  police  officials  and 
ending  with  the  highest  authorities.  All  these  men  more 
or  less  believe  in  the  unchaugeableness  of  the  existing 
order,  because,  above  all  else,  it  is  advantageous  for  them. 

But  what  is  it  that  compels  the  peasants,  the  soldiers, 
who  stand  on  the  lowest  rung  of  the  ladder,  who  have  no 
profit  from  the  existing  order,  who  are  in  a  condition  of 
the  most  abject  submission  and  humiliation,  to  believe 
that  the  existing  order,  in  consequence  of  which  they  are 
in  a  most  disadvantageous  and  humble  state,  is  the  very 
order  which  must  be,  and  which,  therefore,  must  be  main- 
tained, even  by  performing  the  basest  and  most  uncon- 
scionable acts  for  it. 

What  is  it  that  compels  these  men  to  make  the  false 
reflection  that  the  existing  order  is  invariable  and,  there- 
fore, must  be  maintained,  whereas  it  is  evident  that,  on 
the  contrary,  it  is  unchangeable  only  because  it  is  main- 
tained as  such  ? 

What  is  it  that  compels  the  men  who  were  but  yester- 
day taken  from  the  plough,  and  who  are  dressed  up  in 
these  monstrous,  indecent  garments  with  blue  collars  and 
gilt  buttons,  to  travel  with  guns  and  swords,  in  order  to 
kill  their  hungry  fathers  and  brothers  ?  They  certainly 
have  no  advantages,  and  are  in  no  danger  of  losing  the 
position  which  they  hold,  because  their  condition  is  worse 
than  the  one  from  which  they  are  taken.    . 

The  men  of  the  higher  ruling  classes,  the  proprietors, 
ministers,  kings,  officers,  take  part  in  these  matters,  thus 


THE   KINGDOM    OF    GOD    IS    WITHIN    YOU      307 

supporting  the  existing  order,  because  it  is  advantageous 
for  them.  Besides,  these  frequently  good,  meek  men  feel 
themselves  able  to  take  part  in  these  things  for  this  other 
reason,  that  their  participation  is  limited  to  instigations, 
decrees,  and  commands.  None  of  these  men  in  author- 
ity do  themselves  those  things  which  they  instigate,  de- 
termine upon,  and  order  to  be  done.  For  the  most  part 
they  do  not  even  see  how  all  those  terrible  things  which 
they  provoke  and  prescribe  are  carried  out. 

But  the  unfortunate  people  of  the  lower  classes,  who 
derive  no  advantage  from  the  existing  order,  who,  on  the 
contrary,  in  consequence  of  this  order  are  held  in  the 
greatest  contempt,  why  do  they,  who,  for  the  maintenance 
of  this  order,  with  their  own  hands  tear  people  away  from 
their  families,  w^ho  bind  them,  who  lock  them  up  in 
prisons  and  at  hard  labour,  who  watch  and  shoot  them, 
do  all  these  things  ? 

What  is  it  that  compels  these  men  to  believe  that  the 
existing  order  is  unchangeable  and  that  it  is  necessary  to 
maintain  it  ? 

All  violence  is  based  only  on  them,  on  those  men  who 
with  their  own  hands  beat,  bind,  lock  up,  kill.  If  these 
men  did  not  exist,  —  these  soldiers  and  policemen,  —  the 
armed  men  in  general,  who  are  prepared  on  command  to 
commit  violence  and  to  kill  all  those  whom  they  are  com- 
manded to  kill,  not  one  of  the  men  who  sign  the  decrees 
for  executions,  life  imprisonment,  hard  labour,  would  ever 
have  the  courage  himself  to  hang,  lock  up,  torture  to 
death  one  thousandth  part  of  those  whom  now,  sitting 
quietly  in  their  studies,  they  order  to  be  hung  and  to  be 
tortured  in  every  way,  only  because  they  do  not  see  it 
and  it  is  not  done  by  them,  but  somewhere  far  away  by 
obedient  executors. 

All  those  injustices  and  cruelties  which  have  entered 
into  the  curriculum  of  the  existing  life,  have  entered  there 
only  because  there  exist  these  people,  who  are  always 


308     THE    KINGDOM    OF    GOD    IS    WITHIN    YOU 

prepared  to  maintain  these  injustices  and  cruelties.  If 
these  men  did  not  exist,  there  would  not  be  any  one  to 
offer  violence  to  all  these  enormous  masses  of  violated 
people,  and  those  who  give  orders  would  never  even  dare 
either  to  command  or  even  to  dream  of  w^hat  they  now 
command  with  so  much  self-assurance.  If  there  were  no 
people  who  would  be  ready  at  the  command  of  those 
whom  they  obey  to  torture  or  to  kill  him  who  is  pointed 
out  to  them,  no  one  would  ever  dare  to  affirm,  what  is 
with  so  much  self-confidence  asserted  by  the  non-working 
landowners,  that  the  land  which  surrounds  the  peasants, 
who  are  dying  for  lack  of  land,  is  the  property  of  a  man 
who  does  not  work  on  it,  and  that  the  supply  of  corn, 
which  has  been  garnered  in  a  rascally  manner,  ought  to 
be  kept  intact  amidst  a  starving  population,  because  the 
merchant  needs  some  profit,  and  so  forth.  If  there  were 
no  men  who  would  be  ready  at  the  will  of  the  authorities 
to  torture  and  kill  every  person  pointed  out  to  them,  it 
could  never  occur  to  a  landed  proprietor  to  take  away  from 
the  peasants  a  forest  which  had  been  raised  by  them,  nor 
to  the  officials  to  consider  legal  the  payment  to  them  of 
salaries,  which  are  collected  from  the  hungry  masses,  for  op- 
pressing them,  to  say  nothing  of  executing  men,  or  locking 
them  up,  or  exiling  them,  because  they  overthrow  the  lie 
and  preach  the  truth.  All  this  is  demanded  and  done 
only  because  these  ruling  people  are  firmly  convinced  that 
^ley  have  always  at  hand  sulDmissive  people,  who  will  be 
ready  to  carry  any  of  their  demands  into  execution  by 
means  of  tortures  and  murders. 

The  only  reason  why  'they  commit  deeds  like  those 
committed  by  all  the  tyrants  from  Napoleon  down  to  the 
last  commander  of  a  company,  who  shoots  into  a  crowd, 
is  because  they  are  stupefied  by  the  power  behind  them, 
consisting  of  subservient  men  who  are  ready  to  do  any- 
thing they  are  commanded.  The  whole  strength,  there- 
fore, lies  in  the  men  who  with  their  hands  do  acts  of 


THE    KINGDOM    OF    GOD    IS    WITHIN    YOU      309 

violence,  in  the  men  who  serve  with  the  police,  among 
the  soldiers,  more  especially  among  the  soldiers,  because 
the  police  do  their  work  only  when  they  have  an  army 
behind  them. 

What  is  it,  then,  that  has  led  these  good  men,  who 
derive  no  advantage  from  it,  who  are  compelled  with  their 
hands  to  do  all  these  terrible  things,  men  on  whom  the 
whole  matter  depends,  into  that  remarkable  delusion  that 
assures  them  that  the  existing  disadvantageous,  pernicious, 
and  for  them  painful  order  is  the  one  which  must  be  ? 

Who  has  led  them  into  this  remarkable  delusion  ? 

They  have  certainly  not  assured  themselves  that  they 
must  do  what  is  not  only  painful,  disadvantageous,  and 
pernicious  to  them  and  their  whole  class,  which  forms 
nine-tenths  of  the  whole  population,  and  what  is  even 
contrary  to  their  conscience. 

"  How  are  you  going  to  kill  men,  when  in  God's  law  it 
says,  'Thou  shalt  not  kill'?"  I  frequently  asked  soldiers, 
and,  by  reminding  them  of  what  they  did  not  like  to 
think  about,  I  always  made  them  feel  awkward  and  em- 
barrassed. Such  a  soldier  knew  that  there  was  an  obliga- 
tory law  of  God,  "  Thou  shalt  not  kill,"  and  he  knew  that 
there  was  an  obligatory  military  service,  but  it  had  never 
occurred  to  him  that  there  was  any  contradiction  there. 
The  sense  of  the  timid  answers  that  I  always  received  to 
this  question  consisted  approximately  in  this,  that  murder 
in  war  and  the  execution  of  criminals  at  the  command  of 
the  government  were  not  included  in  the  common  prohibi- 
tion of  murders.  But  when  I  told  them  that  no  such 
limitation  was  made  in  God's  law,  and  reminded  them 
of  the  doctrine  of  brotherhood,  of  the  forgiveness  of 
offences,  of  love,  which  are  obligatory  for  all  Christians 
and  which  could  in  no  way  be  harmonized  with  murder, 
the  men  of  the  people  generally  agreed  with  me,  and  on 
their  side  put  the  question  to  me  as  to  how  it  hap- 
pened  that  the  government,  which,  according   to  their 


310     THE    KINGDOM    OF    GOD    IS    WITHIN    YOU 

ideas,  could  not  err,  commanded  the  armies,  when  neces- 
sary, to  go  to  war,  and  ordered  the  execution  of  prisoners. 
When  I  answered  them  that  the  government  acted  incor- 
rectly when  it  commanded  these  things  to  be  done,  my 
interlocutors  became  even  more  embarrassed,  and  either 
broke  off  the  conversation  or  grew  provoked  at  me. 

"  There  must  be  such  a  law.  I  guess  the  bishops  know 
better  than  we,"  I  was  told  by  a  Eussian  soldier.  And,- 
having  said  this,  the  soldier  apparently  felt  his  conscience 
eased,  being  fully  convinced  that  his  guides  had  found 
a  law,  the  same  under  which  his  ancestors  had  served, 
and  the  kings  and  the  kings'  heirs,  and  millions  of  peo- 
ple, and  he  himself  served,  and  that  what  I  was  telling 
him  was  some  piece  of  cunning  or  cleverness,  like  a 
riddle. 

All  the  men  of  our  Christian  world  know,  know  firmlv, 
from  tradition,  and  from  revelation,  and  from  the  irrefu- 
table voice  of  conscience,  that  murder  is  one  of  the  most 
terrible  crimes  which  a  man  can  commit,  as  the  Gospel 
says,  and  that  this  sin  cannot  be  limited  to  certain  men, 
that  is,  that  it  is  a  sin  to  kill  some  men,  but  not  a  sin  to 
kill  others.  All  know  that  if  the  sin  of  murder  is  a  sin, 
it  is  always  a  sin,  independently  of  what  men  are  the 
victims  of  it,  just  like  the  sin  of  adultery  and  thieving 
and  any  other ;  at  the  same  time  men  have  seen,  since 
childhood,  since  youth,  that  murder  is  not  only  admitted, 
but  even  blessed  by  all  those  whom  they  are  accustomed 
to  respect  as  their  spiritual  guides,  ordained  by  God ;  they 
see  that  their  worldly  guides  with  calm  assurance  insti- 
tute murders,  bear  arms  of  murder,  of  which  they  are 
proud,  and  demand  of  all,  in  the  name  of  the  civil  and 
even  the  divine  law,  that  they  shall  take  part  in  murder. 
Men  see  that  there  is  here  some  contradiction,  and, 
being  unable  to  solve  it,  they  involuntarily  assume  that 
this  contradiction  is  due  only  to  their  ignorance.  The 
very  coarseness  and  obviousness  of  the  contradiction  sus- 


TIJE    KI^^GDOM    OF    GOD    IS    WITHIN    YOU      311 

tains  them  in  this  conviction.  They  cannot  imagine  that 
their  enhghteners,  learned  men,  should  be  able  with  such 
confidence  to  preach  two  such  seemingly  contradictory 
propositions,  —  the  obligatoriness  for  every  one  of  the  law 
and  of  murder.  A  simple,  innocent  child,  and  later  a 
youth,  cannot  imagine  that  men  who  stand  so  high  in  his 
opinion,  whom  he  considers  to  be  either  holy  or  learned, 
should  for  any  reason  be  deceiving  him  so  unscrupulously. 
But  it  is  precisely  this  that  has  been  done  to  him  all  the 
time.  This  is  accomplished,  in  the  first  place,  by  im- 
pressing all  the  labouring  people,  who  have  not  them- 
selves any  time  to  solve  moral  and  religious  questions, 
from  childhood,  and  up  to  old  age,  by  example  and  direct 
teaching,  with  tlie  idea  that  tortures  and  murders  are 
compatible  with  Christianity,  and  that,  for  certain  pur- 
poses of  state,  tortures  and  murders  are  not  only  admis- 
sible, but  even  peremptory ;  in  the  second  place,  by 
impressing  some  of  them,  who  are  chosen  by  enlistment 
or  levy,  with  tlie  idea  that  the  performance  of  tortures 
and  murders  with  their  own  hands  forms  a  sacred  duty 
and  even  an  act  which  is  valorous  and  worthy  of 
praise  and  of  reward. 

The  common  deception,  which  is  disseminated  among  all 
men,  consists  in  this,  that  in  all  the  catechisms,  or  the 
books  which  have  taken  their  place  and  which  are  now 
the  subject  of  obligatory  instruction  for  the  children,  it 
says  that  violence,  that  is,  tortures,  imprisonments,  and 
executions,  as  also  murders  in  civil  or  external  wars  for 
the  purpose  of  maintaining  and  defending  the  existing 
order  of  the  state  (whatever  it  be,  autocratic,  monarchical, 
a  convention,  a  consulship,  an  empire  of  .either  Napoleon 
or  of  Boulanger,  a  constitutional  monarchy,  a  commune,  or 
a  repubhc),  is  quite  legitimate,  and  does  not  contradict 
either  morality  or  Christianity. 

This  it  says  in  all  the  catechisms  or  books  used  in  tlie 
schools.     And  men  are  so  convinced  of  it  that  they  grow 


312     THE    KINGDOM    OF    GOD    IS    WITHIN   YOU 

up,  live,  and  die  in  this  conviction,  without  doubting  it 
even  once. 

This  is  one  deception,  a  common  deception,  which  is 
practised  on  all  men ;  there  is  another,  a  private  decep- 
tion, which  is  practised  on  soldiers  or  policemen,  who  are 
chosen  in  one  way  or  another  and  who  perform  the  tor- 
tures and  the  murders  which  are  needed  for  the  support 
and  the  defence  of  the  existing  order. 

In  all  the  military  codes  it  says  in  so  many  words 
what  in  the  Russian  military  code  is  expressed  as  follows  : 
"(Art.  87)  Precisely  and  without  discussion  to  carry  out 
the  commands  of  the  authorities  means  to  carry  out  pre- 
cisely the  command  given  by  the  authorities,  without 
discussing  whether  it  is  good  or  bad,  and  whether  it  is 
possible  to  carry  it  out.  The  chief  himself  answers  for 
the  consequences  of  a  command  given  out  by  him.  (Art. 
88)  The  subject  may  refuse  to  carry  out  the  commands 
of  his  superior  only  when  he  sees  clearly  that  by  carry- 
ing out  his  superior's  command  he  "  —  one  involuntarily 
imagines  that  what  will  follow  is  "  when  he  sees  clearly 
that  by  carrying  out  his  superior's  command  he  violates 
the  law  of  God ; "  but  that  is  not  at  all  the  case : 
"  when  he  sees  clearly  that  he  is  violating  the  oath  of 
allegiance  and  fidelity,  and  his  service  to  the  emperor." 

It  says  that  a  man,  being  a  soldier,  must  carry  out  all 
the  commands  of  his  chief  without  any  exception  what- 
ever, which  for  a  soldier  mainly  means  murder,  and  so 
must  violate  all  divine  and  human  laws,  except  his  fidelity 
and  service  to  him  who  at  the  given  moment  happens  to 
be  in  power. 

Thus  it  says  in  the  Russian  military  code,  and  precisely 
the  same,  though  in  different  words,  is  said  in  all  the 
military  codes,  as  indeed  it  cannot  be  otherwise,  because 
in  reality  upon  this  deception  of  emancipating  men  from 
their  obedience  to  God  or  to  their  conscience,  and  of 
substituting  for  this  obedience  the  obedience  to  the  acci- 


THE    KINGDOM    OF    GOD    IS    WITHIN    YOU      313 

dental  superior,  is  all  the  power  of  the  army  and  the  state 
based. 

So  it  is  this  on  which  is  founded  that  strange  convic- 
tion of  the  lower  classes  that  the  existing  order,  which  is 
pernicious  for  them,  is  as  it  ought  to  be,  and  that  they  are, 
therefore,  obliged  to  support  it  with  tortures  and  murders. 

This  conviction  is  based  on  a  conscious  deception,  which 
is  practised  upon  them  by  the  upper  classes. 

Nor  can  it  be  otherwise.  To  compel  the  lower,  most 
numerous  classes  of  men  to  oppress  and  torment  them- 
selves, committing  with  this  such  acts  as  are  contrary  to 
their  conscience,  it  was  necessary  to  deceive  these  lower, 
most  numerous  classes.     And  so  it  was  done. 

The  other  day  I  again  saw  an  open  practice  of  this 
shameless  deceit,  and  I  was  again  surprised  to  see  with 
what  boldness  and  freedom  it  was  practised. 

In  the  begiimiiig  of  November,  as  I  was  passing  through 
Tula,  I  again  saw  at  the  gate  of  the  County  Council  Office 
the  familiar  dense  crowd  of  people,  from  which  proceeded 
drunken  shouts  and  the  pitiful  wail  of  mothers  and  of 
wives.      This  was  a  levy  of  recruits. 

As  upon  other  occasions,  I  was  unable  to  drive  past 
this  spectacle :  it  attracts  me  as  by  some  evil  charm.  I 
again  entered  among  the  crowd,  stood,  looked,  asked 
questions,  and  marvelled  at  the  freedom  \vith  which  this 
most  terrible  crime  is  perpetrated  in  broad  daylight  and 
in  a  populous  city. 

As  in  former  years,  the  elders  in  all  the  villages  of 
Eussia,  with  its  one  hundred  millions  of  inhabitants,  on  the 
first  of  November  selected  from  lists  a  given  number  of 
lads,  frequently  their  own  sons,  and  took  them  to  the 
city. 

On  the  way  the  recruits  went  on  an  uninterrupted 
spree,  in  which  they  were  not  interfered  with  by  their 
aiders,  who  feU  that  going  to  such  a  mad  business  as  the 
one  to  which  the  recruits  were  going,  abandoning  their 


314      THE    KINGDOM    OF    GOD    IS    WITHIN    YOU 

wives  and  mothers  and  renouncing  everything  holy  to 
them,  in  order  to  become  somebody's  senseless  instruments 
of  murder,  was  too  painful  a  matter,  if  they  did  not 
intoxicate  themselves  with  liquor. 

And  so  they  travelled,  drinking,  cursing,  singing,  fight- 
ing, and  maiming  themselves.  The  nights  they  passed  in 
inns.  In  the  morning  they  again  became  drunk  and 
gathered  in  front  of  the  County  Council  Office. 

One  part  of  them,  in  new  short  fur  coats,  with  knitted 
shawls  about  their  necks,  with  moist  drunken  eyes  or 
with  savage  self-encouraging  shouts,  or  quiet  and  dejected, 
crowd  at  the  gate  amidst  weeping  mothers  and  wives, 
waiting  for  their  turns  (I  fell  in  with  them  on  the  very 
day  of  the  levy,  that  is,  when  those  who  were  sent  up  were 
to  be  examined) ;  another  part  at  this  time  crowds  in  the 
waiting-room  of  the  Office. 

In  the  Office  they  are  busy  working.  The  door  is 
opened,  and  the  janitor  calls  Peter  Sidorov.  Peter  Sidorov 
is  startled,  makes  the  sign  of  the  cross,  and  enters  into  a 
small  room  with  a  glass  door.  Here  the  prospective 
recruits  undress  themselves.  A  naked  recruit,  a  com- 
panion of  Peter  Sidorov,  just  accepted,  comes  in  from  the 
Office,  with  trembling  jaws,  and  puts  on  his  clothes. 
Peter  Sidorov  has  heard  and  sees  by  his  face  that  he  is 
accepted.  Peter  Sidorov  wants  to  ask  him  something, 
but  he  is  told  to  hurry  and  undress  himself  as  quickly 
as  possible.  He  throws  off  his  fur  coat,  pulls  off  his  boots 
with  his  feet,  takes  off  his  vest,  draws  his  shirt  over  his 
head,  and  with  protruding  ribs,  naked,  with  shivering 
body,  and  emitting  an  odour  of  liquor,  tobacco,  and  per- 
spiration, with  bare  feet,  enters  into  the  Office,  without 
knowing  what  to  do  with  his  bared  muscular  arms. 

In  the  Office  there  hangs  in  full  sight  and  in  a  large  gilt 
frame  the  portrait  of  the  emperor  in  a  uniform  with  a  sash, 
and  in  the  corner  a  small  portrait  of  Christ  in  a  shirt  and 
a  crown  of  thorns.    In  the  middle  of  the  room  there  stands 


THE   KINGDOM    OF    GOD    IS    WITHIN    YOU      315 

a  table  covered  with  green  cloth,  upon  which  lie  papers 
and  stands  a  triangular  thing  with  an  eagle,  which  is  called 
the  Mirror  of  Laws.  Around  the  table  sit  the  chiefs,  with 
confident,  calm  looks.  One  of  them  smokes,  another  ex- 
amines some  paperSo  The  moment  Sidorov  has  entered, 
a  janitor  comes  up  to  him,  and  he  is  put  on  the  measuring- 
scale,  receives  a  knock  under  his  chin,  and  has  his  legs 
straightened  out.  There  walks  up  a  man  with  a  cigarette. 
It  is  the  doctor,  and  he,  without  looking  into  the  recruit's 
face,  but  somewhere  past  him,  loathingly  touches  his  body, 
and  measures  and  feels,  and  tells  the  janitor  to  open  the 
recruit's  mouth  wide,  and  commands  him  to  breathe  and  to 
say  something.  Somebody  makes  some  notes.  Finally, 
without  looking  once  into  his  eyes,  the  doctor  says,  "  Able- 
bodied  !  Next ! "  and  with  a  fatigued  expression  again 
seats  himself  at  the  table.  Again  soldiers  push  the  lad 
and  hurry  1dm  off.  He  somehow  manages  in  his  hurry 
to  pull  the  shirt  over  him,  after  missing  the  sleeves,  some- 
how puts  on  his  trousers  and  leg-rags,  draws  on  his  boots, 
looks  for  his  shawl  and  cap,  grasps  his  fur  coat,  and  is  led 
into  the  hall,  where  he  is  placed  behind  a  bench.  Beyond 
this  bench  wait  all  the  accepted  recruits.  A  village  lad, 
like  him,  but  from  a  distant  Government,  a  full-fledged 
soldier  with  a  gun,  with  a  sharp  bayonet  attached  to  it, 
keeps  watch  on  him,  ready  to  run  the  bayonet  through 
liim,  if  he  should  think  of  running  away. 

Meanwhile  the  crowd  of  fathers,  mothers,  wives,  pushed 
by  the  policemen,  press  close  to  the  gate,  to  find  out  who 
is  accepted,  and  who  not.  There  appears  one  of  the  re- 
jected, and  he  announces  that  Peter  has  been  accepted, 
and  there  is  heard  the  wail  oi  Peter's  wife,  for  whom  the 
word  "  accepted  "  means  a  separation  of  four  or  five  years, 
and  the  life  of  a  soldier's  wife  as  a  cook,  in  debauchery. 

But  just  then  a  long-haired  man  in  a  special  attire, 
which  distinguishes  him  from  all  other  men,  drives  up 
and,  getting    down  from    the    carriage,  walks  up  to  the 


316      THE    KINGDOM    OF    GOD    IS    WITHIN    YOU 

house  of  the  County  Council  Office.  The  policemen  clear 
a  path  for  him  through  the  crowd.  "  The  father  has  come 
to  administer  the  oath."  And  this  father,  who  has  heen 
assured  that  he  is  a  special,  exclusive  servant  of  Christ, 
who  for  the  most  part  does  not  himself  see  the  deception 
under  which  he  is,  enters  into  the  room  where  the  accepted 
recruits  are  waiting,  puts  on  a  gold-embroidered  apron, 
draws  his  hair  out  from  underueath  it,  opens  the  very  Gos- 
pel in  v/hich  taking  an  oath  is  prohibited,  lifts  up  a  cross, 
the  very  cross  on  which  Christ  was  crucified  for  not  doing 
what  this  His  imaginary  servant  orders  to  be  done,  and 
puts  it  on  the  pulpit,  and  all  these  defenceless  and  de- 
ceived lads  repeat  after  him  the  lie  which  he  pronounces 
boldly  and  l:>y  habit.  He  reads,  and  they  repeat  after  him  : 
"  I  promise  and  swear  by  the  Almighty  God,  before  His 
holy  Gospel  .  .  .  etc.,  to  defend,  that  is,  to  kill  all  those 
whom  I  am  commanded  to  kill,  and  to  do  everything  I  am 
ordered  to  do  by  those  people  whom  I  do  not  know,  and 
who  need  me  for  nothing  else  but  that  I  should  commit 
the  evil  deeds  by  which  they  are  kept  in  their  positions, 
and  by  which  they  oppress  my  brothers."  All  the  accepted 
recruits  senselessly  repeat  these  wild  words,  and  the  so- 
called  "  father "  drives  away  with  the  consciousness  of 
having  correctly  and  scrupulously  done  his  duty,  and  all 
these  deceived  lads  think  that  all  those  insipid,  incompre- 
hensible words,  which  they  have  just  pronounced,  have 
now,  for  the  whole  time  of  their  military  service,  freed 
them  from  their  human  obligations  and  have  bound  them 
to  new,  more  obligatory  mihtary  obligations. 

And  this  is  done  publicly,  and  no  one  will  shout  to  the 
deceivers  and  to  the  deceived :  "  Bethink  yourselves  and 
scatter,  for  this  is  the  basest  and  meanest  lie,  which  ruins 
not  only  our  bodies,  but  also  our  souls." 

No  one  does  so  ;  on  the  contrary,  when  all  are  accepted, 
and  it  becomes  necessary  to  let  them  out,  the  military 
chief,  as  though  to  scorn  them,  enters  with  self-confident, 


THE    KINGDOM    OF    GOD    IS    WITHIN    YOU      317 

majestic  mien  into  the  hall  where  the  deceived,  drunken 
lads  are  locked  up,  aud  boldly  exclaims  to  them  in  military 
fashion,  "  Your  health,  boys  !  I  congratulate  you  on  your 
Tsar's  service."  And  the  poor  fellows  (somebody  has  in- 
structed them  what  to  do)  babble  something  with  an 
unaccustomed,  half-intoxicated  tongue  to  the  effect  that 
they  are  glad  of  it. 

In  the  meantime,  the  crowd  of  fathers,  mothers,  and 
wives  stand  at  the  door  and  wait.  The  women  look 
with  tearful,  arrested  eyes  through  the  door.  And  the 
door  opens,  and  out  come,  staggering,  and  with  a  look  of 
bravado,  the  accepted  recruits,  —  Petrukha,  and  Vanyiikha, 
and  Makar,  —  trying  not  to  look  at  their  relatives.  The 
wail  of  the  motliers  aud  wives  is  heard.  Some  embrace  one 
another  and  weep ;  others  try  to  look  brave ;  others  again 
console  their  people.  Mothers  and  wives,  knowing  that 
now  they  will  be  orphaned  for  three,  four,  or  five  years, 
without  a  supporter,  wail*  and  lament  at  the  top  of  their 
voices.  The  fathers  do  not  speak  much,  and  only  pitifully 
smack  their  tongues  and  sigh,  knowing  that  now  they  will 
no  longer  see  their  helpers,  whom  they  have  raised  and 
instructed,  and  that  there  will  return  to  them,  not  those 
peaceful,  industrious  agriculturists  that  they  have  been, 
but  generally  debauched,  dandyish  soldiers,  who  are  no 
longer  used  to  a  simple  hfe. 

And  now  the  whole  crowd  take  up  seats  in  their  sleighs 
and  start  down  the  street,  in  the  direction  of  inns  aud 
restaurants,  and  still  louder  are  heard,  interfering  with  one 
another,  songs,  sobs,  drunken  shouts,  the  laments  of  the 
mothers  and  wives,  the  sounds  of  the  accordion,  and  curses. 
All  make  for  saloons  and  restaurants,  the  revenue  from 
which  goes  to  the  government,  aud  they  abandon  them- 
selves to  intoxication,  which  drowns  in  them  the  percepted 
consciousness  of  tlie  illegality  of  what  is  being  done  to 
them. 

For  two  or  three  weeks  they  live  at  home,  and  for  the 


318      THE    KINGDOM    OF    GOD    IS    WITHIN    YOU 

most  part  are  having  a  good  time,  that  is,  are  out  on  a 
spree. 

On  a  set  day  they  are  collected,  and  driven  like  cattle 
to  one  place,  and  are  taught  military  methods  and  ex- 
ercises. They  are  instructed  by  just  such  deceived  and 
bestialized  men  as  they,  who  entered  the  service  two  or 
three  years  ago.  The  means  of  instruction  are  deception, 
stupefaction,  kicks,  vodka.  And  not  a  year  passes  but 
that  spiritually  sound,  bright,  good  fellows  are  turned  into 
just  such  wild  beings  as  their  teachers. 

"  Well,  and  if  the  prisoner,  your  father,  runs  away  ?  "  I 
asked  a  young  soldier. 

"  I  can  run  the  bayonet  through  him,"  he  replied,  in 
the  peculiar,  senseless  voice  of  a  soldier.  "  And  if  he  '  re- 
moves himself,'  I  must  shoot,"  he  added,  apparently  proud 
of  his  knowledge  of  what  to  do  when  his  father  "  removes 
himself." 

When  he,  the  good  young  rnan,  is  brought  to  a  condi- 
tion lower  than  an  animal,  he  is  such  as  those  who  use 
him  as  an  instrument  of  violence  want  him  to  be.  He  is 
all  ready :  the  man  is  lost,  and  a  new  instrument  of  vio- 
lence has  been  created. 

And  all  this  takes  place  every  year,  every  autumn, 
everywhere,  in  the  whole  of  Eussia,  in  broad  dayhght,  in 
a  populous  city,  in  the  sight  of  all  men,  and  the  deception 
is  so  clever,  so  cunning,  that  all  see  it  and  in  the  depth 
of  their  hearts  know  all  its  baseness,  all  its  terrible  conse- 
quences, and  are  unable  to  free  themselves  from  it. 


When  the  eyes  shall  be  opened  to  this  terrible  decep- 
tion which  is  practised  on  men,  one  must  marvel  how 
preachers  of  the  religion  of  Christianity  and  morahty, 
educators  of  youth,  simply  good,  intelligent  parents,  who 
always  exist  in  every  society,  can  preach  any  doctrine  of 


THE    KINGDOM    OF    GOD    IS    WITHIN    TOU      319 

morality  amidst  a  society  in  which  all  the  churches  and 
governments  openly  acknowledge  that  tortures  and  mur- 
ders form  an  indispensable  condition  of  the  life  of  all 
men,  and  that  amidst  all  men  there  must  always  be  some 
special  men,  who  are  prepared  to  kill  their  brothers,  and 
that  every  one  of  us  may  be  such. 

How  can  children  and  youths  be  taught  and  men  in 
general  be  enlightened,  to  say  nothing  of  the  enlighten- 
ment in  the  Christian  spirit,  how  can  they  be  taught  any 
morality  by  the  side  of  the  doctrine  that  murder  is  in- 
dispensable for  the  maintenance  of  the  common,  conse- 
quently of  our  own,  well-being,  and  so  is  legitimate,  and 
that  there  are  men  (any  of  us  may  be  these  men)  whose 
duty  it  is  to  torture  and  kill  our  neighbours  and  to  commit 
all  kinds  of  crime  at  the  will  of  those  who  have  the  power 
in  their  hands  ?  If  it  is  possible  and  right  to  torture  and 
kill  and  commit  all  kinds  of  crimes  by  the  will  of  those 
who  have  the  power  in  their  hands,  there  is,  and  there 
can  be,  no  moral  teaching,  but  there  is  only  the  right  of 
the  stronger.  And  so  it  is.  In  reality,  such  a  teaching, 
which  for  some  men  is  theoretically  justified  by  the  the- 
ory of  the  struggle  for  existence,  does  exist  in  our  society. 

Really,  what  kind  of  a  moral  teaching  can  there  be, 
which  would  admit  murder  for  any  purposes  whatsoever  ? 
This  is  as  impossible  as  any  mathematical  doctrine,  which 
would  admit  that  two  is  equal  to  three. 

With  the  admission  of  the  fact  that  two  is  equal  to 
three  there  may  be  a  semblance  of  mathematics,  but  there 
can  be  no  real  mathematical  knowledge.  With  the  ad- 
mission of  murder  in  the  form  of  executions,  wars,  self- 
defence,  there  may  be  a  semblance  of  morality,  but  no 
real  morality.  The  recognition  of  the  sacredness  of  every 
man's  life  is  the  first  and  only  foundation  of  all  morality. 

The  doctrine  of  an  eye  for  an  eye,  a  tooth  for  a  tooth, 
a  life  for  a  life  was  put  aside  by  Christianity  for  the  very 
reason  that  this  doctrine  is   only  a   justification  of  ini- 


320     THE    KINGDOM    OF    GOD    IS    WITHIN   YOU 

morality,  only  a  semblance  of  justice,  and  is  devoid  of 
sense.  Life  is  a  quantity  which  has  no  weight  and  no 
measure  and  which  cannot  be  equalized  to  any  other,  and 
so  the  destruction  of  one  life  for  another  can  have  no 
meaning.  Besides,  every  social  law  is  a  law  which  has 
for  its  purpose  the  improvement  of  human  life.  But  in 
what  way  can  the  destruction  of  the  lives  of  a  few  indi- 
viduals improve  the  lives  of  men  ?  The  destruction  of 
life  is  not  like  its  improvement,  but  an  act  of  suicide. 

The  destruction  of  another  man's  life  for  the  purpose 
of  preserving  justice  is  like  what  a  man  would  do  who, 
to  mend  the  calamity  which  consists  in  his  having  lost 
one  arm,  should  for  the  sake  of  justice  cut  off  his  other 
arm. 

But,  to  say  nothing  of  the  sin  of  deception,  with  which 
the  most  terrible  crime  presents  itself  to  men  as  their 
duty ;  to  say  nothing  of  the  terrible  crime  of  using 
Christ's  name  and  authority  for  the  purpose  of  legalizing 
what  is  most  denied  by  this  same  Christ,  as  is  done  in  the 
case  of  the  oath ;  to  say  nothing  of  the  offence  by  means 
of  which  not  only  the  bodies,  but  even  the  souls  of  "  these 
little  ones  "  are  ruined ;  to  say  nothing  of  all  that,  how 
can  men,  even  in  view  of  their  personal  security,  men  who 
think  highly  of  their  forms  of  life,  their  progress,  admit 
the  formation  among  them  of  that  terrible,  senseless, 
cruel,  pernicious  force  which  is  established  by  every  or- 
ganized government  that  rests  on  the  army  ?  The  most 
cruel  and  terrible  of  robber  bands  is  not  so  terrible  as  such 
a  state  organization.  Every  leader  of  robbers  is  none 
the  less  limited  in  his  power,  because  the  men  who  form 
his  band  retain  at  least  a  small  part  of  their  human 
liberty  and  may  oppose  the  performance  of  acts  contrary 
to  their  conscience.  But  for  men  forming  a  part  of  a 
regularly  organized  government  with  an  army,  with  dis- 
cipline carried  to  the  point  to  which  it  is  at  the  present 
time,   there   are   no   barriers   whatsoever.     There  are   no 


THE   KINGDOM    OF   GOD   IS   WITHIN   YOU     321 

crimes  so  terrible  that  they  would  not  be  committed  by 
men  forming  a  part  of  the  government  and  of  the  army,  by 
the  will  of  him  who  accidentally  (Boulanger,  Pugach^v, 
Napoleon)  may  stand  at  its  head. 

Frequently,  w^hen  I  see,  not  only  the  levies  of  recruits, 
the  military  exercises,  the  manoeuvres,  but  also  the  police- 
men with  loaded  revolvers,  the  sentries  standing  with 
guns  and  adjusted  bayonets ;  when  I  hear  (as  I  do  in  the 
Khamovniki,  where  1  live)  for  whole  days  the  whistling 
and  the  pinging  of  bullets  striking  the  target ;  and  when 
I  see,  in  the  very  city  where  every  attempt  at  self-help 
and  violence  is  prohibited,  where  there  is  a  prohibition 
against  the  sale  of  powder,  medicines,  fast  driving,  un- 
hcensed  medical  practice,  and  so  forth,  when  I  see  in  this 
same  city  thousands  of  disciplined  men,  who  have  been 
taught  to  commit  murder  and  who  are  subject  to  one  man, 
—  I  ask  myself :  "  How  can  the  men  who  think  so  highly 
of  their  security  bear  all  this  ? "  To  say  nothing  of  the 
harmfulness  and  immorality,  nothing  can  be  more  danger- 
ous than  this.  How  can  all  men,  I  do  not  say  Cliristians, 
Christian  pastors,  but  all  philanthropists,  morahsts,  all 
those  men  who  value  their  lives,  their  security,  their  well- 
being,  quietly  look  on  ?  This  organization  will  certainly 
act  in  the  same  way,  no  matter  in  whose  hands  it  may 
be :  to-day,  let  us  say,  this  power  is  in  the  hands  of  an 
endurable  ruler ;  to-morrow  a  Biron,  an  EHzabeth,  a 
Catherine,  a  Pugacliev,  a  Napoleon  the  First,  a  Napoleon 
the  Third  may  usurp  it.  And  again,  the  man  in  whose 
hands  is  the  power,  and  who  to-day  may  be  endurable,  may 
to-morrow  turn  into  a  beast,  or  his  place  may  be  taken  by 
an  insane  or  half-witted  heir  of  his,  as  was  the  case  with 
the  King  of  Bavaria  and  Paul. 

And  not  only  these  higher  rulers,  but  also  all  those 
minor  satraps,  who  are  distributed  everywhere  like  so 
many  Bar^novs,  chiefs  of  police,  even  rural  officers,  com- 
manders of  companies,  uuder-officers,  may  commit  terrible 


322      THE    KINGDOM    OF    GOD    IS    WITHIN    YOU 

crimes  before  there  has  been  time  to  depose  them,  as 
happens  constantly. 

Invohmtarily  one  asks  himself :  "  How  can  men  permit 
such  things  to  happen,  if  not  for  the  sake  of  higher  con- 
siderations of  state,  at  least  for  the  sake  of  their  se- 
curity ? " 

The  answer  to  this  question  is  this,  that  it  is  not  all 
men  who  permit  this  to  happen  (one  part  of  them,  —  the 
great  majority  of  men, —  the  deceived  and  the  subjected, 
cannot  help  but  permit  anything  to  be  done),  but  those 
who  with  such  an  organization  hold  an  advantageous 
position ;  they  permit  it,  because  for  them  the  risk  of 
suffering,  because  at  the  head  of  the  government  or  the 
army  there  may  be  a  senseless  or  cruel  man,  is  always 
less  than  the  disadvantages  to  which  they  would  be 
subjected  in  case  of  the  destruction  of  the  organization 
itself. 

The  judge,  policeman,  governor,  officer  will  hold  his 
position  equally  under  Boulanger,  or  a  republic,  or  Puga- 
chev  or  Catherine ;  but  he  will  certainly  lose  his  position, 
if  the  existing  order,  which  secures  for  him  his  advan- 
tageous position,  falls  to  pieces.  And  so  all  these  men 
are  not  afraid  of  who  will  stand  at  the  head  of  the  organi- 
zation of  violence,  —  they  adapt  themselves  to  anybody, 
—  but  only  of  the  destruction  of  the  organization  itself, 
and  so  they  always  support  it,  often  unconsciously. 

One  often  marvels  why  free  men,  who  are  not  urged  to 
it  by  anything,  the  so-called  flower  of  society,  enter  the 
army,  in  Eussia,  in  England,  Germany,  Austria,  even 
France,  and  why  they  seek  an  opportunity  for  becoming 
murderers.  Why  do  parents,  moral  men,  send  their  chil- 
dren to  institutions  which  prepare  them  for  military 
matters  ?  Why  do  mothers  buy  their  children  helmets, 
guns,  swords  as  their  favourite  toys  ?  (The  children  of 
peasants  never  play  soldier.)  Why  do  good  men,  and 
even  women,  who  are  in  no  way  connected  with  military 


THE    KINGDOM    OF    GOD    IS    WITHIN    YOU      323 

affairs,  go  into  ecstasies  over  the  exploits  of  a  Skobel^vski 
and  of  others,  and  why  do  they  take  so  much  pains  to 
praise  them  ?  Why  do  men,  who  are  not  urged  to  do  so, 
who  do  not  receive  any  salary  for  it,  like  the  marshals 
of  nobility  in  Russia,  devote  whole  months  of  assiduous 
work  to  performing  a  physically  hard  and  morally  agoniz- 
ing piece  of  business,  —  the  reception  of  recruits  ?  Why 
do  all  the  emperors  and  kings  wear  military  costumes, 
attend  manoeuvres  and  parades,  distribute  rewards  to  sol- 
diers, erect  monuments  to  generals  and  conquerors  ?  Why 
do  free,  wealthy  men  consider  it  an  honour  to  perform 
lackeys'  duties  to  crowned  heads,  why  do  they  humble 
themselves,  and  flatter  them,  and  pretend  that  they  be- 
lieve in  the  special  grandeur  of  these  persons  ?  Why  do 
men,  who  have  long  ago  stopped  believing  in  the  medi- 
aeval superstitions  of  the  church,  and  who  are  unable  to 
believe  in  them,  seriously  and  invariably  pretend  that 
they  believe,  thus  maintaining  the  offensive  and  blas- 
phemous religious  institution  ?  Why  is  the  ignorance  of 
the  masses  so  zealously  guarded,  not  only  by  the  govern- 
ments, but  also  by  the  free  men  from  the  higher  classes  ? 
Why  do  they  with  such  fury  attack  every  attempt  at 
destroying  the  religions  superstitions,  and  every  true  en- 
lightenment of  the  masses?  Why  do  men,  —  historians, 
novelists,  poets,  —  who  can  certainly  receive  nothing  for 
their  flattery,  describe  as  heroes  long  deceased  emperors, 
kings,  or  generals  ?  Why  do  men  who  call  themselves 
learned  devote  their  whole  lives  to  the  formation  of  the- 
ories, from  which  it  follows  that  violence  which  is  exerted 
by  the  power  against  the  nation  is  not  violence,  but  some 
especial  right  ? 

One  often  marvels  why,  for  what  reason  a  lady  of  the 
world  or  an  artist,  who,  it  would  seem,  is  interested 
neither  in  social,  nor  in  military  questions,  condemns 
labour  strikes  and  preaches  war,  and  always  definitely 
attacks  one  side  and  defends  the  other? 


324      THE    KINGDOM    OF    GOD    IS    WITHIN   YOU 

But  one  marvels  at  this  only  so  long  as  one  does  not 
know  that  this  is  all  done  so  because  all  the  men  of  the 
ruling  classes  feel  instinctively  what  it  is  that  maintains 
and  what  destroys  the  organization  under  which  they  can 
enjoy  the  privileges  they  are  enjoying. 

The  lady  of  the  world  has  not  even  made  the  reflection 
that,  if  there  are  no  capitalists,  and  no  armies  to  defend 
them,  her  husband  will  have  no  money,  and  she  will  have 
no  salon  and  no  costumes ;  and  the  artist  has  not  made 
the  reflection  as  to  this,  that  he  needs  the  capitalists,  who 
are  protected  by  the  armies,  to  buy  his  pictures ;  but  the 
instinct,  which  in  this  case  takes  the  place  of  reason,  guides 
them  unerringly.  It  is  precisely  the  same  instinct  that 
with  few  exceptions  guides  all  those  men  who  support  all 
those  pohtical,  religious,  economic  establishments,  which 
are  advantageous  to  them. 

But  can  the  men  of  the  upper  classes  maintain  this 
order  of  things,  only  because  it  is  advantageous  for  them  ? 
These  men  cannot  help  but  see  that  this  order  of  things 
is  in  itself  irrational,  no  longer  corresponds  to  the  degree 
of  men's  consciousness,  not  even  to  public  opinion,  and  is 
full  of  dangers.  The  men  of  the  ruling  classes  —  the 
honest,  good,  clever  men  among  them  —  cannot  help  but 
suffer  from  these  internal  contradictions,  and  cannot  help 
but  see  the  dangers  with  which  this  order  threatens  them. 
Is  it  possible  the  men  of  the  lower  classes,  all  the  millions 
of  these  people,  can  with  a  calm  conscience  perform  all 
these  obviously  bad  acts,  tortures,  and  murders,  which 
they  are  compelled  to  perform,  only  because  they  are 
afraid  of  punishment  ?  Indeed,  that  could  not  have  been, 
and  neither  the  men  of  the  one  class  nor  of  the  other 
could  help  but  see  the  irrationality  of  their  activity,  if  the 
peculiarity  of  the  state  structure  did  not  conceal  from 
them  the  whole  unnaturalness  and  irrationality  of  the 
acts  committed  by  them. 

This  irrationality  is  concealed  by  the  fact  that  in  the 


THE    KINGDOM    OF    GOD   IS    WITHIN    YOU      325 

commission  of  each  of  these  acts  there  are  so  many  insti- 
gators, accomplices,  abettors,  that  not  one  of  the  men 
taking  part  in  it  feels  himself  to  be  morally  respon- 
sible. 

Murderers  compel  all  the  persons  who  are  present  at  a 
murder  to  strike  the  dead  victim,  so  that  the  responsibility 
may  be  distributed  among  the  largest  possible  number  of 
men.  The  same  thing,  haviug  assumed  definite  forms, 
has  established  itself  iu  the  structure  of  the  state  in  the 
commission  of  all  those  crimes,  without  the  constant  com- 
mission of  which  no  state  organization  is  thinkable.  The 
rulers  of  the  state  always  try  to  draw  as  large  a  number 
of  citizens  as  possible  into  the  greatest  possible  participa- 
tion in  all  the  crimes  committed  by  them  and  indispen- 
sable for  them. 

Of  late  this  has  found  a  most  lucid  expression  iu  the 
drafting  of  the  citizens  into  the  courts  in  the  form  of 
jurors,  into  the  armies  in  the  form  of  soldiers,  and  into 
the  local  government  and  into  the  legislative  assembly  in 
the  form  of  electors  and  representatives. 

In  the  structure  of  the  state,  in  which,  as  in  a  basket 
made  of  rods,  all  the  ends  are  so  concealed  that  it  is  not 
possible  to  find  them,  the  responsibility  for  crimes  com- 
mitted is  so  concealed  from  men  that  they,  in  committing 
the  most  awful  deeds,  do  not  see  their  own  responsibility 
in  them. 

In  olden  times  the  tyrants  were  blamed  for  the  com- 
mission of  evil  deeds,  but  in  our  time  most  awful  crimes, 
unthinkable  even  iu  the  time  of  a  Nero,  are  committed, 
and  there  is  no  one  to  blame. 

Some  men  demanded,  others  decreed,  others  again  con- 
firmed, others  proposed,  others  reported,  others  prescribed, 
others  executed.  Women,  old  men,  innocent  people,  are 
killed,  hanged,  flogged  to  death,  as  lately  happened  in 
Russia  in  the  Yuzov  Plant,  and  as  happens  everywhere 
in  Europe  and  in  America,  in  the  struggle  with  anarchists 


326      THE   KINGDOM    OF    GOD    IS    WITHIN    YOU 

and  all  kinds  of  violators  of  the  existing  order ;  hundreds, 
thousands  of  men  will  be  shot  to  death,  killed,  and 
hanged,  or,  as  is  done  ia  wars,  millions  of  men  will  be 
killed  or  ruined,  or,  as  is  constantly  done,  the  souls  of 
men  are  ruined  in  soHtary  confinement,  in  the  debauched 
condition  of  militarism,  —  and  no  one  is  to  blame. 

On  the  lowest  stage  of  the  social  ladder,  soldiers  with 
guns,  pistols,  swords,  torture  and  kill  men,  and  with  the 
same  tortures  and  murders  compel  men  to  enter  the  army, 
and  are  fully  convinced  that  the  responsibility  for  these 
acts  is  taken  from  them  by  those  authorities  who  prescribe 
these  acts  to  them. 

On  the  highest  stage,  kings,  presidents,  ministers, 
Chambers,  prescribe  these  tortures  and  murders  and  the 
enlistment  of  soldiers,  and  are  fully  convinced  that,  since 
they  are  put  into  their  places  by  God,  or  since  the  society 
which  they  rule  over  demands  from  them  precisely  what 
they  prescribe,  they  cannot  be  blamed. 

In  the  middle  between  the  two  are  the  intermediate 
persons,  who  order  the  tortures  and  murders  and  the  en- 
listment of  soldiers,  and  they  are  fully  convinced  that 
their  responsibility  has  been  taken  from  them,  partly  by 
the  commands  from  above,  and  partly  because  the  same 
orders  are  demanded  of  them  by  all  those  who  stand  on 
the  lower  stages. 

The  administrative  and  the  executive  powers,  which  lie 
at  the  two  extremes  of  the  structure  of  the  state,  meet 
like  two  ends  that  are  united  into  a  ring,  and  one  condi- 
tions and  maintains  the  other  and  all  the  intervening 
links. 

Without  the  conviction  that  there  exists  such  a  person, 
or  such  a  number  of  persons,  who  take  upon  themselves 
the  responsibihty  for  the  acts  committed,  not  one  soldier 
would  be  able  to  raise  his  hands  for  the  purpose  of  tor- 
turiQCf  or  killing.  Without  the  conviction  that  this  is 
demanded  by  the  whole  nation,  not  one  emperor,  king, 


THE    KINGDOM    OF    GOD    IS    WITHIN   YOU     327 

president,  not  one  assembly  would  be  able  to  prescribe 
these  same  tortures  and  murders.  Without  the  conviction 
that  there  are  persons  who  stand  above  him  and  take  upon 
themselves  the  responsibility  for  his  act,  and  men  who 
stand  below  him  and  demand  the  fulfilment  of  such  acts 
for  their  own  good,  not  one  of  the  men  who  stand  on  the 
stages  intermediate  between  the  ruler  and  the  soldier 
would  be  able  to  commit  those  acts  which  he  is  com- 
mitting. 

The  structure  of  the  state  is  such  that,  no  matter  on 
what  rung  of  the  social  ladder  a  man  may  stand,  his 
degree  of  irresponsibility  is  always  one  and  the  same :  the 
higher  he  stands,  the  more  is  he  subjected  to  the  influence 
of  the  demand  for  orders  from  below  and  the  less  he  is 
subjected  to  the  influence  of  the  prescriptions  from  above, 
and  vice  versa. 

Thus,  in  the  case  before  me,  every  one  who  had  taken 
part  in  the  matter  was  the  more  under  the  influence  of 
the  demand  for  orders  from  below  and  the  less  under  the 
influence  of  prescriptions  from  above,  the  higher  his  posi- 
tion was,  and  vice  versa. 

But  not  only  do  all  men  who  are  connected  with  the 
structure  of  the  state  shift  their  responsibility  for  deeds 
committed  upon  others :  the  peasant  who  is  drafted  into 
the  army,  upon  the  nobleman  or  merchant  who  has 
become  an  officer;  and  the  officer,  upon  the  nobleman 
who  holds  the  position  of  governor ;  and  the  governor, 
upon  the  son  of  an  official  or  nobleman  who  occupies  the 
position  of  minister ;  and  the  minister,  upon  a  member 
of  the  imperial  house  who  holds  the  position  of  emperor ; 
and  the  emperor  again,  upon  all  these  officials,  noble- 
men, merchants,  and  peasants ;  not  only  do  men  in  this 
manner  free  themselves  from  the  consciousness  of  respon- 
sibility for  acts  committed  by  them,  —  they  even  lose 
the  moral  consciousness  of  their  responsibility  for  this 
other  reason,  that,  uniting  into  a  political  structure,  they 


328     THE    KINGDOM    OF    GOD    IS    WITHIN    YOU 

SO  constantly,  continuously,  and  tensely  convince  them- 
selves and  others  that  they  are  not  all  identical  men,  but 
men  who  differ  from  one  another  as  does  "  one  star  from 
another,"  that  they  begin  themselves  sincerely  to  believe 
so.  Thus  they  convince  one  set  of  men  that  they  are  not 
simple  men,  identical  with  others,  but  a  special  kind  of 
men,  who  have  to  be  honoured,  while  they  impress  others 
with  the  idea  that  they  stand  beneath  all  other  men  and 
so  must  unflinchingly  submit  to  what  they  are  commanded 
to  do  by  their  superiors. 

On  this  inequality  and  exaltation  of  one  class  of  men 
and  the  annihilation  of  the  other  is  mainly  based  the 
inability  of  men  to  see  the  irrationality  of  the  existing 
order  and  its  cruelty  and  criminality,  and  of  that  decep- 
tion which  is  practised  by  some  and  to  which  the  others 
submit. 

Some,  those  who  are  impressed  with  the  idea  that 
they  are  vested  with  some  supernatural  significance  and 
grandeur,  are  so  intoxicated  by  this  imaginary  grandeur 
that  they  stop  seeing  their  responsibility  in  the  acts 
committed  by  them ;  the  other  men,  who,  on  the  contrary, 
are  impressed  with  the  idea  that  they  are  insignificant 
creatures,  who  must  in  everything  submit  to  the  higher, 
in  consequence  of  this  constant  condition  of  humiliation 
fall  into  a  strange  condition  of  intoxication  of  servility, 
and  under  the  influence  of  their  intoxication  also  fail  to 
see  the  significance  of  their  acts,  and  lose  the  consciousness 
of  their  responsibility  for  them.  The  intermediate  people, 
who,  partly  submitting  to  the  higher,  and  partly  consider- 
ing themselves  to  be  superior,  succumb  simultaneously 
to  the  intoxication  of  power  and  that  of  servility,  and  so 
lose  the  consciousness  of  their  responsibility. 

We  need  but  look  in  any  country  at  a  superior  chief, 
intoxicated  by  his  grandeur,  accompanied  by  his  staff,  all 
of  them  on  magnificently  caparisoned  horses,  in  special 
uniforms  and   signs  of  distinction,  as  he,  to  the  sound 


THE    KINGDOM    OF    GOD    IS   WITHIN    YOU     329 

of  the  harmonious  and  festive  music  produced  by  wind- 
instruments,  rides  past  a  line  of  soldiers  stiffened  up  from 
a  sense  of  servility  and  presenting  arms,  —  we  need  but 
look  at  him,  in  order  that  we  may  understand  that  at 
these  moments  the  highest  chief  and  the  soldier  and  all 
the  intermediate  persons,  being  in  a  state  of  intoxication, 
are  equally  capable  of  committing  acts  which  they  would 
not  think  of  committing  under  other  circumstances. 

But  the  intoxication  experienced  by  men  under  such 
phenomena  as  are  parades,  imperial  receptions,  church 
solemnities,  coronations,  is  a  temporary  and  acute  condi- 
tion ;  there  are  also  other,  chronic,  constant  conditions  of 
intoxication,  which  are  equally  experienced  by  all  men 
who  have  any  power,  from  the  power  of  the  emperor  to 
that  of  a  policeman  in  the  street,  and  by  men  who  sub- 
mit to  power  and  who  are  in  a  condition  of  intoxication 
through  servility,  and  who  in  justification  of  this  their 
condition  always  ascribe,  as  has  always  shown  itself  in 
the  case  of  slaves,  the  greatest  significance  and  dignity 
to  him  whom  they  obey. 

On  this  deception  of  the  inequality  of  men  and  the 
resulting  intoxication  of  power  and  of  servility  is  pre- 
eminently based  the  ability  of  men  united  into  a  political 
structure  to  commit,  without  experiencing  any  pangs  of 
conscience,  acts  which  are  contrary  to  their  conscience. 

Under  the  influence  of  such  an  intoxication,  both  of 
power  and  of  servility,  men  present  themselves  to  them- 
selves and  to  others,  not  as  what  they  are  in  reality,  — 
men,  —  but  as  especial,  conventional  beings,  —  noblemen, 
merchants,  governors,  judges,  officers,  kings,  ministers, 
soldiers,  who  no  longer  are  subject  to  common  human 
obligations,  but,  above  all  else,  and  before  all  human,  to 
nobiliary,  commercial,  gubernatorial,  judicial,  military, 
royal,  ministerial  obligations. 

Thus,  the  proprietor  who  litigated  concerning  the  forest 
did  what  he  did  only  because  he  did  not  present  himself 


330     THE   KIJfGDOM   OF   GOD   IS   WITHIN   YOU 

to  himself  as  a  simple  man,  like  any  of  the  peasants  who 
were  living  by  his  side,  but  as  a  large  landed  proprietor 
and  a  member  of  the  gentry,  and  so,  under  the  influence 
of  the  intoxication  of  power,  he  felt  himself  insulted  by 
the  pretensions  of  the  peasants.  It  was  only  for  this 
reason  that,  without  paying  any  attention  to  the  conse- 
quences which  might  arise  from  his  demand,  he  handed 
in  the  petition  requesting  the  restitution  of  his  imaginary 
right. 

Similarly,  the  judges  who  irregularly  adjudged  the 
forest  to  the  proprietor  did  so  only  because  they  do  not 
imagine  themselves  to  be  simple  men,  just  like  all  other 
men,  and  so  under  obligation  in  all  cases  to  be  guided 
only  by  what  is  the  truth,  but  under  the  intoxication  of 
power  they  imagine  themselves  to  be  the  guardians  of  jus- 
tice, who  cannot  err  ;  but  under  the  influence  of  the 
intoxication  of  servility  they  imagine  themselves  to  be 
men  who  are  obliged  to  carry  out  certain  words  which 
are  written  in  a  certain  book  and  are  called  the  law.  As 
just  such  conventional  persons,  and  not  as  what  they  are 
in  reahty,  present  themselves,  under  the  influence  of  the 
intoxication  of  power  and  of  servility,  to  themselves  and 
to  others,  all  the  other  participants  in  this  matter,  from 
the  highest  representatives  of  power,  who  sign  their 
approval  on  documents,  from  the  marshal,  who  drafts 
recruits  at  the  levy  of  soldiers,  and  the  priest,  who 
deceives  them,  to  the  last  soldier,  who  is  now  getting 
ready  to  shoot  at  his  brothers.  They  all  did  what  they 
did,  and  are  preparing  themselves  to  do  what  awaits  them, 
only  because  they  present  themselves  to  themselves  and 
to  others,  not  as  what  they  are  in  reahty,  —  men  who  are 
confronted  with  the  question  as  to  whether  they  should 
take  part  in  a  matter  which  is  condemned  by  their  con- 
science, or  not,  —  but  as  different  conventional  persons,  — 
one,  as  an  anointed  king,  a  special  being,  who  is  called 
upon  to  care  for  the  well-being  of  one  hundred  miUion 


THE    KINGDOM    OF    GOD    IS    WITHIN   TOU      331 

men ;  another,  as  a  representative  of  nobility ;  a  third, 
as  a  priest,  who  with  his  ordainment  has  received  a  special 
grace ;  a  fourth,  as  a  soldier,  who  is  obliged  by  his  oath 
to  fulfil  without  reflection  what  he  is  commanded  to  do. 

Only  under  the  influence  of  the  intoxication  of  power 
and  servility,  which  result  from  their  imaginary  positions, 
can  all  these  men  do  what  they  do. 

If  all  these  men  did  not  have  a  firm  conviction  that 
the  callings  of  kings,  ministers,  governors,  judges,  noble- 
men, landed  proprietors,  marshals,  officers,  soldiers,  are 
something  actually  in  existence  and  very  important,  not 
one  of  these  men  would  think  without  terror  and  disgust 
of  participating  in  the  acts  which  he  is  committing  now. 

The  conventional  positions,  which  were  established 
hundreds  of  years  ago,  which  have  been  recognized 
through  the  ages,  and  which  are  now  recognized  by  all 
men  about  us,  and  which  are  designated  by  especial 
names  and  particular  attires,  and  which,  besides,  are 
maintained  by  means  of  every  kind  of  magnificence  and 
effects  on  the  outer  senses,  are  to  such  a  degree  instilled 
in  people  that  they,  forgetting  the  habitual  conditions  of 
life,  common  to  all,  begin  to  look  upon  themselves  and 
upon  all  men  only  from  this  conventional  point  of  view, 
and  are  guided  by  nothing  but  this  conventional  point  of 
view  in  the  valuation  of  other  men's  acts. 

Thus  a  mentally  sound  old  man,  for  no  other  reason 
than  that  some  trinket  or  fool's  dress  is  put  over  him, 
some  keys  on  his  buttocks,  or  a  blue  ribbon,  which  is 
proper  only  for  a  dressed-up  little  girl,  and  that  he  is  on 
that  occasion  impressed  with  the  idea  that  he  is  a  general, 
a  chamberlain,  a  Cavalier  of  St.  Andrews,  or  some  such 
silliness,  suddenly  becomes  self-confident,  proud,  and 
even  happy ;  or,  on  the  contrary,  because  he  loses  or 
does  not  receive  a  desired  trinket  or  name,  becomes  so 
sad  and  unhappy  that  he  even  grows  sick.  Or,  what 
is  even  more  startling,  an  otherwise  mentally  sound,  free. 


332      THE    KINGDOM    OF    GOD    IS    WITHIN    YOU 

and  even  well-to-do  young  man,  for  no  other  reason  than 
that  he  calls  himself,  and  others  call  him,  an  investigat- 
ing magistrate  or  County  Council  chief,  seizes  an  unfor- 
tunate widow  away  from  her  minor  children,  and  locks 
her  up,  or  has  her  locked  up  in  a  prison,  leaving  her  chil- 
dren without  a  mother,  and  all  that  because  this  unfortu- 
nate woman  secretly  trafficked  in  liquor  and  thus  deprived 
the  Crown  of  twenty-five  roubles  of  revenue,  and  he  does 
not  feel  the  least  compunction  about  it.  Or,  what  is  even 
more  startling,  an  otherwise  intelligent  and  meek  man, 
only  because  a  brass  plate  or  a  uniform  is  put  on  him  and 
he  is  told  that  he  is  a  watchman  or  a  customs  soldier, 
begins  to  shoot  with  bullets  at  men,  and  neither  he  nor 
those  who  surround  him  consider  him  blameworthy  for  it, 
and  would  even  blame  him  if  he  did  not  shoot ;  I  do  not 
even  speak  of  the  judges  and  jurors,  who  sentence  to 
executions,  and  of  the  military,  who  kill  thousands  with- 
out the  least  compunction,  only  because  they  have  been 
impressed  with  the  idea  that  they  are  not  simply  men, 
but  jurors,  judges,  generals,  soldiers. 

Such  a  constant,  unnatural,  and  strange  condition  of 
men  in  the  life  of  the  state  is  generally  expressed  in 
words  as  follows  :  "  As  a  man  I  pity  him,  but  as  a  watch- 
man, judge,  general,  governor,  king,  soldier,  I  must  kill  or 
torture  him,"  as  though  there  can  exist  a  given  position, 
acknowledged  by  men,  which  can  make  void  duties  which 
are  imposed  upon  each  of  us  by  a  man's  position. 

Thus,  for  example,  in  the  present  case,  men  are  travel- 
ling to  commit  murder  and  tortures  on  hungry  people,  and 
they  recognize  that  in  the  dispute  between  the  peasants 
and  the  proprietor  the  peasants  are  in  the  right  (all  men 
in  authority  told  me  so),  and  know  that  the  peasants  are 
unfortunate,  poor,  and  hungry ;  the  proprietor  is  rich  and 
does  not  inspire  sympathy,  and  all  these  men  none  the 
less  are  on  their  way  to  kill  the  peasants,  in  order  thus  to 
secure   three  thousand   roubles  to  the  proprietor,  for  no 


THE    KINGDOM    OF    GOD    IS    WITHIN    YOU      333 

other  reason  than  that  these  men  at  this  moment  do  not 
consider  themselves  to  be  men,  but  a  governor,  a  general 
of  gendarmes,  an  officer,  a  soldier,  and  think  that  not  the 
eternal  demands  of  their  consciences,  but  the  accidental, 
temporary  demands  of  their  positions  as  officers  and  sol- 
diers are  binding  on  them. 

However  strange  this  may  seem,  the  only  explanation 
for  this  remarkable  phenomenon  is  this,  that  these  men 
are  in  the  same  position  as  those  hypnotized  persons  who 
are  commanded  to  imagine  and  feel  themselves  in  certain 
conventional  positions,  and  to  act  like  those  beings  whom 
they  represent ;  thus,  for  example,  when  a  hypnotized 
person  receives  the  suggestion  that  he  is  lame,  he  begins 
to  hmp,  or  that  he  is  blind,  he  does  not  see,  or  that  he 
is  an  animal,  he  begins  to  bite.  In  this  state  are  not 
only  the  men  who  are  travelling  on  this  train,  but  also 
all  men  who  preferably  perform  their  social  and  their 
political  duties,  to  the  disadvantage  of  their  human 
duties. 

The  essence  of  this  condition  is  this,  that  the  men 
under  the  influence  of  the  one  idea  suggested  to  them 
are  not  able  to  reflect  upon  their  acts,  and  so  do,  without 
any  reflection,  what  is  prescribed  to  them  in  correspond- 
ence with  the  suggested  idea,  and  what  they  are  led  up 
to  through  example,  advice,  or  hints. 

The  difference  between  those  who  are  hypnotized  by 
artificial  means  and  those  who  are  under  the  influence 
of  the  political  suggestion  consists  in  this,  that  to  the 
artificially  hypnotized  their  imaginary  condition  is  sug- 
gested at  once,  by  one  person,  and  for  the  briefest  space 
of  time,  and  so  the  suggestion  presents  itself  to  us  in  a 
glaring  form,  which  sets  us  to  wondering,  while  to  the  men 
who  act  under  the  political  suggestion  tlieir  imaginary 
position  is  suggested  by  degrees,  slowly,  imperceptibly, 
from  childhood,  at  times  not  only  in  a  certain  number 
of  years,  but  through  whole  generations,  and,  besides,  is 


334      THE    KINGDOM    OF    GOD    IS    WITHIN    YOU 

not  suggested  by  one  person,  but  by  all  those  who  sur- 
round them. 

"  But,"  I  shall  be  told,  "  in  all  societies  the  majority  of 
men,  —  all  the  children,  all  the  women,  who  are  absorbed 
in  the  labour  of  pregnancy,  child-bearing,  and  nursing,  all 
the  enormous  masses  of  the  working  people,  who  are 
placed  under  the  necessity  of  tense  and  assiduous  physical 
labour,  all  the  mentally  weak  by  nature,  all  abnormal 
men  with  a  weakened  spiritual  activity  in  consequence  of 
nicotine,  alcohol,  and  opium  poisoning,  or  for  some  other 
reason,  —  all  these  men  are  always  in  such  a  condition 
that,  not  being  able  to  reason  independently,  they  submit 
either  to  those  men  who  stand  on  a  higher  stage  of 
rational  consciousness,  or  to  family  and  pohtical  tradi- 
tions, to  what  is  called  public  opinion,  and  in  this  sub- 
mission there  is  nothing  unnatural  or  contradictory." 

And,  indeed,  there  is  nothing  unnatural  in  it,  and  the 
ability  of  unthinking  people  to  submit  to  the  indications 
of  men  standing  on  a  higher  stage  of  consciousness  is  a 
constant  property  of  men,  that  property  in  consequence  of 
which  men,  submitting  to  the  same  rational  principles, 
are  able  to  live  in  societies  :  some,  —  the  minority,  —  by 
consciously  submitting  to  the  same  rational  principles, 
on  account  of  their  agreement  with  the  demands  of  their 
reason;  the  others,  —  the  majority,  —  by  submitting  un- 
consciously to  the  same  principles,  only  because  these 
demands  laave  become  the  public  opinion.  Such  a  sub- 
jection of  the  unthinking  to  public  opinion  presents  noth- 
ing unnatural  so  long  as  the  public  opinion  is  not  spht  up. 

But  there  are  times  when  the  higher  truth,  as  compared 
with  the  former  degree  of  the  consciousness  of  the  truth, 
which  at  first  is  revealed  to  a  few  men,  in  passing  by 
degrees  from  one  set  to  another,  embraces  such  a  large 
number  of  men  that  the  former  public  opinion,  which  is 
based  on  a  lower  stage  of  consciousness,  begins  to  waver, 
and  the  new  is  ready  to  establish  itself,  but  is  not  yet 


THE    KINGDOM    OF    GOD    IS    WITHIN    YOU      335 

established.  There  are  times,  resembling  spring,  when 
the  old  public  opinion  has  not  yet  been  destroyed  and  the 
new  is  not  yet  estabhshed,  and  when  men  begin  to  criti- 
cize their  own  acts  and  those  of  others  on  the  basis  of  the 
new  consciousness,  and  yet  in  life,  from  inertia,  from  tra- 
dition, continue  to  submit  to  principles  which  only  in 
former  times  formed  the  higher  degree  of  rational  con- 
sciousness, but  which  now  are  already  in  an  obvious 
contradiction  to  it.  And  then  the  men,  feeling,  on  the 
one  hand,  the  necessity  of  submitting  to  the  new  public 
opinion,  and  not  daring,  on  the  other,  to  depart  from  the 
former,  find  themselves  in  an  uiinatural,  wavering  state. 
It  is  in  such  a  condition  that,  in  relation  to  the  Christian 
truths,  are  not  only  the  men  on  this  train,  but  also  the 
majority  of  the  men  of  our  time. 

In  the  same  condition  are  equally  the  men  of  the 
higher  classes,  who  enjoy  exclusive,  advantageous  posi- 
tions, and  the  men  of  the  lower  classes,  who  without 
opposition  obey  what  they  are  commanded  to  obey. 

Some,  the  men  of  the  ruling  classes,  who  no  longer 
possess  any  rational  explanation  for  the  advantageous 
positions  held  by  them,  are  put  to  the  necessity,  for  the 
purpose  of  maintaining  these  positions,  of  suppressing  in 
themselves  the  higher  rational  faculties  of  love  and  of 
impressing  upon  themselves  the  necessity  for  their  exclu- 
sive position  ;  the  others,  the  lower  classes,  wdio  are  op- 
pressed by  labour  and  purposely  stupefied,  are  in  a  constant 
state  of  suggestion,  which  is  unflinchingly  and  constantly 
produced  on  them  by  the  men  of  the  higher  classes. 

Only  thus  can  be  explained  those  remarkable  phenomena 
with  which  our  life  is  filled,  and  as  a  striking  example  of 
which  there  presented  themselves  to  me  my  good,  peace- 
ful acquaintances,  whom  I  met  on  September  9th,  and 
who  with  peace  of  mind  were  travelling  to  commit  a  most 
beastly,  senseless,  and  base  crime.  If  the  consciences  of 
these  men  had  not  been  in  some  way  put  to  sleep,  not 


336      THE    KINGDOM    OF    GOD    IS    WITHIN   YOU 

one  of  them  would  be  able  to  do  one  hundredth  part  of 
what  they  are  getting  ready  to  do,  and,  in  all  probability, 
will  do. 

It  cannot  be  said  that  they  do  not  have  the  conscience 
which  forbids  them  to  do  what  they  are  about  to  do,  as 
there  was  no  such  conscience  in  men  four  hundred,  three 
hundred,  two  hundred,  one  hundred  years  ago,  when  they 
burned  people  at  the  stake,  tortured  people,  and  flogged 
them  to  death ;  it  exists  in  all  these  men,  but  it  is  put  to 
sleep  in  them,  —  in  some,  the  ruling  men,  who  are  in 
exclusive,  advantageous  positions,  by  means  of  auto-sug- 
gestion, as  the  psychiaters  call  it ;  in  the  others,  the 
executors,  the  soldiers  by  a  direct,  conscious  suggestion, 
hypnotization,  produced  by  the  upper  classes. 

The  conscience  is  in  these  men  put  to  sleep,  but  it 
exists  in  them,  and  through  the  auto-suggestion  and  sug- 
gestion, which  hold  sway  over  them,  it  already  speaks  in 
them  and  may  awaken  any  moment. 

All  these  men  are  in  a  condition  resembling  the  one 
a  hypnotized  man  would  be  in,  if  it  were  suggested  to 
him  and  he  were  commanded  to  do  an  act  which  is  con- 
trary to  everything  which  he  considers  rational  and  good, 
—  to  kill  his  mother  or  child.  The  hypnotized  man  feels 
himself  bound  by  the  suggestion  induced  in  him,  and  it 
seems  to  him  that  he  cannot  stop ;  at  the  same  time,  the 
nearer  he  comes  to  the  time  and  the  place  of  the  commis- 
sion of  the  crime,  the  stronger  does  the  drowned  voice  of 
the  conscience  rise  in  him,  and  he  begins  to  show  more 
and  more  opposition  and  to  writhe,  and  wants  to  wake  up. 
And  it  is  impossible  to  say  in  advance  whether  he  will 
do  the  suggested  act,  or  not,  and  what  it  is  that  will  win, 
the  rational  consciousness  or  the  irrational  suggestion. 
Everything  depends  on  the  relative  strength  of  the  two. 

Precisely  the  same  is  now  taking  place  in  all  the  men 
on  this  train,  and  in  general  in  all  the  men  who  in  our 
time  commit  political  acts  of  violence  and  exploit  them. 


THE    KINGDOM    OF    GOD    IS    WITHIN    YOU      337 

There  was  a  time  when  men,  who  went  out  for  the 
purpose  of  torturing  and  killing  |3eople,  for  the  purpose  of 
setting  an  example,  did  noi  return  otherwise  than  having 
performed  the  act  for  which  they  had  gone  out,  and,  hav- 
ing performed  the  act,  they  were  not  tormented  by  re- 
pentance and  doubt,  but,  having  flogged  men  to  death, 
calmly  returned  home  to  their  family,  and  petted  their 
children,  —  jested,  laughed,  and  abandoned  themselves  to 
quiet  domestic  pleasures.  It  did  not  then  occur  even 
to  those  who  gained  by  these  acts  of  violence,  to  the 
landed  proprietors  and  the  rich  men,  that  the  advantages 
which  they  enjoyed  had  any  direct  connection  with  these 
cruelties.  But  now  it  is  not  so :  men  know  already,  or 
are  very  near  to  knowing,  what  they  are  doing,  and  for 
what  purpose  they  are  doing  what  they  are  doing.  They 
may  shut  their  eyes  and  cause  their  consciences  to  be 
inactive,  but  with  eyes  unshut  and  consciences  unim- 
paired they  —  both  those  who  commit  the  acts  and  those 
who  gain  by  them  —  no  longer  can  fail  to  see  the  signifi- 
cance which  these  acts  have.  It  happens  that  men 
understand  the  significance  of  what  they  have  done  only 
after  they  have  performed  the  act;  or  it  happens  that  they 
understand  it  before  the  very  act.  Thus  the  men  who 
had  in  charge  the  toitures  in  Nizlini-Novgorod,  Saratov, 
Or4I,  Yiizov  Plant,  understood  the  significance  of  what 
they  did  only  after  the  commission  of  the  act,  and  now 
they  are  tormented  with  shame  before  public  opinion  and 
before  their  consciences.  Both  those  who  ordered  the 
tortures  and  those  who  executed  them  are  tormented. 
I  have  spoken  with  soldiers  who  have  executed  such  acts, 
and  they  have  always  cautiously  evaded  all  conversation 
about  it;  when  they  spoke,  they  did  so  with  perplexity 
and  terror.  Cases  happen  when  men  come  to  their  senses 
immediately  before  the  commission  of  the  act.  Thus 
I  know  a  case  of  a  sergeant,  who  during  a  pacification 
was  beaten  by  two  peasants,  and  who   reported  accord- 


338      THE    KINGDOM    OF    GOD    IS    WITHIN   YOU 

ingly,  but  who  the  next  day,  when  he  saw  the  tortures 
to  which  the  peasants  were  subjected,  begged  the  com- 
mander of  the  company  to  tear  up  the  report  and  to 
discharge  the  peasants  who  had  beaten  him.  I  know 
a  case  when  the  soldiers,  who  were  commanded  to  shoot 
some  men,  declined  to  obey ;  and  I  know  many  cases 
where  the  commanders  refused  to  take  charge  of  tortures 
and  murders.  Thus  it  happens  that  the  men  who  estab- 
lish violence  and  those  who  commit  acts  of  violence  at 
times  come  to  their  senses  long  before  the  commission 
of  the  act  suggested  to  them,  at  others  before  the  very 
act,  and  at  others  again  after  the  act. 

The  men  who  are  travelling  on  this  train  have  gone 
out  to  torture  and  kill  their  brothers,  but  not  one  of  them 
knows  whether  he  will  do  what  he  has  set  out  to  do,  or 
not.  No  matter  how  hidden  for  each  of  them  is  the 
responsibility  in  this  matter,  no  matter  how  strong 
the  suggestion  may  be,  in  all  these  men,  that  they  are  not 
men,  but  governors,  rural  judges,  officers,  soldiers,  and 
that,  as  such  beings,  they  may  violate  their  human  obliga- 
tions, the  nearer  they  approach  the  place  of  their  desti- 
nation, the  stronger  will  the  doubt  rise  in  them  whether 
they  should  do  what  they  have  started  out  to  do,  and  this 
doubt  will  reach  the  highest  degree  when  they  reach  the 
very  moment  of  the  execution. 

The  governor,  in  spite  of  all  the  intoxication  of  the 
surrounding  circumstance,  cannot  help  but  reflect  for  a 
moment,  when  he  has  to  give  his  last  decisive  command 
concerning  the  murder  or  the  torture.  He  knows  that 
the  case  of  the  Governor  of  Orel  provoked  the  indignation 
of  the  best  men  of  society,  and  he  himself,  under  the 
influence  of  the  public  opinion  of  those  circles  to  which 
he  belongs,  has  more  than  once  expressed  his  disapproval 
of  it ;  he  knows  that  the  prosecutor,  who  was  to  have 
gone  with  them,  refused  outright  to  take  part  in  this 
business,  because  he  considered  it  disgraceful ;  he  knows 


THE    KINGDOM    OF    GOD    IS    WITHIN   YOU      339 

also  that  changes  may  take  place  in  the  government  at 
any  time,  and  that  in  consequence  of  them  that  which 
was  a  desert  to-day  may  to-morrow  be  the  cause  of  dis- 
favour ;  he  knows,  too,  that  there  is  a  press,  if  not  in 
Eussia,  at  least  abroad,  which  may  describe  this  matter 
and  so  disgrace  him  for  life.  He  already  scents  that  new 
public  opinion  which  is  making  void  what  the  former 
public  opinion  demanded.  Besides,  he  cannot  be  abso- 
lutely sure  that  at  the  last  moment  the  executors  will 
obey  him.  He  wavers,  and  it  is  impossible  to  foretell 
what  he  will  do. 

The  same  thing,  in  a  greater  or  lesser  measure,  is 
experienced  by  all  the  officials  and  officers  who  are  travel- 
ling with  him.  They  all  know  in  the  depth  of  their 
hearts  that  the  deed  which  is  to  be  done  is  disgraceful, 
that  participation  in  it  lowers  and  defiles  a  man  in  the 
eyes  of  a  few  men,  whose  opinion  they  already  value. 
They  know  that  it  is  a  shame  to  appear  after  the  torture 
or  murder  of  defenceless  men  in  the  presence  of  their 
fiancees  or  wuves,  whom  they  treat  with  a  show  of  ten- 
derness. Besides,  like  the  governor,  they  are  in  doubt 
whether  the  soldiers  are  sure  to  obey  them.  And,  no 
matter  how  unlike  it  is  to  the  self-confident  look  with 
which  all  these  ruling  men  now  move  in  the  station  and 
up  and  down  the  platform,  they  all  in  the  depth  of  their 
hearts  suffer  and  even  waver.  It  is  for  this  very  reason 
that  they  assume  this  confident  tone,  in  order  to  conceal 
their  inner  wavering.  And  this  sensation  increases  in 
proportion  as  they  come  nearer  to  the  place  of  action. 

However  imperceptible  this  may  be,  and  however 
strange  it  may  appear,  all  this  mass  of  young  soldiers,  who 
seem  so  subservient,  is  in  the  same  state. 

They  are  all  of  them  no  longer  the  soldiers  of  former  days, 
men  who  have  renounced  their  natural  life  of  laliour,  and 
who  have  devoted  their  lives  exclusively  to  dissipation,  ra- 
pine, and  murder,  like  some  Koman  legionaries  or  the  war 


340      THE    KINGDOM    OF    GOD    IS    WITHIN    YOU 

riors  of  the  Thirty- Years  War,  or  even  the  late  soldiers  of 
twenty-five  years  of  service ;  they  are,  for  the  most  part, 
men  who  have  but  lately  been  taken  away  from  their 
families,  all  of  them  full  of  recollections  of  that  good, 
natural,  and  sensible  life  from  which  they  have  been 
taken  away. 

All  these  lads,  who  for  the  most  part  come  from  the 
country,  know  what  business  is  taking  them  out  on 
the  train  ;  they  know  that  the  proprietors  always  offend 
their  brothers,  the  peasants,  and  that  therefore  the  same 
thing  is  taking  place  here.  Besides,  the  greater  half  of 
these  men  know  how  to  read  books,  and  not  all  books  are 
those  in  which  the  business  of  war  is  lauded,  —  there 
are  also  those  in  which  its  immorality  is  pointed  out. 
Amidst  them  frequently  serve  freethinking  companions, 
- —  volunteer  soldiers,  —  and  just  such  liberal  young  offi- 
cers, and  into  their  midst  has  been  thrown  the  seed  of 
doubt  as  to  the  unconditional  legality  and  valour  of  their 
activity.  It  is  true,  all  of  them  have  passed  through  that 
terrible,  artificial  drill,  worked  out  by  ages,  which  kills 
all  independence  in  a  man,  and  they  are  so  accustomed  to 
mechanical  obedience  that  at  the  w^ords  of  command, 
"  Fire  by  company  !  Company,  lire  !  "  and  so  forth,  their 
guns  rise  mechanically  and  the  habitual  motions  take 
place.  But  "  Fire ! "  will  not  mean  now  having  fun 
while  shooting  at  a  target,  but  killing  their  tormented, 
offended  fathers  and  brothers,  who  —  here  they  are  — 
are  standing  in  crowds,  with  their  women  and  children  in 
the  street,  and  shouting  and  waving  their  hands.  Here 
they  are,  —  one  of  them,  with  a  sparse  beard,  in  a  patched 
caftan  and  in  bast  shoes,  just  like  their  own  fathers  at 
home  in  the  Government  of  Kazan  or  of  Eyazan  ;  another, 
with  a  gray  beard  and  stooping  shoulders,  carrying  a  large 
stick,  just  like  their  father's  father,  their  grandfather; 
anotlier,  a  young  lad  in  boots  and  red  shirt,  exactly  as  the 
soldier  who  is  now  to  shoot  at  him  was  a  year  ago.     And 


THE    KINGDOM    OF    GOD    IS    WITHIN    TOU      341 

here  is  a  woman  in  bast  shoes  and  linen  skirt,  just  like 
mother  at  home 

Are  they  really  going  to  shoot  at  them  ? 

God  knows  what  each  soldier  will  do  during  this  last 
mouient.  One  slightest  indication  as  to  its  not  being 
rigbt,  above  all  as  to  the  possibiHty  of  not  doing  it,  one 
such  word,  one  hint,  will  be  sufficient,  in  order  to  stop 
them. 

All  men  who  are  travelling  on  this  train  will,  when 
they  proceed  to  execute  the  deed  for  which  they  have  set 
out,  be  in  the  same  position  in  which  a  hypnotized  person 
would  be,  who  has  received  the  suggestion  to  chop  a  log, 
and,  having  walked  up  to  what  has  been  pointed  out  to 
him  as  a  log  and  having  raised  the  axe  to  strike,  suddenly 
sees  or  is  told  that  it  is  not  a  log,  but  his  sleeping  brother. 
He  may  perform  the  act  suggested  to  him,  and  he  may 
wake  up  before  its  performance.  Even  so  all  these  men 
may  awaken,  or  not.  If  they  do  not,  as  terrible  a  deed 
as  the  one  in  Orel  will  be  done,  and  in  other  men  the 
auto-suggestion  and  the  suggestion  under  which  they  act 
will  be  increased ;  if  tliey  awaken,  such  a  deed  will  not 
only  not  be  performed,  but  many  others,  upon  finding 
out  the  turn  which  the  affair  has  takeA,  will  be  freed 
from  that  suggestion  in  which  they  are,  or  at  least  will 
approach  such  a  liberation. 

But  if  not  all  men  travelling  on  this  train  shall  awaken 
and  refrain  from  doing  the  deed  which  has  been  Ijegun,  if 
only  a  few  of  them  shall  do  so  and  shall  boldly  express 
to  other  men  the  criminality  of  this  affair,  these  few  men 
even  may  have  the  effect  of  awakening  all  the  other  men 
from  the  suggestion,  under  which  they  are,  and  the  pro- 
posed evil  deed  will  not  take  place. 

More  than  that :  if  only  a  few  men,  who  do  not  take 
part  in  this  affair,  but  are  only  present  at  the  preparations 
for  the  same,  or  who  have  heard  of  similiar  acts  previ- 
ously committed,  will  not  remain  indifferent,  but  will 


342     THE   KINGDOM    OF    GOD    IS   WITHIN   YOU 

frankly  and  boldly  express  their  disgust  with  the  partici- 
pants in  these  matters,  and  will  point  out  to  them  their 
whole  senselessness,  cruelty,  and  criminality,  even  that 
will  not  pass  unnoticed. 

Even  so  it  was  in  the  present  case.  A  few  persons, 
participants  and  Don-participants  in  this  affair,  who  were 
free  from  suggestion,  needed  but  at  the  time  when  they 
were  getting  ready  for  this  affair  boldly  to  express  their 
indignation  with  tortures  administered  in  other  places, 
and  their  disgust  and  contempt  for  those  men  who  took 
part  in  them ;  in  the  present  Tilla  affair  a  few  persons 
needed  but  to  express  their  unwillingness  to  take  part  in 
it ;  the  lady  passenger  and  a  few  other  persons  at  the 
station  needed  but  in  the  presence  of  those  who  were 
travelling  on  the  train  to  express  their  indignation  at  the 
act  which  was  about  to  be  committed ;  one  of  the  regi- 
mental commanders,  a  part  of  whose  troops  were  de- 
manded for  the  pacification,  needed  but  to  express  his 
opinion  that  the  military  cannot  be  executioners,  —  and 
thanks  to  these  and  certain  other,  seemingly  unimportant, 
private  influences  exerted  against  people  under  suggestion, 
the  affair  would  take  a  different  turn,  and  the  troops,  upon 
arriving  on  the  spot,  would  not  commit  any  tortures,  but 
would  cut  down  the  forest  and  give  it  to  the  proprietor. 
If  there  should  not  be  in  certain  men  any  clear  conscious- 
ness as  to  their  doing  wrong,  and  if  there  should  be,  in 
consequence  of  this,  no  mutual  influence  of  men  in  this 
sense,  there  would  take  place  the  same  as  in  Or^l.  But 
if  this  consciousness  should  be  even  stronger,  and  so  the 
amount  of  the  interactions  even  greater  than  what  it  was, 
it  is  very  likely  that  the  governor  and  his  troops  would 
not  even  dare  to  cut  down  the  forest,  in  order  to  give  it 
to  the  proprietor.  If  this  consciousness  had  been  even 
stronger  and  the  amount  of  interactions  greater,  it  is  very 
likely  the  governor  would  not  even  have  dared  to 
travel  to  the  place  of  action.     If  the  consciousness  had 


THE    KINGDOM    OF    GOD    IS    WITHIN    YOU      343 

been  stronger  still  and  the  amount  of  interactions  even 
greater,  it  is  very  likely  that  the  minister  would  not  have 
made  up  his  mind  to  prescribe,  and  the  emperor  to  confirm 
such  a  decree. 

Everything,  consequently,  depends  on  the  force  with 
which  the  Christian  truth  is  cognized  by  every  individual 
man. 

And  so,  it  would  seem,  the  activity  of  all  the  men  of 
our  time,  who  assert  that  they  wish  to  continue  to  the 
welfare  of  humanity,  should  be  directed  to  the  increase  of 
the  lucidity  of  the  demands  of  the  Christian  truth. 


But,  strange  to  say,  those  very  men,  who  in  our  time 
assert  more  than  any  one  else  that  they  care  for  the 
amelioration  of  human  life,  and  who  are  regarded  as 
the  leaders  in  public  opinion,  affirm  that  it  is  not  neces- 
sary to  do  that,  and  that  for  the  amelioration  of  the  condi- 
tion of  men  there  exist  other,  more  efficacious  means. 
These  men  assert  that  the  amehoratiou  of  human  life 
does  not  take  place  in  consequence  of  the  internal  efibrts 
of  the  consciousness  of  individual  men  and  the  elucida- 
tion and  profession  of  the  truth,  but  in  consequence  of 
the  gradual  change  of  the  common  external  conditions 
of  life,  and  that  the  profession  by  every  individual  man  of 
the  truth  which  is  not  in  conformity  with  the  existing 
order  is  not  only  useless,  but  even  harmful,  because  on 
the  part  of  the  power  it  provokes  oppressions,  which  keep 
these  individuals  from  continuing  tlieir  useful  activity 
in  the  service  of  society.  According  to  this  doctrine,  all  the 
changes  in  human  life  take  place  under  the  same  laws 
under  which  they  take  place  in  the  life  of  the  animals. 

Thus,  according  to  this  doctrine,  all  the  founders  of 
religions,  such  as  Moses  and  the  prophets,  Confucius, 
Lao-tse,  Buddha,  Christ,  and  others  preached  their  teach- 


344     THE   KINGDOM   OP    GOD   IS    WITHIN   YOU 

ings,  and  their  followers  accepted  them,  not  because  they 
loved  truth,  elucidated  it  to  themselves,  and  professed  it, 
but  because  the  political,  social,  and,  above  all,  economic 
conditions  of  the  nations  among  whom  these  teachings 
appeared  and  were  disseminated  were  favourable  for  their 
manifestation  and  diffusion. 

And  so  the  chief  activity  of  a  man  wishing  to  serve 
society  and  amehorate  the  condition  of  humanity  must 
according  to  this  doctrine  be  directed,  not  to  the  elucida- 
tion of  the  truth  and  its  profession,  but  to  the  ameliora- 
tion of  the  external  political,  social,  and,  above  all  else, 
economic  conditions.  Now  the  change  of  these  pohtical, 
social,  and  economic  conditions  is  accomplished  partly  by 
means  of  serving  the  government  and  of  introducing  into 
it  liberal  and  progressive  principles,  partly  by  contribut- 
ing to  the  development  of  industry  and  the  dissemination 
of  socialistic  ideas,  and  chiefly  by  the  diffusion  of  scien- 
tific education. 

According  to  this  teaching  it  is  not  important  for  a 
man  to  profess  in  life  the  truth  that  has  been  revealed  to 
him,  and  so  inevitably  be  compelled  to  realize  it  in  life, 
or  at  least  not  to  do  acts  which  are  contrary  to  the  pro- 
fessed truth  ;  not  to  serve  the  government  and  not  to 
increase  its  power,  if  he  considers  this  power  to  be  delete- 
rious ;  not  to  make  use  of  the  capitalistic  structure,  if  he 
considers  this  structure  to  be  irregular  ;  not  to  show  any 
respect  for  various  ceremonies,  if  he  considers  them  to  be 
a  dangerous  superstition ;  not  to  take  part  in  the  courts, 
if  he  considers  their  establishment  to  be  false  ;  not  to 
serve  as  a  soldier  ;  not  to  swear ;  in  general,  not  to  lie,  not 
to  act  as  a  scoundrel,  but,  without  changing  the  existing 
forms  of  life,  and  submitting  to  them,  contrary  to  his 
opinion,  he  should  introduce  liberalism  into  the  existing 
institutions  ;  cooperate  with  industry,  the  propaganda  of 
sociahsm,  the  advancement  of  what  is  called  the  sciences, 
and  the  diffusion  of  culture.     According  to  this  theory  is 


THE    KINGDOM    OF    GOD    IS    WITHIN   YOU      345 

it  possible,  though  remaining  a  landed  proprietor,  a  mer- 
chant, a  manufacturer,  a  judge,  an  official,  receiving  a 
salary  from  the  government,  a  soldier,  an  officer,  to  be, 
withal,  not  only  a  humane  man,  but  even  a  socialist  and 
revolutionist. 

Hypocrisy,  which  formerly  used  to  have  a  religious 
foundation  in  the  doctrine  about  the  fall  of  the  human 
race,  about  redemption,  and  about  the  church,  in  this 
teaching  received  in  our  time  a  new  scientific  foundation, 
and  so  has  caught  in  its  net  all  those  men  who  from  the 
degree  of  their  development  can  no  longer  fall  back  on  the 
religious  hypocrisy.  Thus,  if  formerly  only  a  man  who  pro- 
fessed the  ecclesiastic  religious  doctrine  could,  considering 
himself  with  it  pure  from  every  sin,  take  part  in  all  kinds 
of  crimes  committed  by  the  government,  and  make  use  of 
them,  so  long  as  he  at  the  same  time  fulfilled  the  external 
demands  of  his  profession,  now  all  men,  who  do  not  be- 
lieve in  the  church  Christianity,  have  the  same  kind  of  a 
worldly  scientific  basis  for  recognizing  themselves  as  pure, 
and  even  highly  moral  men,  in  spite  of  their  participation 
in  the  evil  deeds  of  the  state  and  of  their  making  use  of 
them. 

There  lives — not  in  Russia  alone,  but  anywhere  you 
please,  in  France,  England,  Germany,  America  —  a  rich 
landed  proprietor,  and  for  the  right  which  he  gives  to 
certain  people  living  on  his  land,  to  draw  their  sustenance 
from  it,  he  fleeces  these  for  the  most  part  hungry  people 
to  their  fullest  extent.  This  man's  right  to  the  posses- 
sion of  the  land  is  based  on  this,  that  at  every  attempt  of 
the  oppressed  people  at  making  use  of  the  lands  which  he 
considers  his  own,  witliout  his  consent,  there  arrive  some 
troops  which  subject  the  men  who  have  seized  the  lands 
to  tortures  and  extermination.  One  would  think  that  it 
is  evident  that  a  man  who  lives  in  this  manner  is  an  ego- 
tistical being  and  in  no  way  can  call  himself  a  Christian 
or  a  liberal.     It  would  seem  to  be  obvious  that  the  first 


346      THE    KINGDOM    OF    GOD    IS    WITHIN    YOU 

thing  such  a  man  ought  to  do,  if  he  only  wants  in  some 
way  to  come  near  to  Christianity  or  to  liberalism,  would 
be  to  stop  plundering  and  ruining  men  by  means  of  his 
■  right  to  the  land,  which  is  supported  by  murders  and  tor- 
tures practised  by  the  government.  Thus  it  would  be 
if  there  did  not  exist  the  metaphysics  of  hypocrisy,  which 
says  that  from  a  religious  point  of  view  the  possession  or 
non-possession  of  the  land  is  a  matter  of  indifference  as 
regards  salvation,  and  that  from  the  scientific  point  of 
view  the  renunciation  of  the  ownership  of  land  would  be  a 
useless  personal  effort,  and  that  the  cooperation  with  the 
good  of  men  is  not  accomplished  in  this  manner,  but 
through  the  gradual  change  of  external  forms.  And  so 
this  man,  without  the  least  compunction,  and  without  any 
misgivings  as  to  his  being  believed,  arranges  an  agricul- 
tural exhibition,  or  a  temperance  society,  or  through  his 
wife  and  children  sends  jackets  and  soup  to  three  old 
women,  and  in  his  family,  in  drawing-rooms,  committees, 
the  press,  boldly  preaches  the  Gospel  or  humane  love  of 
one's  neighbour  in  general,  and  of  that  working  agri- 
cultural class  in  particular  which  he  constantly  torments 
and  oppresses.  And  the  men  who  are  in  the  same  condi- 
tion with  him  believe  him,  praise  him,  and  with  him 
solemnly  discuss  the  questions  as  to  what  measures  should 
be  used  for  the  amelioration  of  the  condition  of  the  work- 
ing masses,  on  the  spoliation  of  whom  their  hfe  is  based, 
inventing  for  the  purpose  all  kinds  of  means,  except  the 
one  without  which  no  amelioration  of  the  people's  condi- 
tion is  possible,  of  ceasing  to  take  away  from  these  people 
the  land,  which  is  necessary  for  their  maintenance. 

A  most  striking  example  of  such  hypocrisy  is  to  be 
found  in  the  measures  taken  last  year  by  the  Kussian 
landed  proprietors  in  the  struggle  with  the  famine,  which 
they  themselves  had  produced,  and  which  they  immedi- 
ately set  out  to  exploit,  when  they  not  only  sold  the  corn 
at  the  highest  possible  price,  but  even  sold  to  the  freezing 


THE    KINGDOM    OF    GOD    IS    WITHIN    YOU      34' 


\ 


peasants  as  fuel  the  potato-tops  at  five  roubles  per  des- 
yatiua. 

Or  there  lives  a  merchant,  whose  whole  commerce,  like 
any  commerce,  is  based  on  a  series  of  rascalities,  by  means 
of  which,  exploiting  the  ignorance  and  need  of  men,  arti- 
cles are  bought  of  them  below  their  value,  and,  again  ex- 
ploiting the  ignorance,  need,  and  temptation  of  men,  are 
sold  back  at  prices  above  their  value.  It  would  seem  to 
be  obvious  that  a  man  whose  activity  is  based  on  what 
in  his  own  language  is  called  rascality,  so  long  as  these 
same  acts  are  performed  under  difi'erent  conditions,  ought 
to  be  ashamed  of  his  position,  and  is  by  no  means  able, 
continuing  to  be  a  merchant,  to  represent  himself  as  a 
Christian  or  a  liberal.  But  the  metaphysics  of  hypocrisy 
says  to  him  that  he  may  pass  for  a  virtuous  man,  even 
though  continuing  his  harmful  activity :  a  religious  man 
need  only  be  believed,  but  a  liberal  has  only  to  cooperate 
with  the  change  of  external  conditions,  —  the  progress  of 
industry.  And  so  this  merchant,  who  frequently,  in  addi- 
tion, performs  a  whole  series  of  direct  rascalities,  by  selling 
bad  wares  for  good  ones,  cheating  in  weights  and  meas- 
ures, or  trading  exclusively  in  articles  which  are  perui- 
cious  to  the  people's  health  (such  as  wine  or  opium),  boldly 
considers  himself,  and  is  considered  by  others,  so  loug  as 
he  in  business  does  not  directly  cheat  his  fellows  in 
deception,  that  is,  his  fellow  merchants,  to  be  a  model  of 
honesty  and  couscientiousness.  If  he  spends  one-thou- 
sandth of  the  money  stolen  by  him  on  some  public  insti- 
tution, a  hospital,  a  museum,  an  institution  of  learning,  he 
is  also  regarded  as  a  benefactor  of  those  very  people  on 
the  deception  and  corruption  of  whom  all  his  fortune  is 
based ;  but  if  he  contributes  part  of  his  stolen  money  to  a 
church  and  for  the  poor,  he  is  regarded  even  as  a  model 
Christian. 

Or  there  lives  a  manufacturer,  whose  whole  income  con- 
sists of  the  pay  which  is  taken  away  from  the  workmen, 


348      THE    KINGDOM    OF    GOD    IS    WITHIN    YOU 

and  whose  whole  activity  is  based  on  compulsory,  unnatural 
labour,  which  ruins  whole  generations  of  men ;  it  would 
seem  to  be  obvious  that  first  of  all,  if  this  man  professes 
any  Christian  or  liberal  principles,  he  must  stop  ruining 
human  lives  for  the  sake  of  his  profit.  But  according  to 
the  existing  theory,  he  is  contributing  to  industry,  and  he 
must  not —  it  would  even  be  injurious  to  men  and  to 
society  —  stop  his  activity.  And  here  this  man,  the  cruel 
slaveholder  of  thousands  of  men,  building  for  those  who 
have  been  crippled  while  working  for  him  little  houses 
with  little  gardens  five  feet  square,  and  a  savings-bank, 
and  a  poorhouse,  and  a  hospital,  is  fully  convinced  that 
in  this  way  he  has  more  than  paid  for  all  those  physically 
and  mentally  ruined  lives  of  men,  for  which  he  is  re- 
sponsible, and  quietly  continues  his  activity,  of  which  he 
is  proud. 

Or  there  lives  a  head  of  a  department,  or  some  civil, 
clerical,  military  servant  of  the  state,  who  serves  for  the 
purpose  of  satisfying  his  ambition  or  love  of  power,  or, 
what  is  most  common,  for  the  purpose  of  receiving  a 
salary,  which  is  collected  from  the  masses  that  are  emaci- 
ated and  exhausted  with  labour  (taxes,  no  matter  from 
whom  they  come,  always  originate  in  labour,  that  is,  in 
the  labouring  people),  and  if  he,  which  is  extremely  rare, 
does  not  directly  steal  the  government's  money  in  some 
unusual  manner,  he  considers  himself  and  is  considered 
by  others  like  him  to  be  a  most  useful  and  virtuous 
member  of  society. 

There  lives  some  judge,  prosecutor,  head  of  a  depart- 
ment, and  he  knows  that  as  the  result  of  his  sentence  or 
decree  hundreds  and  thousands  of  unfortunate  people,  torn 
away  from  their  families,  are  lingering  in  solitary  confine- 
ment, at  hard  labour,  going  mad  and  killing  themselves 
with  glass,  or  starving  to  death  ;  he  knows  that  these 
thousands  of  people  have  thousands  of  mothers,  wives, 
children,  who  are  suffering  from  the  separation,  are  de- 


THE    KINGDOM    OF    GOD    IS    WITHIN    YOU      349 

prived  of  the  possibility  of  meeting  them,  are  disgraced, 
vainly  implore  forgiveness  or  even  alleviation  of  the  fates 
of  their  fathers,  sons,  husbands,  brothers,  —  and  the  judge 
or  head  of  a  department  is  so  hardened  in  his  hypocrisy 
that  he  himself  and  his  like  and  their  wives  and  relatives 
are  firmly  convinced  that  he  can  with  all  this  be  a  very 
good  and  sensitive  man.  According  to  the  metaphysics  of 
hypocrisy,  it  turns  out  that  he  is  doing  useful  public  work. 
And  this  man,  having  ruined  hundreds,  thousands  of  men, 
who  curse  him,  and  who  are  in  despair,  thanks  to  his 
activity,  believing  in  the  good  and  in  God,  with  a  beaming, 
benevolent  smile  on  his  smooth  face,  goes  to  mass,  hears 
the  Gospel,  makes  liberal  speeches,  pets  his  children, 
preaches  to  them  morality,  and  feels  meek  of  spirit  in  the 
presence  of  imaginary  sufferings. 

All  these  men  and  those  who  live  on  them,  their  wives, 
teachers,  children,  cooks,  actors,  jockeys,  and  so  forth,  live 
by  the  blood  which  in  one  way  or  another,  by  one  class  of 
leeches  or  by  another,  is  sucked  out  of  the  working  peo- 
ple ;  thus  they  live,  devouring  each  day  for  their  pleasures 
hundreds  and  thousands  of  work-days  of  the  exhausted 
labourers,  who  are  driven  to  work  by  the  threat  of  being 
killed ;  they  see  the  privations  and  sufferings  of  these 
labourers,  of  their  children,  old  men,  women,  sick  people ; 
they  know  of  the  penalties  to  which  the  violators  of  this 
established  spoliation  are  subjected,  and  they  not  only  do 
not  diminish  their  luxury,  do  not  conceal  it,  but  impu- 
dently display  before  these  oppressed  labourers,  who  for  the 
most  part  hate  them,  as  though  on  purpose  to  provoke 
them,  their  parks,  castles,  theatres,  chases,  races,  and  at 
the  same  time  assure  themselves  and  one  another  that 
they  are  all  very  much  concerned  about  the  good  of  the 
masses,  whom  they  never  stop  treading  underfoot ;  and 
on  Sundays  they  dress  themselves  in  costly  attire  and  drive 
in  expensive  carriages  into  houses  especially  built  for  the 
purpose  of  making  fun  of  Christianity,  and  there  listen  to 


350      THE    KINGDOM    OF    GOD    IS    WITHIN    YOU 

men  especially  trained  in  this  lie,  who  in  every  manner 
possible,  in  vestments  and  without  vestments,  in  white 
'  neckties,  preach  to  one  another  the  love  of  men,  which 
they  all  deny  with  their  whole  lives.  And,  while  doing 
all  this,  these  men  so  enter  into  their  parts  that  they 
seriously  believe  that  they  actually  are  what  they  pretend 
to  be. 

The  universal  hypocrisy,  which  has  entered  into  the 
flesh  and  blood  of  all  the  classes  of  our  time,  has  reached 
such  limits  that  nothing  of  this  kind  ever  fills  any  one 
with  indignation.  Hypocrisy  with  good  reason  means  the 
same  as  acting,  and  anybody  can  pretend,  —  act  a  part. 
Nobody  is  amazed  at  such  phenomena  as  that  the  suc- 
cessors of  Christ  bless  the  murderers  who  are  lined  up  and 
hold  the  guns  which  are  loaded  for  their  brothers  ;  that 
the  priests,  the  pastors  of  all  kinds  of  Christian  confes- 
sions, always,  as  inevitably  as  the  executioners,  take  part 
in  executions,  with  their  presence  recognizing  the  murder 
as  compatible  with  Christianity  (at  an  electrocution  in 
America,  a  preacher  was  present). 

Lately  there  was  an  international  prison  exhibition  in 
St.  Petersburg,  where  implements  of  torture  were  ex- 
hibited, such  as  manacles,  models  of  solitary  cells,  that 
is,  worse  implements  of  torture  than  knouts  and  rods,  and 
sensitive  gentlemen  and  ladies  went  to  look  at  all  this, 
and  they  enjoyed  the  sight. 

Nor  is  any  one  surprised  at  the  way  the  liberal  science 
proves,  by  the  side  of  the  assumption  of  equality,  fraternity, 
liberty,  the  necessity  of  an  army,  of  executions,  custom- 
houses, the  censorship,  the  regulation  of  prostitution,  the 
expulsion  of  cheap  labour,  and  the  prohibition  of  immigra- 
tion, and  the  necessity  and  justice  of  colonization,  which 
is  based  on  the  poisoning,  plundering,  and  destruction  of 
whole  tribes  of  men  who  are  called  savage,  and  so  forth. 

People  talk  of  what  will  happen  when  all  men  shall 
profess    w^hat    is    called    Christianity    (that    is,    various 


THE    KINGDOM    OF    GOD    IS    WITHIN    YOU      351 

mutually  hostile  professions) ;  when  all  shall  be  well  fed 
and  well  clothed ;  when  all  shall  be  united  with  one 
another  from  one  end  of  the  world  to  the  other  by  means 
of  telegraphs  and  telephones,  and  shall  communicate  with 
one  another  by  means  of  balloons ;  when  all  the  labourers 
shall  be  permeated  with  social  teachings,  and  the  labour- 
unions  shall  have  collected  so  many  millions  of  members 
and  of  roubles ;  when  all  men  shall  be  cultured,  and  all 
shall  read  the  papers  and  know  the  sciences. 

But  of  what  use  or  good  can  all  these  improvements  be, 
if  people  shall  not  at  the  same  time  speak  and  do  what 
they  consider  to  be  the  truth  ? 

The  calamities  of  men  are  certainly  due  to  their  dis- 
union, and  the  disunion  is  due  to  this,  that  men  do  not 
follow  the  truth,  which  is  one,  but  the  lies,  of  which  there 
are  many.  The  only  means  for  the  union  of  men  into 
one  is  the  union  in  truth ;  and  so,  the  more  sincerely  men 
strive  toward  the  truth,  the  nearer  ihey  are  to  this  union. 

But  how  can  men  be  united  in  truth,  or  even  approach 
it,  if  they  not  only  do  not  express  the  truth  which  they 
know,  but  even  think  that  it  is  unnecessary  to  do  so,  and 
pretend  that  they  consider  to  be  the  truth  what  they  do 
not  regard  as  the  truth. 

And  so  no  amelioration  of  the  condition  of  men  is  pos- 
sible, so  long  as  men  will  pretend,  that  is,  conceal  the 
truth  from  themselves,  so  long  as  they  do  not  recognize 
that  their  union,  and  so  their  good,  is  possible  only  in  the 
truth,  and  so  will  not  place  the  recognition  and  profession 
of  the  truth,  the  one  which  has  been  revealed  to  them, 
higher  than  anything  else. 

Let  all  those  external  improvements,  of  which  religious 
and  scientific  men  may  dream,  be  accomplished ;  let  all  men 
accept  Christianity,  and  let  all  those  ameliorations,  whicli 
all  kinds  of  Bellamys  and  Richets  wish  for,  take  place, 
with  every  imaginable  addition  and  correction  —  but  let 
with  all  that  the  same  hypocrisy  remain  as  before  ;  let  mou 


352      THE    KINGDOM    OF    GOD    IS    WITHIN    YOU 

not  profess  the  truth  which  they  know,  but  continue  to 
pretend  that  they  believe  in  what  they  really  do  not 
believe,  and  respect  what  they  really  do  not  respect,  and 
the  condition  of  men  will  not  only  remain  the  same,  but 
will  even  grow  worse  and  worse.  The  more  people  shall 
have  to  eat,  the  more  there  shall  be  of  telegraphs,  tele- 
phones, books,  newspapers,  journals,  the  more  means  will 
there  be  for  the  dissemination  of  discordant  lies  and  of 
hypocrisy,  and  the  more  will  men  be  disunited  and,  there- 
fore, wretched,  as  is  indeed  the  case  at  present. 

Let  all  these  external  changes  take  place,  and  the  condi- 
tion of  humanity  will  uot  improve.  But  let  each  man  at 
once  in  his  life,  according  to  his  strength,  profess  the 
truth,  as  he  knows  it,  or  let  him  at  least  not  defend  the 
untruth,  which  he  does,  giving  it  out  as  the  truth,  and 
there  would  at  once,  in  this  present  year  1893,  take  place 
such  changes  in  the  direction  of  the  emancipation  of  men 
and  the  establishment  of  truth  upon  earth  as  we  do  not 
dare  even  to  dream  of  for  centuries  to  come. 

For  good  reason  Christ's  only  speech  which  is  not 
meek,  but  reproachful  and  cruel,  was  directed  to  the  hyp- 
ocrites and  against  hypocrisy.  What  corrupts,  angers, 
bestiaJizes,  and,  therefore,  disunites  men,  is  not  thieving, 
nor  spoliation,  nor  murder,  nor  fornication,  nor  forgery, 
but  the  lie,  that  especial  lie  of  hypocrisy  which  in  the 
consciousness  of  men  destroys  the  distinction  between 
good  and  evil,  deprives  them  of  the  possibility  of  avoid- 
ing the  evil  and  seeking  the  good,  deprives  them  of  what 
forms  the  essence  of  the  true  human  life,  and  so  stands  in 
the  way  of  every  perfection  of  men. 

Men  who  do  not  know  the  truth  and  who  do  evil, 
awakening  in  others  a  sympathetic  feeling  for  their  vic- 
tims and  a  contempt  for  their  acts,  do  evil  only  to  those 
whom  they  injure ;  but  the  men  who  know  the  truth  and 
do  the  evil,  which  is  concealed  under  hypocrisy,  do  evil  to 
themselves  and  to  those  whom  they  injure,  and  to  thou- 


THE    KINGDOM    OF    GOD    IS    WITHIN    YOU      353 

sands  of  others  who  are  offended  by  the  lie,  with  which 
they  attempt  to  conceal  the  evil  done  by  them. 

Thieves,  plunderers,  murderers,  cheats,  who  commit 
acts  that  are  recognized  as  evil  by  themselves  and  by  all 
men,  serve  as  an  example  of  what  ought  not  to  be  done, 
and  deter  men  from  evil.  But  the  men  who  commit  the 
same  act  of  thieving,  plundering,  torturing,  killing,  man- 
tling themselves  with  religious  and  scientific  liberal  justi- 
fications, as  is  done  by  all  landed  proprietors,  merchants, 
manufacturers,  and  all  kinds  of  servants  of  the  govern- 
ment of  our  time,  invite  others  to  emulate  their  acts, 
and  do  evil,  not  only  to  those  who  suffer  from  it,  but 
also  to  thousands  and  milhons  of  men,  whom  they  cor- 
rupt, by  destroying  for  these  men  the  difference  between 
good  and  evil. 

One  fortune  acquired  by  the  trade  in  articles  necessary 
for  the  masses  or  by  corrupting  the  people,  or  by  specula- 
tions on  'Change,  or  by  the  acquisition  of  cheap  land, 
which  later  grows  more  expensive  on  account  of  the 
popular  want,  or  by  the  establishment  of  plants  ruining 
the  health  and  the  life  of  men,  or  by  civil  or  military 
serviqp  to  the  state,  or  by  any  means  which  pamper  to 
the  vices  of  men  —  a  fortune  gained  by  such  means,  not 
only  with  the  consent,  but  even  with  the  approval  of  the 
leaders  of  society,  corrupts  people  incomparably  more 
than  millions  of  thefts,  rascalities,  plunderings,  which  are 
committed  outside  the  forms  recognized  by  law  and  subject 
to  criminal  prosecution. 

One  execution,  which  is  performed  by  well-to-do,  cul- 
tured men,  not  under  the  influence  of  passion,  but  with 
the  approval  and  cooperation  of  Christian  pastors,  and 
presented  as  something  necessary,  corrupts  and  bestializes 
men  more  than  hundreds  and  thousands  of  murders,  com- 
mitted by  uncultured  labouring  men,  especially  under 
the  incitement  of  passion.  An  execution,  such  as  Zhu- 
kovski  proposed   to    arrange,   when    men,    as   Zhukovski 


354     THE    KINGDOM    OF    GOD    IS    WITHIN    YOU 

assumed,  would  even  experience  a  religious  feeling  of 
meekness  of  spirit,  would  be  the  most  corrupting  action 
that  can  be  imagined.  (See  Vol.  VI.  of  Zhukovski's 
Connplete   Works.) 

Every  war,  however  short  its  duration,  with  its  usual 
accompanying  losses,  destruction  of  the  crops,  thieving, 
admissible  debauchery,  looting,  murders,  with  the  in- 
vented justifications  of  its  necessity  and  its  justice,  with 
the  exaltation  and  eulogizing  of  military  exploits,  of  love 
of  flag  and  country,  with  the  hypocritical  cares  for  the 
wounded,  and  so  forth,  corrupts  in  one  year  more  than  do 
millions  of  robberies,  incendiarisms,  murders,  committed 
in  the  course  of  hundreds  of  years  by  individual  men 
under  the  influence  of  the  passions. 

One  luxurious  life,  running  temperately  within  the  lim- 
its of  decency,  on  the  part  of  one  respectable,  so-called 
virtuous,  family,  which,  none  the  less,  spends  on  itself  the 
products  of  as  many  labouring  days  as  would  suffice  for 
the  support  of  thousands  of  people  living  in  misery  side 
by  side  with  this  family,  corrupts  people  more  than  do 
thousands  of  monstrous  orgies  of  coarse  merchants,  officers, 
labouring  men,  who  abandon  themselves  to  drunkenness 
and  debauchery,  who  for  fun  break  mirrors,  dishes,  and  so 
forth. 

One  solemn  procession,  Te  Deum,  or  sermon  from  the 
ambo  or  pulpit,  dealing  with  a  lie  in  which  the  preachers 
themselves  do  not  beheve,  produces  incomparably  more 
evil  than  do  thousands  of  forgeries  and  adulterations  of 
food,  and  so  forth. 

We  talk  of  the  hypocrisy  of  the  Pharisees.  But  the 
hypocrisy  of  the  men  of  our  time  far  surpasses  the  com- 
paratively innocent  hypocrisy  of  the  Pharisees.  They  had 
at  least  an  external  religious  law,  in  the  fulfilment  of 
which  they  could  overlook  their  obligations  in  relation  to 
their  neighbours,  and,  besides,  these  obligations  were  at 
that  time  not  yet  clearly  pointed  out ;  in  our  time,  in  the 


THE    KINGDOM    OF    GOD    IS    WITHIN    YOU      355 

first  place,  there  is  no  such  religious  law  which  frees 
men  from  their  obligations  to  their  neighbours,  to  all 
their  neighbours  without  exception  (I  do  not  count  those 
coarse  and  stupid  men  who  even  now  think  that  sacra- 
ments or  the  decision  of  the  Pope  can  absolve  one  from 
sins) :  on  the  contrary,  that  Gospel  law,  which  we  all  pro- 
fess in  one  way  or  another,  directly  points  out  these 
obligations,  and  besides  these  obligations,  which  at  that 
time  were  expressed  in  dim  words  by  only  a  few  prophets, 
are  now  expressed  so  clearly  that  they  have  become  tru- 
isms, which  are  repeated  by  gymnasiasts  and  writers  of 
feuilletons.  And  so  the  men  of  our  time,  it  would  seem, 
cannot  possibly  pretend  that  they  do  not  know  these  their 
obligations. 

The  men  of  our  time,  who  exploit  the  order  of  things 
which  is  supported  by  violence,  and  who  at  the  same  time 
assert  that  they  are  very  fond  of  their  neighbours,  and 
entirely  fail  to  observe  that  they  are  with  their  whole 
lives  doing  evil  to  these  their  neighbours,  are  like  a  man 
who  Itas  incessantly  robbed  people,  and  who,  being  finally 
caught  with  his  knife  raised  over  his  victim,  who  is  calling 
for  aid  in  a  desperate  voice,  should  assert  that  he  did  not 
know  that  what  he  was  doing  was  unpleasant  for  him 
whom  he  was  robbing  and  getting  ready  to  kill.  Just  as 
this  robber  and  murderer  cannot  deny  what  is  obvious  to 
all  men,  so,  it  would  seem,  it  is  impossible  for  the  men  of 
our  time,  who  live  at  the  expense  of  the  sufferings  of  op- 
pressed men,  to  assure  themselves  and  others  that  they 
wish  for  the  good  of  those  men  whom  they  rob  inces- 
santly, and  that  they  did  not  know  in  what  manner  they 
acquire  what  they  use  as  their  own. 

It  is  impossible  for  us  to  believe  that  we  do  not  know 
of  those  one  hundred  thousand  men  in  Russia  alone,  who 
are  always  locked  up  in  prisons  and  at  hard  labour,  for 
the  purpose  of  securing  our  property  and  our  peace ;  and 
that  we  do  not  know  of  those  courts,  in  which  we  our- 


356      THE    KINGDOM    OF    GOD    IS    WITHIN    YOU 

selves  take  part,  and  which  in  consequence  of  our  petitions 
sentence  the  men  who  assault  our  property  or  endanger 
our  security  to  imprisonment,  deportation,  and  hard  labour, 
where  the  men,  who  are  in  no  way  worse  than  those  who 
sentence  them,  perish  and  are  corrupted ;  that  we  do 
not  know  that  everything  we  have  we  have  only  because 
it  is  acquired  and  secured  for  us  by  means  of  murders  and 
tortures.  We  cannot  pretend  that  we  do  not  see  the 
policeman  who  walks  in  front  of  the  windows  with  a 
loaded  revolver,  defending  us,  while  we  eat  our  savoury 
dinner  or  view  a  new  performance,  or  those  soldiers  who 
will  immediately  go  with  their  guns  and  loaded  cartridges 
to  where  our  property  will  be  violated. 

We  certainly  know  that  if  we  shall  finish  eating  our 
dinner,  or  seeing  the  latest  drama,  or  having  our  fun  at  a 
ball,  at  the  Christmas  tree,  at  the  skating,  at  the  races,  or 
at  the  chase,  we  do  so  only  thanks  to  the  Ijullet  in  the 
policeman's  revolver  and  in  the  soldier's  gun,  which  will 
at  once  bore  a  hole  through  the  hungry  stomach  of  the 
dispossessed  man  who,  with  watering  mouth,  is  staying 
around  the  corner  and  watching  our  amusements,  and  is 
prepared  to  violate  them  the  moment  the  policeman  with 
the  revolver  shall  go  away,  or  as  soon  as  there  shall  be  no 
soldier  in  the  barracks  ready  to  appear  at  our  first  call. 

And  so,  just  as  a  man  caught  in  broad  daylight  in  a 
robbery  can  in  no  way  assure  all  men  that  he  did  not 
raise  his  hand  over  the  man  about  to  be  robbed  by  him, 
in  order  to  take  his  purse  from  him,  and  did  not  threaten 
to  cut  his  throat,  so  we,  it  would  seem,  cannot  assure  our- 
selves and  others  that  the  soldiers  and  policemen  with 
the  revolvers  are  all  about  us,  not  in  order  to  protect  us, 
but  to  defend  us  against  external  enemies,  for  the  sake  of 
order,  for  ornament,  amusement,  and  parades ;  and  that 
we  did  not  know  that  men  do  not  like  to  starve,  having 
no  right  to  make  a  living  off  the  land  on  which  they  live, 
do  not  like  to  work  undergi-ound,  in  the  water,  in  hellish 


THE   KINGDOM    OF    GOD    IS    WITHIN   YOU      357 

heat,  from  ten  to  fourteen  hours  a  day,  and  in  the  night, 
in  all  kinds  of  factories  and  plants,  for  the  purpose  of 
manufacturing  articles  for  our  enjoyment.  It  would 
seem  to  be  impossible  to  deny  that  which  is  so  obvious. 
And  yet  it  is  precisely  what  is  being  done. 

Though  there  are  among  the  rich  some  honest  people, 
—  fortunately  I  meet  more  and  more  of  them,  especially 
among  the  young  and  among  women,  —  who,  at  the  men- 
tion of  how  and  with  what  their  pleasures  are  bought,  do 
not  try  to  conceal  the  truth,  and  grasp  their  heads  and 
say,  "  Oh,  do  not  speak  of  it.  If  it  is  so,  it  is  impossible 
to  go  on  living ; "  though  there  are  such  sincere  people, 
who,  unable  to  free  themselves  from  their  sin,  none  the 
less  see  it,  the  vast  majority  of  the  men  of  our  time  have 
so  entered  into  their  rule  of  hypocrisy,  that  they  boldly 
deny  what  is  so  startlingly  obvious  to  every  seeing 
person. 

"  All  this  is  unjust,"  they  say ;  "  nobody  compels  the 
people  to  work  for  the  proprietors  and  in  factories.  This 
is  a  cfuestion  of  free  agreement.  Large  possessions  and 
capital  are  indispensable,  because  they  organize  labour 
and  give  work  to  the  labouring  classes ;  and  the  w'ork  in 
the  factories  and  plants  is  not  at  all  as  terrible  as  you 
imagine  it  to  be.  If  there  are  some  abuses  in  the  fac- 
tories, the  government  and  society  will  see  to  it  that  they 
be  removed  and  that  the  work  be  made  still  more  easy 
and  even  more  agreeable  for  the  labourers.  The  working 
people  are  used  to  physical  labour,  and  so  far  are  not  good 
for  anything  else.  The  poverty  of  the  masses  is  not  at 
all  due  to  the  ownership  of  land,  nor  to  the  ojtpression  of 
capital,  but  to  other  causes  :  it  is  due  to  tlie  ignorance,  the 
coarseness,  the  drunkenness  of  the  masses.  We,  the  men 
of  state,  who  are  counteracting  this  impoverishment  by 
wise  enactments,  and  we,  the  capitalists,  who  are  counter- 
acting it  by  the  dissemination  of  useful  inventions,  we, 
the  clergy,  by  religious  instruction,  and  we,  the  liberals, 


358     THE    KINGDOM    OF    GOD    IS    WITHIN    YOU 

by  the  establishment  of  labour-unions,  the  increase  and 
diffusion  of  knowledge,  in  this  manner,  without  changing 
our  position,  increase  the  welfare  of  the  masses.  We  do 
not  want  all  men  to  be  poor,  like  the  poor,  but  want  them 
to  be  rich,  like  the  rich.  The  statement  that  men  are 
tortured  and  killed  to  compel  them  to  work  for  the  rich  is 
nothing  but  sophistry ;  troops  are  sent  out  against  the 
masses  only  when  they,  misunderstanding  their  advan- 
tages, become  riotous  and  disturb  the  peace,  which  is 
necessary  for  the  common  good.  Just  as  much  do  we 
need  the  curbing  of  malefactors,  for  whom  are  intended 
the  prisons,  gallows,  and  hard  labour.  We  should  our- 
selves like  to  do  away  with  them,  and  we  are  working  in 
this  direction." 

The  hypocrisy  of  our  time,  which  is  supported  from 
two  sides,  by  the  quasi-religion  and  the  quasi-science,  has 
reached  such  a  point  that,  if  we  did  not  live  in  the  midst 
of  it,  we  should  not  be  able  to  believe  that  men  could 
reach  such  a  degree  of  self-deception.  The  people  have 
in  our  time  reached  the  remarkable  state  when  their 
hearts  are  so  hardened  that  they  look  and  do  not  see,  that 
they  listen  and  do  not  hear  or  understand. 

Men  have  long  been  living  a  life  which  is  contrary  to 
their  consciousness.  If  it  were  not  for  hypocrisy,  they 
would  not  be  able  to  live  this  life.  This  order  of  life, 
which  is  contrary  to  their  consciousness,  is  continued  only 
because  it  is  hidden  under  hypocrisy. 

The  more  the  distance  is  growing  between  reality  and 
tlie  consciousness  of  men,  the  more  does  hypocrisy  ex- 
pand, but  there  are  limits  even  to  hypocrisy,  and  it  seems 
to  me  that  in  our  time  we  have  reached  that  limit. 

Every  man  of  our  time,  with  the  Christian  conscious- 
ness, which  is  involuntarily  acquired  by  him,  finds  him- 
self in  a  situation  which  is  exactly  like  that  of  a  sleeping 
man,  who  sees  in  his  sleep  that  he  must  do  what  he 
knows   even  in   his   sleep   is   not  right    for  him   to   do. 


THE    KINGDOM    OF    GOD   IS   WITHIN'   TOU     359 

He  knows  this  in  the  very  depth  of  his  heart,  and  yet,  as 
though  unable  to  change  his  position,  he  cannot  stop  and 
cease  doing  what  he  knows  he  ought  not  to  do.  And,  as 
happens  in  sleep,  his  condition,  becoming  more  and  more 
agonizing,  finally  reaches  the  utmost  degree  of  tension, 
aud  then  he  begins  to  doubt  the  reality  of  what  presents 
itself  to  him,  and  he  makes  an  effort  of  consciousness,  in 
order  to  break  the  spell  that  holds  him  fettered. 

In  the  same  condition  is  the  average  man  of  our  Chris- 
tian world.  He  feels  that  everything  which  is  done  by 
himself  and  about  him  is  something  insipid,  monstrous, 
impossible,  and  contrary  to  his  consciousness,  that  this 
condition  is  becoming  more  and  more  agonizing,  and  has 
reached  the  utmost  limit  of  tension. 

It  cannot  be :  it  cannot  be  that  the  men  of  our  time, 
with  our  Christian  consciousness  of  the  dignity  of  man, 
the  equality  of  men,  which  has  permeated  our  flesh  and 
blood,  with  our  need  for  a  peaceful  intercourse  and  union 
among  the  nations,  should  actually  be  living  in  such  a 
way  that  every  joy  of  ours,  every  comfort,  should  be  paid 
for  by  the  sufferings,  the  lives  of  our  brothers,  and  that 
we,  besides,  should  every  moment  be  within  a  hair's 
breadtli  of  throwing  ourselves,  like  wild  beasts,  upon  one 
another,  nation  upon  nation,  mercilessly  destroying  labour 
and  life,  for  no  other  reason  than  that  sonic  deluded  di- 
plomatist or  ruler  has  said  or  written  something  stupid  to 
another  dehuled  diplomatist  or  ruler  hke  himself. 

It  cannot  be.  And  yet  every  man  of  our  time  sees 
thnt  it  is  precisely  what  is  being  done,  and  that  the  same 
thing  awaits  him.  The  state  of  affairs  is  getting  more 
and  more  agonizing. 

As  the  man  in  his  sleep  does  not  believe  that  what  pre- 
sents itself  to  him  as  reality  is  actually  real,  and  wants  to 
awaken  to  the  other,  the  actual  reality,  so  also  the  average 
man  of  our  time  cannot  in  the  depth  of  his  heart  believe 
that  the  terrible  state  in  which  he  is,  and  which  is  getting 


360      THE    KINGDOM    OF    GOD    IS    WITHIN   YOU 

worse  and  worse,  is  the  reality,  and  he  wants  to  awaken  to 
the  actual  reality,  the  reality  of  the  consciousness  which 
already  abides  in  him. 

And  as  the  man  asleep  needs  but  make  an  effort  of  his 
consciousness  and  ask  himself  whether  it  is  not  a  dream, 
in  order  that  what  to  him  appeared  as  such  a  hopeless 
state  may  be  at  once  destroyed,  and  he  may  awaken  to  a 
calm  and  joyous  reality,  even  so  the  modern  man  needs 
only  make  an  effort  of  his  consciousness,  needs  only  doubt 
in  the  reality  of  what  his  own  and  the  surrounding  hypoc- 
risy presents  to  him,  and  ask  himself  whether  it  is  not  all 
a  deception,  in  order  that  he  may  immediately  feel  him- 
self at  once  passing  over,  like  the  awakened  man,  from 
the  imaginary,  terrible  world  to  the  real,  to  the  calm  and 
joyous  reality. 

This  man  need  not  perform  any  acts  or  exploits,  but  has 
only  to  make  an  internal  effort  of  consciousness. 


Cannot  man  make  this  effort  ? 

According  to  the  existing  theory,  indispensable  for 
hypocrisy,  man  is  not  free  and  cannot  change  his  life. 

"  Man  cannot  change  his  life,  because  he  is  not  free ; 
he  is  not  free,  because  all  of  his  acts  are  conditioned  by 
previous  causes.  No  matter  what  a  man  may  do,  there 
always  exist  these  or  those  causes,  from  which  the  man 
has  committed  these  or  those  acts,  and  so  man  cannot  be 
free  and  himself  change  his  life,"  say  the  defenders 
of  the  metaphysics  of  hypocrisy.  They  would  be  abso- 
lutely right,  if  man  were  an  unconscious  being,  immovable 
in  relation  to  truth  ;  that  is,  if,  having  once  come  to  know 
the  truth,  he  always  remained  on  the  selfsame  stage  of  his 
cognition.  But  man  is  a  conscious  being,  recognizing  a 
higher  and  still  higher  degree  of  the  truth,  and  so,  if  a  man 
is  not  free  in  the  commission  of  this  or  that  act,  because 


THE    KINGDOM    OF    GOD    IS    WITHIN    TOU      361 

for  every  act  there  exists  a  cause,  the  very  causes  of  these 
acts,  which  for  conscious  man  consist  in  his  recognizing 
this  or  that  truth  as  an  adequate  cause  for  his  action,  are 
within  man's  power. 

Thus  man,  who  is  not  free  in  the  commission  of  these 
or  those  acts,  is  free  as  regards  the  basis  for  his  acts, 
something  as  the  engineer  of  a  locomotive,  who  is  not 
free  as  regards  the  change  of  an  accomplished  or  actual 
motion  of  the  locomotive,  is  none  the  less  free  in  deter- 
mining beforehand  its  future  motions. 

No  matter  what  a  conscious  man  may  do,  he  acts 
in  this  way  or  that,  and  not  otherwise,  only  because  he 
either  now  recognizes  that  the  truth  is  that  he  ought 
to  act  as  he  does,  or  because  he  formerly  recognized  it,  and 
now  from  inertia,  from  habit,  acts  in  a  manner  which 
now  he  recognizes  to  be  false. 

In  either  case  the  cause  of  his  act  was  not  a  given 
pheno^nenon,  but  the  recognition  of  a  given  condition  as 
the  truth  and,  consequently,  the  recognition  of  this  or  that 
phenomenon  as  an  adequate  cause  of  his  act. 

Wliether  a  man  eats  or  abstains  from  food,  whether  he 
works  or  rests,  runs  from  danger  or  is  subject  to  it,  if 
he  is  a  conscious  man,  he  acts  as  he  does  only  because  he 
now  considers  this  to  be  proper  and  rational :  he  con- 
siders the  truth  to  consist  in  his  acting  this  way,  and 
not  otherwise,  or  he  has  considered  it  so  for  a  long 
time. 

The  recognition  of  a  certain  truth  or  the  non-recognition 
of  it  does  not  depend  on  external  causes,  but  on  some 
others,  which  are  in  man  himself.  Thus  with  all  the 
external,  apparently  advantageous  conditions  for  the  recog- 
nition of  truth,  one  man  at  times  does  not  recognize 
it,  and,  on  the  contrary,  another,  under  all  the  most  unfa- 
vourable conditions,  without  any  apparent  cause,  does 
recognize  it.  As  it  says  in  the  Gospel :  "  No  man  can 
come  to  me,  except  the  Father  draw  him  "  (John  vi.  44), 


362      THE    KINGDOM    OF    GOD    JS    WITHIN    YOU 

that  is,  the  recognition  of  the  truth,  which  forms  the 
cause  of  all  the  phenomena  of  human  life,  does  not  depend 
on  external  phenomena,  but  on  some  internal  qualities  of 
man,  which  are  not  subject  to  his  observation. 

And  so  a  man,  who  is  not  free  in  his  acts,  always  feels 
himself  free  in  what  serves  as  the  cause  of  his  actions,  — 
in  the  recognition  or  non-recognition  of  the  truth,  and 
feels  himself  free,  not  only  independently  of  external 
conditions  taking  place  outside  him,  but  even  of  liis  own 
acts. 

Thus  a  man,  having  under  the  influence  of  passion 
committed  an  act  which  is  contrary  to  the  cognized  truth, 
none  the  less  remains  free  in  its  recognition  or  non-rec- 
ognition, that  is,  he  can,  without  recognizing  the  truth, 
regard  his  act  as  necessary  arjd  justify  himself  in  its  com- 
mission, and  can,  by  recognizing  the  truth,  consider  his 
act  bad  and  condemn  it  in  himself. 

Thus  a  gambler  or  a  drunkard,  who  has  not  withstood 
temptation  and  has  succumbed  to  his  passion,  remains 
none  the  less  free  to  recognize  his  gambling  or  his  intoxi- 
cation either  as  an  evil  or  as  an  indifferent  amusement. 
In  the  first  case,  he,  though  not  at  once,  frees  himself  from 
his  passion,  the  more,  as  he  the  more  sincerely  recognizes 
the  truth  ;  in  the  second,  he  strengthens  his  passion  and 
deprives  himself  of  every  possibility  of  liberation. 

Even  so  a  man,  who  could  not  stand  the  heat  and  ran 
out  of  a  burning  house  without  having  saved  his  compan- 
ion, remains  free  (by  recognizing  the  truth  that  a  man 
must  serve  the  lives  of  others  at  the  risk  of  his  own  life) 
to  consider  his  act  bad,  and  so  to  condemn  himself  for  it, 
or  (by  not  recognizing  this  truth)  to  consider  his  act 
natural,  and  necessary,  and  to  justify  himself  in  it.  In  the 
first  case,  in  recognizing  the  truth,  he,  in  spite  of  his 
departure  from  it,  prepares  for  himseK  a  whole  series  of 
self-sacrificing  acts,  which  inevitably  must  result  from 
such  a  recognition ;   in   the  second   case,  he   prepares   a 


THE    KINGDOM    OF    GOD    IS    WITHIN    YOU      363 

whole  series  of  egotistical  acts,  which  are  opposed  to  the 
first. 

Not  that  a  man  is  always  free  to  recognize  every  truth, 
or  not.  There  are  truths  which  have  long  ago  been  rec- 
ognized by  a  man  himself  or  have  been  transmitted  to 
him  by  education  and  tradition,  and  have  been  taken  by 
him  on  faith,  the  execution  of  which  has  become  to  him 
a  habit,  a  second  nature ;  and  there  are  truths  which  pre- 
sent themselves  to  him  indistinctly,  in  the  distance.  A 
man  is  equally  unfree  in  the  non-recognition  of  the  first 
and  the  recognition  of  the  second.  But  there  is  a  third 
class  of  truths,  which  have  not  yet  become  for  man 
an  unconscious  motive  for  his  activity,  but  which  at  the 
same  time  have  already  revealed  themselves  to  him  with 
such  lucidity  that  he  cannot  evade  them,  and  must  inevi- 
tably take  up  this  or  that  relation  to  them,  by  recognizing 
or  not  recognizing  them.  It  is  in  relation  to  these  same 
truths  that  man's  freedom  is  manifested. 

Every  man  finds  himself  in  his  life  in  relation  to  truth 
in  the  position  of  a  wanderer  who  walks  in  the  dark  by 
the  light  of  a  lantern  moving  in  front  of  him  :  he  does  not 
see  what  is  not  yet  illuminated  by  the  lantern,  nor  what 
he  has  passed  over  and  what  is  again  enveloped  in  dark- 
ness, and  it  is  not  in  his  power  to  change  his  relation  to 
either ;  but  he  sees,  no  matter  on  what  part  of  the  path 
he  may  stand,  what  is  illuminated  by  the  lantern,  and  it 
is  always  in  his  power  to  select  one  side  of  the  road  on 
which  he  is  moving,  or  the  other. 

For  every  man  there  always  are  truths,  invisible  to 
him,  which  have  not  yet  been  revealed  to  his  mental 
vision  ;  there  are  other  truths,  already  outlived,  forgotten, 
and  made  his  own  ;  and  there  are  certain  truths  which 
have  arisen  before  him  in  the  light  of  his  reason  and  which 
demand  his  recognition.  It  is  in  the  recognition  or  non- 
recognition  of  these  truths  that  there  is  manifested  what 
we  cognize  as  our  freedom. 


364      THE    KINGDOM    OF    GOD    IS    WITHIN    YOU 

The  whole  difficulty  aud  seeming  insolubility  of  the 
question  about  man's  freedom  is  due  to  this,  that  the  men 
who  decide  this  question  present  man  to  themselves  as 
immovable  in  relation  to  truth. 

Man  is  unquestionably  not  free,  if  we  represent  him  to 
ourselves  as  immovable,  if  we  forget  that  the  life  of  man 
and  of  humanity  is  only  a  constant  motion  from  darkness 
to  the  light,  from  the  lower  stage  of  the  truth  to  the 
higher,  from  a  truth  which  is  mixed  with  errors  to  a  truth 
which  is  more  free  from  them. 

Man  would  not  be  free,  if  he  did  not  know  any  truth, 
and  he  would  not  be  free  and  would  not  even  have  any 
idea  about  freedom,  if  the  whole  truth,  which  is  to  guide 
him  in  his  life,  were  revealed  to  him  in  all  its  purity, 
without  any  admixture  of  errors. 

But  man  is  not  immovable  in  relation  to  truth,  and 
every  individual  man,  as  also  all  humanity,  in  proportion 
to  its  movement  in  life,  constantly  cognizes  a  greater  and 
ever  gi-eater  degree  of  the  truth,  and  is  more  and  more 
freed  from  error.  Therefore  men  always  are  in  a  threefold 
relation  to  truth :  one  set  of  truths  has  been  so  acquired 
by  them  that  these  truths  have  become  unconscious 
causes  of  their  actions,  others  have  only  begun  to  be 
revealed  to  them,  and  the  third,  though  not  yet  made 
their  own,  are  revealed  to  them  with  such  a  degree  of 
lucidity  that  inevitably,  in  one  way  or  another,  they  must 
take  up  some  stand  in  relation  to  them,  must  recognize 
them,  or  not. 

It  is  in  the  recognition  or  non-recognition  of  these 
truths  that  man  is  free. 

Man's  freedom  does  nofconsist  in  this,  that  he  can, 
independently  of  the  course  of  his  life  and  of  causes 
already  existing  and  acting  upon  him,  commit  arbitrary 
acts,  but  in  this,  that  he  can,  by  recognizing  the  truth 
revealed  to  him  and  by  professing  it,  become  a  free  and 
joyous  performer  of  the  eternal  and  infinite  act  performed 


THE    KINGDOM    OF    GOD    IS    WITHIN    YOU      365 

by  God  or  Ihe  life  of  the  world,  and  can,  by  not  recogniz- 
ing the  truth,  become  its  slave  and  be  forcibly  and  painfully 
drawn  in  a  direction  which  he  does  not  wish  to  take. 

Truth  not  only  indicates  the  path  of  human  life,  but 
also  reveals  that  one  path,  on  which  human  life  can  pro- 
ceed. And  so  all  men  will  inevitably,  freely  or  not  freely, 
walk  on  the  path  of  life :  some,  by  naturally  doing  the 
work  of  life  destined  for  them,  others,  by  involuntarily 
submitting  to  the  law  of  life.  Man's  freedom  is  in  this 
choice. 

Such  a  freedom,  within  such  narrow  limits,  seems  to 
men  to  be  so  insignificant  that  they  do  not  notice  it :  some 
(the  determinists)  consider  this  portion  of  freedom  to  be 
so  small  that  they  do  not  recognize  it  at  all ;  others,  the 
defenders  of  complete  freedom,  having  in  view  their 
imaginary  freedom,  neglect  this  seemingly  insignificant 
degree  of  freedom.  The  freedom  which  is  contained 
between  the  limits  of  the  ignorance  of  the  truth  and  of 
the  recognition  of  a  certain  degree  of  it  does  not  seem  to 
men  to  be  any  freedom,  the  more  so  since,  whether  a 
man  wants  to  recognize  the  truth  which  is  revealed  to  him 
or  not,  he  inevitably  will  be  compelled  to  fulfil  it  in 
life. 

A  horse  that  is  hitched  with  others  to  a  wagon  is  not 
free  not  to  walk  in  front  of  the  wagon ;  and  if  it  will  not 
draw,  the  wagon  will  strike  its  legs,  and  it  will  go  whither 
the  wagon  goes,  and  will  pull  it  involuntarily.  But,  in 
spite  of  this  limited  freedom,  it  is  free  itself  to  pull  the 
wagon  or  be  dragged  along  by  it.  The  same  is  true  of 
man. 

Whether  this  freedom  is  great  or  not,  in  comparison 
with  that  fantastic  freedom  which  we  should  like  to  have, 
this  freedom  unquestionably  exists,  and  this  freedom  is 
freedom,  and  in  this  freedom  is  contained  the  good  which 
is  accessible  to  man. 

Not  only  does  this  freedom  give  the  good  to  men,  but 


366      THE    KINGDOM    OF    GOD    IS    WITHIN    YOU 

it  is  also  the  one  means  for  the  accomplishment  of  the 
work  which  is  done  by  the  life  of  the  v*'orld. 

According  to  Christ's  teaching,  the  man  who  sees  the 
meaning  of  life  in  the  sphere  in  which  it  is  not  free,  in 
the  sphere  of  consequences,  that  is,  of  acts,  has  not  the  true 
life.  According  to  the  Christian  teaching,  only  he  has 
the  true  life  who  has  transferred  his  life  into  that  sphere 
in  which  it  is  free,  into  the  sphere  of  causes,  that  is,  of 
the  cognition  and  the  recognition  of  the  truth  which  is 
revealing  itself,  of  its  profession,  and  so  inevitably  of  its 
consequent  fulfilment  as  the  wagon's  following  the  horse. 

In  placing  his  life  in  carnal  things,  a  man  does  that 
work  which  is  always  in  dependence  on  spatial  and  tem- 
poral causes,  which  are  outside  of  him.  He  himself  really 
does  nothing,  —  it  only  seems  to  him  that  he  is  doing 
something,  but  in  reality  all  those  things  which  it  seems 
to  him  he  is  doing  are  done  through  him  by  a  higher 
power,  and  he  is  not  the  creator  of  life,  but  its  slave ;  but 
in  placing  his  life  in  the  recognition  and  profession  of  the 
truth  that  is  revealed  to  him,  he,  by  uniting  with  the 
source  of  the  universal  life,  does  not  do  personal,  private 
works,  which  depend  on  conditions  of  space  and  time,  but 
works  which  have  no  causes  and  themselves  form  causes 
of  everything  else,  and  have  an  endless,  unlimited  sig- 
nificance. 

By  neglecting  the  essence  of  the  true  life,  which  con- 
sists in  the  recognition  and  profession  of  the  truth,  and 
by  straining  their  efforts  for  the  amelioration  of  their 
lives  upon  external  acts,  the  men  of  the  pagan  life-concep- 
tion are  like  men  on  a  boat,  who,  in  order  to  reach  their 
goal,  should  put  out  the  boiler,  which  keeps  them  from 
distributing  the  oarsmen,  and,  instead  of  proceeding  under 
steam  and  screw,  should  try  in  a  storm  to  row  with  oars 
that  do  not  reach  to  the  water. 

The  kingdom  of  God  is  taken  by  force  and  only  those 
who  make  an  effort  get  hold  of  it,  —  and  it  is  this  effort 


THE    KINGDOM    OF    GOD    IS    WITHIN    YOU      367 

of  the  renunciation  of  the  change  of  the  external  condi- 
tions for  the  recognition  and  profession  of  truth  which  is 
the  effort  by  means  of  which  the  kingdom  of  God  is  taken 
and  which  must  and  can  be  made  in  our  time. 

Men  need  but  understand  this :  they  need  but  stop 
troubhng  themselves  about  external  and  general  matters, 
in  which  they  are  not  free,  and  use  but  one  hundredth 
part  of  the  energy,  which  they  employ  on  external  mat- 
ters, on  what  they  are  free  in,  on  the  recognition  and  pro- 
fession of  the  truth  which  stands  before  them,  on  the 
emancipation  of  themselves  and  of  men  from  the  lie  and 
hypocrisy  which  conceal  the  truth,  in  order  that  without 
effort  and  struggle  there  should  at  once  be  destroyed  that 
false  structure  of  life  which  torments  people  and  threatens 
them  with  still  worse  calamities,  and  that  there  should  be 
reahzed  that  kingdom  of  God  or  at  least  that  first  step 
of  it,  for  which  men  are  already  prepared  according  to 
their  consciousness. 

Just  as  one  jolt  is  sufficient  for  a  liquid  that  is  satu- 
rated with  salt  suddenly  to  become  crystallized,  thus,  per- 
haps, the  smallest  effort  will  suffice  for  the  truth,  which 
is  already  revealed  to  men,  to  take  hold  of  hundreds, 
thousands,  millions  of  men,  —  for  a  public  opinion  to  be 
established  to  correspond  to  the  consciousness,  and,  in  con- 
sequence of  its  establishment,  for  tlie  whole  structure  of 
the  existing  life  to  be  changed.  And  it  depends  on  us 
to  make  this  effort. 

If  every  one  of  us  would  only  try  to  understand  and 
recognize  the  Christian  truth  which  surrounds  us  on  all 
sides  in  the  most  varied  forms,  and  begs  for  admission  into 
our  souls ;  if  we  only  stopped  lying  and  pretending  that 
we  do  not  see  that  truth,  or  that  we  wish  to  carry  it  out, 
only  not  in  what  it  first  of  all  demands  of  us ;  if  we  only 
recognized  the  truth  which  calls  us  and  boldly  professed 
it,  we  should  immediately  see  that  hundreds,  thousands, 
millions  of  men  are  in  the  same  condition  that  we  are  in, 


368      THE    KINGDOM    OF    GOD    IS    WITHIN    YOU 

that  they  see  the  truth,  just  as  we  do,  aud  that,  like  us, 
they  are  only  waiting  for  others  to  recognize  it. 

If  men  only  stopped  being  hypocritical,  they  would  see 
at  once  that  the  cruel  structure  of  life,  which  alone  binds 
them  and  which  presents  itself  to  them  as  something  firm, 
indispensable,  and  sacred,  as  something  established  by 
God,  is  shaking  already  and  is  holding  only  by  that  lie 
of  hypocrisy  by  means  of  which  we  and  our  like  sup- 
port it. 

But  if  this  is  so,  if  it  is  true  that  it  depends  on  us  to 
destroy  the  existing  order  of  life,  have  we  the  right  to 
destroy  it,  without  knowing  clearly  what  we  shall  put  in 
its  place  ?  What  will  become  of  the  world,  if  the  existing 
order  of  things  shall  be  destroyed  ? 

"  What  will  be  there,  beyond  the  walls  of  the  world 
which  we  leave  behind  ?  "     (Herzen's  words.) 

"  Terror  seizes  us,  —  the  void,  expanse,  freedom.  .  .  . 
How  can  we  go,  without  knowing  whither  ?  How  can 
we  lose,  without  seeing  any  acquisition  ? 

"  If  Columbus  had  reflected  thus,  he  would  never  have 
weighed  anchor.  It  is  madness  to  sail  the  sea  without 
knowing  the  way,  to  sail  the  sea  no  one  has  traversed  be- 
fore, to  make  for  a  country,  the  existence  of  which  is 
a  question.  With  this  madness  he  discovered  a  new 
world.  Of  course,  if  the  nations  could  move  from  one 
hdtel  garni  into  another,  a  better  one,  it  would  be  easier, 
but  unfortunately  there  is  no  one  to  arrange  the  new 
quarters.  In  the  future  it  is  worse  than  on  the  sea, — 
there  is  nothing,  —  it  will  be  what  circumstances  and 
men  make  it. 

"  If  you  are  satisfied  with  the  old  world,  try  to  preserve 
it,  —  it  is  very  decrepit  and  will  not  last  long ;  but  if  it 
is  unbearable  for  you  to  live  in  an  eternal  discord  between 
convictions  and  life,  to  think  one  thing  and  do  another, 
come  out  from  under  the  whited  mediaeval  vaults  at  your 
risk.     I  know  full  well  that  this  is  not  easy.     It  is  not 


THE    KINGDOM    OF    GOD    IS    WITHIN    YOU      369 

a  trifling  matter  to  part  from  everything  a  man  is  accus- 
tomed to  from  the  day  of  his  birth,  with  what  he  has 
grown  up  with  from  childhood.  Men  are  prepared  for 
terrible  sacrifices,  but  not  for  those  which  the  new  life 
demands  of  them.  Are  they  prepared  to  sacrifice  modern 
civilization,  their  manner  of  life,  their  religion,  the  accepted 
conventional  morality  ?  Are  they  prepared  to  be  deprived 
of  all  the  fruits  which  have  been  worked  out  with  such 
efforts,  of  the  fruits  we  have  been  boasting  of  for  three 
centuries,  to  be  deprived  of  all  the  comforts  and  charms 
of  our  existence,  to  prefer  wild  youth  to  cultured  debility, 
to  break  up  their  inherited  palace  from  the  mere  pleasure 
of  taking  part  in  laying  the  foundation  for  the  new  house, 
which  will,  no  doubt,  be  built  after  us  ? "  (Herzen,  Vol. 
v.,  p.  55.) 

Thus  spoke  almost  half  a  century  ago  a  Russian  author, 
who  with  his  penetrating  mind  even  at  that  time  saw 
very  clearly  what  now  is  seen  by  the  least  reflecting  man 
of  our  time,  —  the  impossibility  of  continuing  hfe  on  its 
former  foundations,  and  the  necessity  for  establishing 
some  new  forms  of  life. 

From  the  simplest,  lowest,  worldly  point  of  view  it  is 
already  clear  that  it  is  madness  to  remain  under  the  vault 
of  a  building,  which  does  not  sustain  its  weight,  and  that 
it  is  necessary  to  leave  it.  Indeed,  it  is  hard  to  imagine  a 
state  which  is  more  wretched  than  the  one  in  which  is 
now  the  Christian  world,  with  its  nations  armed  against 
each  other,  with  the  ever  growing  taxes  for  the  support  of 
these  ever  growing  armaments,  with  the  hatred  of  the 
labouring  class  against  the  rich,  which  is  being  fanned 
more  and  more,  with  Damocles's  sword  of  war  hanging 
over  all,  and  ready  at  any  moment  to  drop  down,  and 
inevitably  certain  to  do  so  sooner  or  later. 

Hardly  any  revolution  can  be  more  wretched  for  the 
great  mass  of  the  people  than  the  constantly  existing 
order,  or  rather  disorder,  of  our  life,  with  its  habitual  sac- 


370     THE   KINGDOM    OF    GOD   IS   WITHIN   YOU 

rifices  of  unnatural  labour,  poverty,  drunkenness,  debauch- 
ery, and  with  all  the  horrors  of  an  imminent  war,  which 
is  in  one  year  to  swallow  up  more  victims  than  all  the 
revolutions  of  the  present  century. 

What  will  happen  with  us,  with  all  humanity,  when 
each  one  of  us  shall  perform  what  is  demanded  of  him  by 
God  through  the  conscience  which  is  implanted  in  him  ? 
Will  there  be  no  calamity,  because,  finding  myself  entirely 
in  the  power  of  the  Master,  I  in  the  establishment  built 
up  and  guided  by  Him  shall  do  what  He  commands  me  to 
do,  but  what  seems  strange  to  me,  who  do  not  know  the 
final  ends  of  the  Master  ?  ■, 

But  it  is  not  even  this  question  as  to  what  will  happen 
that  troubles  men,  when  they  hesitate  to  do  the  Master's 
will:  they  are  troubled  by  the  question  as  to  how  they 
could  live  without  those  conditions  of  their  life  which 
they    have    become    accustomed    to,  and  which  we    call 
science,  art,  civilization,  culture.     We  feel  for  ourselves 
personally  the  whole  burden  of  the  present  life,  we  even 
see  that  the  order  of  this  life,  if  continued,  will  inevitably 
cause  our  ruin ;  but,  at  the  same  time,  we  want  the  condi- 
tions of  this  our  life,  which  have  grown  out  of  it,  our  arts, 
sciences,  civilizations,  cultures,  to  remain  unharmed  in  the 
change  of  our  life.     It  is  as  though  a  man  living  in  an 
old  house,  suffering  from  the  cold  and  the  inconveniences 
of  this  house,  and  knowing,  besides,  that  this  house  is 
about  to  falKin,  should  consent  to  its  rebuilding  only  on 
condition  that  he  should  not  come  out  of  it :  a  condition 
which  is  equal  to  a  refusal  to  rebuild  the  house.     "  What 
if  I  leave  the  house,  for  a  time  am  deprived  of  all  com- 
forts, and  the  new  house  will  not  be  built  at  all  or  will 
be  built  in  such  a  way  that  it  will  lack  what  I  am  used 
to?" 

But,  if  the  material  is  on  hand  and  the  builders  are 
there,  all  the  probabihties  are  in  favour  of  the  new  house 
being  better  than  the  old  one,  and  at  the  same  time  there 


THE    KINGDOM    OF    GOD    IS    WITHIN    YOU      371 

is  not  only  a  probability,  but  even  a  certainty,  that  the 
old  house  will  fall  in  and  will  crush  those  who  are  left  in 
it.  Whether  the  former,  habitual  conditions  of  life  will 
be  retained,  whether  they  will  be  destroyed,  or  whether 
entirely  new  ones,  better  ones,  will  arise,  it  is  inevitably 
necessary  to  leave  the  old  conditions  of  our  life,  which 
have  become  impossible  and  pernicious,  and  to  go  ahead 
and  meet  the  future  conditions. 

"  The  sciences,  arts,  civilizations,  and  cultures  will 
disappear ! " 

All  these  are  only  different  manifestations  of  the  truth, 
and  the  imminent  change  is  to  take  place  only  in  the 
name  of  an  approximation  to  truth  and  its  realization. 
How,  then,  can  the  manifestations  of  the  truth  disappear 
in  consequence  of  its  realization  ?  They  will  be  different, 
better,  and  higher,  but  they  will  by  no  means  be  destroyed. 
What  will  be  destroyed  in  them  is  what  is  false ;  but  what 
there  was  of  truth  in  them  will  only  blossom  out  and  be 
strengthened. 


Come  to  your  senses,  men,  and  believe  in  the  Gospel, 
in  the  teaching  of  the  good.  If  you  shall  not  come  to 
your  senses,  you  will  all  perish,  as  perished  the  men  who 
were  killed  by  Pilate,  as  perished  those  who  were  crushed 
by  the  tower  of  Siloam,  as  perished  millions  and  millions 
of  men,  slayers  and  slain,  executioners  and  executed,  tor- 
mentors and  tormented,  and  as  foolishly  perished  that 
man  who  filled  up  his  granaries  and  prepared  himself  to 
live  for  a  long  time,  and  died  the  same  night  on  which  he 
wanted  to  begin  his  new  life.  "  Come  to  your  senses  and 
believe  in  the  Gospel,"  Christ  said  eighteen  hundred  years 
ago,  and  says  now  with  even  greater  convincingness, 
through  the  utter  wretchedness  and  irrationahty  of  our 
life,  predicted  by  Him  and  now  an  accomplished  fact. 

Now,  after  so  many  centuries  of  vain   endeavours  tu 


372     THE    KINGDOM    OF    GOD    IS    WITniN   YOU 

make  our  life  secure  by  means  of  the  pagan  institution 
of  violence,  it  would  seem  to  be  absolutely  obvious  to 
everybody  that  all  the  efforts  which  are  directed  toward 
this  end  only  introduce  new  dangers  into  our  personal  and 
social  life,  but  in  no  way  make  it  secure. 

No  matter  what  we  may  call  ourselves ;  what  attires 
we  may  put  on ;  what  we  may  smear  ourselves  with,  and 
in  the  presence  of  what  priests ;  how  many  millions  we 
may  have ;  what  protection  there  may  be  along  our  path  ; 
how  many  policemen  may  protect  our  wealth ;  how  much 
we  may  execute  the  so-called  revolutionary  malefactors 
and  anarchists  ;  what  exploits  we  ourselves  may  perform  ; 
what  kingdoms  we  may  found,  and  what  fortresses  and 
towers  we  may  erect,  from  that  of  Babel  to  that  of  Eiffel, 
—  we  are  all  of  us  at  all  times  confronted  by  two  inevi- 
table conditions  of  our  Hfe,  which  destroy  its  whole  mean- 
ing :  (1)  by  death,  which  may  overtake  any  of  us  at  any 
moment,  and  (2)  by  the  impermanency  of  all  the  acts 
performed  by  us,  which  are  rapidly  and  tracklessly  des- 
troyed. No  matter  what  we  may  do,  whether  we  found 
kingdoms,  build  palaces,  erect  monuments,  compose  poems, 
it  is  but  for  a  short  time,  and  everything  passes,  without 
leaving  a  trace.  And  so,  no  matter  how  much  we  may 
conceal  the  fact  from  ourselves,  we  cannot  help  but  see 
that  the  meaning  of  our  life  can  be  neither  in  our  personal, 
carnal  existence,  which  is  subject  to  inevitable  sufferings 
and  inevitaMe  death,  nor  in  any  worldly  institution  or 
structure. 

Whoever  you,  the  reader  of  these  lines,  may  be,  think 
of  your  condition  and  of  your  duties,  —  not  of  the  condi- 
tion of  landowner,  merchant,  judge,  emperor,  president, 
minister,  priest,  soldier,  which  people  temporarily  ascribe 
to  you,  nor  of  those  imaginary  duties,  which  these  posi- 
tions impose  upon  you,  but  of  that  real,  eternal  condition 
of  existence,  which  by  somebody's  will  after  a  whole 
eternity  of  non-existence  has   issued   forth   from  uncon- 


THE    KINGDOM    OF    GOD    IS    WITHIN    YOU      373 

sciousness,  and  at  any  moment  by  somebody's  will  may 
return  to  where  you  come  from.  Think  of  your  duties, — 
not  of  your  imaginary  duties  as  a  landowner  to  your 
estate,  of  a  merchant  to  your  capital,  of  an  emperor,  min- 
ister, official  to  the  state, —  but  of  those  real  duties  of 
yours,  which  result  from  your  real  condition  of  existence, 
which  is  called  into  life  and  is  endowed  with  reason  and 
love.  Are  you  doing  what  is  demanded  of  you  by  Him 
who  has  sent  you  into  the  world,  and  to  whom  you  will 
very  soon  return  ?  Are  you  doing  what  He  is  demanding 
of  you  ?  Are  you  doing  what  is  right,  when,  being  a 
landowner,  manufacturer,  you  take  away  the  productions 
of  labour  from  the  poor,  building  up  your  life  on  this 
spoliation,  or  when,  being  a  ruler,  a  judge,  you  do  violence 
to  people  and  sentence  them  to  capital  punishment,  or 
when,  being  a  soldier,  you  prepare  yourself  for  wars,  and 
wage  war,  plunder,  and  kill  ? 

You  say  that  the  world  is  constructed  that  way,  that 
this  is  unavoidable,  that  you  are  not  doing  this  of  your 
own  will,  but  that  you  are  compelled  to  do  so.  But  is  it 
possible  that  the  aversion  for  human  sufferings,  for  tor- 
tures, for  the  killing  of  men  should  be  so  deeply  implanted 
in  you ;  that  you  should  be  so  imbued  with  the  necessity 
for  loving  men  and  the  still  more  potent  necessity  of 
being  loved  by  them ;  that  you  should  clearly  see  that 
only  with  the  recognition  of  the  equality  of  all  men,  with 
their  mutual  service,  is  possible  the  realization  of  the 
greatest  good  which  is  accessible  to  men  ;  that  your  heart, 
your  intellect,  the  religion  professed  by  you  should  tell 
you  the  same ;  that  science  should  tell  you  the  same,  — 
and  that,  in  spite  of  it,  you  should  be  by  some  very  dim, 
complex  considerations  compelled  to  do  what  is  precisely 
opposed  to  it  ?  that,  being  a  landowner  or  a  capitalist,  you 
should  be  compelled  to  construct  all  your  hfe  on  the  op- 
pression of  the  masses  ?  or  that,  being  an  emperor  or  a 
president,  you  should  be  compelled  to  command  troops, 


374     THE    KINGDOM    OF    GOD    IS    WITHIN    YOU 

that  is,  to  be  the  leader  and  guide  of  murderers  ?  or  that, 
being  a  government  official,  you  should  be  compelled  by 
violence  to  take  from  poor  people  their  hard-earned  money, 
in  order  to  use  it  yourself  and  give  it  to  the  rich  ?  or  that, 
being  a  judge,  a  juror,  you  should  be  compelled  to  sen- 
tence erring  men  to  tortures  and  to  death,  because  the 
truth  has  not  been  revealed  to  them  ?  or  that,  —  a  thing 
on  which  all  the  evil  of  the  world  is  chiefly  based,  —  you, 
every  young  man,  should  be  compelled  to  become  a  sol- 
dier and,  renouncing  your  own  will  and  all  human  senti- 
ments, should  promise,  at  the  will  of  men  who  are  alien 
to  you,  to  kill  all  those  men  whom  they  may  command 
you  to  kill  ? 

It  cannot  be. 

Even  though  men  tell  you  that  all  this  is  necessary  for 
the  maintenance  of  the  existing  structure  of  life ;  that  the 
existing  order,  with  its  wretchedness,  hunger,  prisons, 
executions,  armies,  wars,  is  indis]3ensable  for  society; 
that,  if  this  order  should  be  impaired,  there  would  come 
worse  calamities,  —  it  is  only  those  to  whom  this  structure 
of  hfe  is  advantageous  that  tell  you  this,  while  those  — 
and  there  are  ten  times  as  many  of  them  —  who  are  suf- 
fering from  this  structure  of  life  think  and  say  the  very 
opposite.  You  yourself  know  in  the  depth  of  your  heart 
that  this  is  not  true,  that  the  existing  structure  of  life  has 
outlived^its  time  and  soon  must  be  reconstructed  on  new 
principles,  and  that,  therefore,  there  is  no  need  to  main- 
tain it,  while  sacrificing  human  sentiments. 

Above  all  else,  even  if  we  admit  that  the  existing  order 
is  necessary,  why  do  you  feel  yourself  obliged  to  maintain 
it,  while  trampling  on  all  better  human  sentiments  ?  Who 
has  engaged  you  as  a  nurse  to  this  decaying  order? 
Neither  society,  nor  the  state,  nor  any  men  have  ever 
asked  you  to  maintain  this  order,  by  holding  the  place  of 
landowner,  merchant,  emperor,  priest,  soldier,  which  you 
now  hold;    and  you  know  full  well  that  you  took  up 


THE    KINGDOM    OF    GOD   IS    WITHIN    YOU      o75 

your  position,  uot  at  all  with  the  self-sacrificing  purpose 
of  maintaining  an  order  of  life  which  is  indispensable  for 
the  good  of  men,  but  for  your  own  sake,  —  for  the  sake  of 
your  greed,  love  of  glory,  ambition,  indolence,  cowardice. 
If  you  did  not  want  this  position,  you  would  not  be  doing 
everything  it  is  necessary  for  you  to  do  all  the  time,  in 
order  to  keep  your  place.  Just  try  to  stop  doing  those 
complex,  cruel,  tricky,  and  mean  things,  which  you  are 
doing  without  cessation  in  order  to  keep  your  place,  and 
you  will  immediately  lose  it.  Just  try,  while  being  a 
ruler  or  an  official,  to  stop  lying,  committing  base  acts, 
taking  part  in  acts  of  violence,  in  executions ;  being  a 
priest,  to  stop  deceiving ;  being  a  soldier,  to  stop  killing ; 
being  a  landowner,  a  manufacturer,  to  stop  protecting 
your  property  by  means  of  the  courts  and  of  violence,  — 
and  you  will  at  once  lose  the  position  which,  you  say,  is 
imposed  upon  you,  and  which,  you  say,  weighs  heavily 
upon  you. 

It  cannot  be  that  a  man  should  be  placed  against  his 
will  in  a  position  which  is  contrary  to  his  consciousness. 

If  you  are  in  this  position,  it  is  not  because  that  is 
necessary  for  anybody,  but  because  you  want  it.  And  so, 
knowing  tliat  this  position  is  directly  opposed  to  your 
heart,  your  reason,  your  faith,  and  even  to  science,  in 
which  you  believe,  you  cannot  help  but  meditate  on  the 
question  as  to  whether  you  are  doing  right  by  staying 
in  this  position  and,  above  all,  by  trying  to  justify  it. 

You  might  be  able  to  risk  making  a  mistake,  if  you 
had  tifme  to  see  and  correct  your  mistake,  and  if  that  in 
the  name  of  which  you  should  take  your  risk  had  any 
importance.  ]3ut  when  you  know  for  certain  that  you 
may  vanish  any  second,  without  tlie  slightest  chance  of 
correcting  the  mistake,  either  for  your  own  sake  or  for  the 
sake  of  those  whom  you  will  draw  into  your  error,  and 
when  you  know,  besides,  that,  no  matter  what  you  may  do 
in  the  external  structure  of  the  world,  it  will  disappear 


376      THE    KINGDOM    OF    GOD    IS    WITHIN    YOU 

very  soon,  and  just  as  certainly  as  you  yourself,  without 
leaving  any  trace,  it  is  obvious  to  you  that  you  have  no 
reason  to  risk  such  a  terrible  mistake. 

This  is  all  so  simple  and  so  clear,  if  only  we  did  not 
with  hypocrisy  bedim  the  truth  which  is  revealed  to 
us. 

"  Share  with  others  what  you  have,  do  not  amass  any 
wealth,  do  not  glorify  yourself,  do  not  plunder,  do  not  tor- 
ture, do  not  kill  any  one,  do  not  do  unto  others  what  you 
do  not  wish  to  have  done  to  yourself,"  was  said,  not 
eighteen  hundred,  but  five  thousand  years  ago,  and  there 
could  be  no  doubt  as  to  the  truth  of  this  law,  if  there 
were  no  hypocrisy :  it  would  have  been  impossible,  if 
not  to  do  so,  at  least  not  to  recognize  that  we  ought 
always  to  do  so,  and  that  he  who  does  not  do  so  is  doing 
wrong. 

But  you  say  that  there  also  exists  a  common  good, 
for  which  it  is  possible  and  necessary  to  depart  from 
these  rules,  —  for  the  common  good  it  is  right  to  kill, 
torture,  rob.  It  is  better  for  one  man  to  perish,  than 
that  a  whole  nation  should  perish,  you  say,  like  Caiaphas, 
and  you  sign  one,  two,  three  death-warrants,  load  your 
gun  for  that  man  who  is  to  perish  for  the  common  good, 
put  him  in  prison,  take  away  his  property.  You  say  that 
you  do  these  cruel  things,  because  you  feel  yourself  to  be 
a  man  of  society,  the  state,  under  obligation  to  serve  it 
and  to  carry  out  its  laws,  a  landowner,  a  judge,  an  em- 
peror, a  soldier.  But,  besides  your  belonging  to  a  certain 
state,  and  the  obligations  resulting  therefrom,  you  also 
belong  to  the  infinite  life  of  the  world  and  to  God,  and 
have  certain  obligations  resulting  from  this  relation. 

And  as  your  duties,  which  result  from  your  belonging 
to  a  certain  family,  a  certain  society,  are  always  sub- 
ordinated to  the  higher  duties,  which  result  from  your 
belonging  to  the  state,  so  also  your  obligations,  which 
result  from  your  belonging  to  the  state,  must  necessarily 


THE    KINGDOM    OF    GOD    IS    WITHIN    YOU      377 

be  subordinated  to  the  duties  which  result  from  your 
belonging  to  the  Hfe  of  the  world,  to  God. 

And  as  it  would  be  senseless  to  cut  down  the  telegraph- 
posts,  in  order  to  provide  fuel  for  the  family  or  society, 
and  to  increase  its  well-being,  because  this  w^ould  violate 
the  laws  which  preserve  the  good  of  the  state,  so  it  would 
be  senseless,  for  the  purpose  of  making  the  state  secure 
and  increasing  its  well-being,  to  torture,  execute,  kill  a 
man,  because  this  violates  the  unquestionable  laws  which 
preserve  the  good  of  the  world. 

Your  obligations,  which  result  from  your  belonging 
to  the  state,  cannot  help  but  be  subordinated  to  the 
higher  eternal  duty,  which  results  from  your  belonging  to 
the  infinite  life  of  the  world,  or  to  God,  and  cannot  con- 
tradict them,  as  Christ's  disciples  said  eighteen  hundred 
years  ago  :  "  Whether  it  be  right  in  the  sight  of  God 
to  hearken  unto  you  more  than  unto  God,  judge  ye " 
(Acts  iv.  19),  and,  "  We  ought  to  obey  God  rather  than 
men"  (Acts  v.  29). 

You  are  assured  that,  in  order  not  to  violate  the  con- 
stantly changing  order,  which  was  yesterday  established 
by  some  men  in  some  corner  of  the  world,  you  must  com- 
mit acts  of  torture  and  murder  separate  men,  who  violate 
the  eternal,  invariable  order  of  the  universe,  which  was 
established  by  God,  or  by  reason.     Can  that  be  ? 

And  so  you  cannot  help  but  meditate  on  your  position 
as  a  landowner,  merchant,  judge,  emperor,  president,  min- 
ister, priest,  soldier,  which  is  connected  with  oppression, 
violence,  deception,  tortures,  and  murders,  and  you  cannot 
help  but  recognize  their  illegality. 

I  do  not  say  that,  if  you  are  a  landowner,  you  should 
at  once  give  your  land  to  the  poor ;  if  you  are  a  capitalist, 
you  should  at  once  give  your  money,  your  factory  to  the 
labourers ;  if  you  are  a  king,  a  minister,  an  official,  a 
judge,  a  general,  you  should  at  once  give  up  your  advan- 
tageous position ;  if  you  are  a  soldier  (that  is,  occupy  a 


378     THE   KINGDOM    OF    GOD    IS    WITHIN   YOU 

position  on  which  all  violence  is  based),  you  should,  in 
spite  of  all  the  dangers  of  a  refusal  to  obey,  at  once  throw 
up  your  position. 

If  you  do  so,  you  will  do  the  very  best  possible ;  but  it 
may  happen  —  and  this  is  most  likely  —  that  you  will 
not  have  the  strength  to  do  so :  you  have  connections, 
a  family,  inferiors,  superiors ;  you  may  be  under  such  a 
strong  influence  of  temptations  that  you  will  not  be  able 
to  do  so,  —  but  you  are  always  able  to  recognize  the  truth 
as  a  truth,  and  to  stop  lying.  Do  not  assert  that  you 
remain  a  lauded  proprietor,  a  manufacturer,  a  merchant, 
an  artist,  a  writer,  because  this  is  useful  for  men ;  that 
you  are  serving  as  a  governor,  a  prosecutor,  a  king,  not 
because  that  gives  you  pleasure  and  you  are  used  to  it, 
but  for  the  good  of  humanity ;  that  you  continue  to  be  a 
soldier,  not  because  you  are  afraid  of  punishment,  but 
because  you  consider  the  army  indispensable  for  the  secu- 
rity of  human  life ;  you  can  always  keep  from  lying  thus 
to  yourself  and  to  men,  and  you  are  not  only  able,  but 
even  must  do  so,  because  in  this  alone,  in  the  Hberation 
of  oneself  from  the  lie  and  in  the  profession  of  the  truth, 
does  the  only  good  of  your  life  consist. 

You  need  but  do  this,  and  your  position  will  inevitably 
change  of  its  own  accord.  There  is  one,  only  one  thing 
in  which  you  are  free  and  almighty  in  your  life,  —  every- 
thing else  is  beyond  your  power.  This  thing  is,  to  recog- 
nize the  truth  and  to  profess  it. 

Suddenly,  because  just  such  miserable,  erring  people 
like  yourself  have  assured  you  that  you  are  a  soldier, 
emperor,  landed  proprietor,  rich  man,  priest,  general,  you 
begin  to  do  evil,  which  is  obviously  and  unquestionably 
contrary  to  your  reason  and  heart :  you  begin  to  torture, 
rob,  kill  men,  to  build  up  your  life  on  their  sufferings, 
and,  above  all,  instead  of  doing  the  one  work  of  your 
life,  —  recognizing  and  professing  the  truth  which  is 
known  to  you,  —  you  carefully  pretend  that  you  do  not 


THE    KINGDOM    OF    GOD   IS    WITHIN    YOU      379 

know  it,  and  conceal  it  from  yourself  and  from  others, 
doing  thus  what  is  directly  opposed  to  the  one  thing  to 
which  you  have  been  called. 

And  under  what  conditions  do  you  do  that  ?  You, 
who  are  likely  to  die  at  any  moment,  sign  a  sentence  of 
death,  declare  war,  go  to  war,  sit  in  judgment,  torture, 
fleece  the  labourers,  live  luxuriously  among  the  poor,  and 
teach  weak,  trustful  people  that  this  must  be  so,  and  that 
in  this  does  the  duty  of  men  consist,  and  you  are  running 
the  chance  that,  at  the  moment  that  you  are  doing  this,  a 
bacterium  or  a  bullet  will  fly  into  you,  and  you  will  rattle 
in  your  throat  and  die,  and  wdll  for  ever  be  deprived  of 
the  possibility  of  correcting  and  changing  the  evil  which 
you  have  done  to  others  and,  above  all,  to  yourself,  losing 
for  nothing  the  hfe  which  is  given  to  you  but  once  in  a 
whole  eternity,  without  having  done  the  one  thiug  which 
you  ought  unquestionably  to  have  done. 

However  simple  and  old  this  may  be,  and  however 
much  we  may  have  stupefied  ourselves  by  hypocrisy 
and  the  auto-suggestion  resulting  from  it,  nothing  can 
destroy  the  absolute  certainty  of  that  simple  and  clear 
truth  that  no  external  efforts  can  safeguard  our  hfe,  which 
is  inevitably  connected  with  unavoidable  sufferings  and 
which  ends  in  still  more  unavoidable  death,  that  may 
come  to  each  of  us  at  any  moment,  and  that,  therefore, 
our  life  can  have  no  other  meaning  than  the  fulfilment,  at 
any  moment,  of  what  is  wanted  from  us  by  the  power 
that  sent  us  into  life  and  gave  us  in  this  life  one  sure 
guide,  —  our  rational  consciousness. 

And  so  this  power  cannot  want  from  us  what  is  irra- 
tional and  impossible,  —  the  establishment  of  our  temporal, 
carnal  life,  the  life  of  society  or  of  the  state.  This  power 
demands  of  us  what  alone  is  certain  and  rational  and 
possible,  —  our  serving  the  kingdom  of  God,  that  is,  our 
cooperation  in  the  establishment  of  the  greatest  union  of 
everything  Uving,  which  is  possible  only  in  the  truth,  and, 


380      THE    KINGDOM    OF    GOD    IS    WITHIN   YOU 


therefore,  the  recognition  of  the  truth  revealed  to  us,  and 
the  profession  of  it,  precisely  what  alone  is  always  in  our 
power. 

"  Seek  ye  the  kingdom  of  God  and  His  righteousness 
and  all  these  things  shall  be  added  unto  you."  The  only 
meaning  of  man's  life  consists  in  serving  the  world  by 
cooperating  in  the  establishment  of  the  kingdom  of  God ; 
but  this  service  can  be  rendered  only  through  the  recog- 
nition of  the  truth,  and  the  profession  of  it,  by  every 
separate  individual. 

"  The  kingdom  of  God  cometh  not  with  observation : 
neither  shall  they  say,  Lo  here !  or,  Lo  there  !  for,  behold, 
the  kingdom  of  God  is  within  you." 

Ydsnaya  Polydna,  May  IJ/.,  1893. 


CHRISTIANITY     AND 
PATRIOTISM 

1894 


CHRISTIANITY    AND 
PATRIOTISM 


The  Franco-Russian  celebrations  which  took  place  in 
France,  in  the  month  of  October  of  last  year,  provoked 
in  me,  as  no  doubt  in  many  other  people,  at  first  a  feeling 
of  amusement,  then  of  perplexity,  and  at  last  of  indigna- 
tion, which  I  intended  to  express  in  a  short  article  in  a 
periodical ;  but,  the  more  I  dwelt  on  the  chief  causes  of 
this  strange  phenomenon,  the  more  did  I  arrive  at  the 
considerations  which  I  now  offer  to  my  readers. 


Russians  and  Frenchmen  have  lived  for  many  cen- 
turies, knowing  one  another,  entering  with  one  another 
at  times  into  friendly,  more  often,  I  am  sorry  to  say,  into 
very  hostile  relations,  which  have  been  provoked  by  their 
governments ;  suddenly,  because  two  years  ago  a  French 
S(|uadron  arrived  at  Kronstadt,  and  the  officers  of  the 
squadron,  upon  landing,  ate  and  drank  a  lot  of  wine  in 
various  places,  hearing  and  uttering  upon  these  occasions 
many  lying  and  stupid  words,  and  because,  in  the  year 
1893,  a  similar  Russian  squadron  arrived  at  Toulon,  and 
the  officers  of  the  Russian  squadron  ate  and  drank  a  lot 
in  Paris,  hearing  and  uttering  upon  that  occasion  more 
lying  and  stupid  words  than  before,  it  happened  that  not 
only  the  men  who  ate,  drank,  and  talked,  but  even  those 
who  were  present,  and  even  those  who  were  not  present, 

383 


384  CHRISTIANITY   AND   PATRIOTISM 

but  only  heard  and  read  of  it  in  newspapers,  all  these 
millions  of  Russians  and  Frenchmen  suddenly  imagined 
that  they  somehow  were  particularly  in  love  with  one 
another,  that  is,  that  all  the  French  loved  all  the  Russians, 
and  all  the  Russians  loved  all  the  French. 

These  sentiments  were  last  October  expressed  in  France 
in  a  most  unusual  manner. 

Here  is  the  way  the  reception  of  the  Russian  sailors  is 
described  in  the  Rural  Messenger,  a  newspaper  which 
collects  its  information  from  all  the  others : 

"  At  the  meeting  of  the  Russian  and  French  vessels, 
both,  besides  the  salvos  of  guns,  greeted  one  another  with 
hearty,  ecstatic  shouts, '  Hurrah,'  '  Long  live  Russia,'  '  Long 
live  France ! ' 

"  These  were  joined  by  bands  of  music  (which  came  on 
many  private  steamers),  playing  the  Russian  hymn,  '  God 
save  the  Tsar,'  and  the  French  Marseillaise  ;  the  public  on 
the  private  vessels  waved  their  hats,  flags,  handkerchiefs, 
and  bouquets  ;  on  many  barques  there  were  peasants  with 
their  wives  and  children,  and  they  all  had  bouquets  in 
their  liands,  and  even  the  children  waved  the  bouquets 
and  shouted  at  the  top  of  their  voices,  '  Vive  la  Russie  ! ' 
Our  sailors,  upon  seeing  such  national  transport,  were 
unable  to  restrain  their  tears.  .  .  . 

''  In  the  harbour  all  the  ships-of-war  which  were  then 
at  Toulon  were  drawn  out  in  two  lines,  and  our  squadron 
passed  between  them ;  in  front  was  the  ironclad  of  the 
admiralty,  and  this  was  followed  by  the  rest.  There  en- 
sued a  most  solemn  minute. 

"  On  the  Russian  ironclad,  fifteen  salvos  were  fired  in 
honour  of  the  French  squadron,  and  a  French  ironclad 
replied  with  double  the  number,  with  thirty  salvos.  From 
the  French  vessels  thundered  the  sounds  of  the  Russian 
hymn.  The  French  sailors  climbed  up  on  the  sail-yards  and 
masts ;  loud  exclamations  of  greeting  proceeded  uninter- 
ruptedly from  the  two  squadrons  and  from  the  private 


CHRISTIANITY   AND   PATRIOTISM  385 

vessels  ;  the  caps  of  the  sailors,  the  hats  and  handkerchiefs 
of  the  public,  —  all  were  thrown  up  triumphantly  in 
honour  of  the  dear  guests.  On  all  sides,  on  the  water 
and  on  the  shore,  there  boomed  one  common  call,  '  Long 
live  Eussia !     Long  live  France  ! ' 

"  In  conformity  with  naval  law.  Admiral  Avelan  and 
the  officers  of  his  staff  landed,  in  order  to  greet  the  local 
authorities.  On  the  quay  the  Eussian  sailors  were  met 
by  the  chief  marine  staff  of  France  and  the  superior  offi- 
cers of  the  port  of  Toulon.  There  ensued  a  universal 
friendly  hand-shaking,  accompanied  by  the  boom  of  cannon 
and  the  ringing  of  bells.  A  band  of  marine  music  played 
the  hymn  *  God  save  the  Tsar,'  drowned  by  the  thunderous 
shouts  of  the  public,  '  Long  live  the  Tsar !  Long  live 
Eussia ! '  These  exclamations  blended  into  one  mighty 
sound,  which  drowned  the  music  and  the  salvos  from 
the  guns. 

"  Eye-witnesses  declare  that  at  this  moment  the  en- 
thusiasm of  the  innumerable  mass  of  people  reached  its 
highest  limits,  and  thot  it  is  impossible  to  express  in 
words  with  what  sensations  the  hearts  of  all  those  present 
were  filled.  Admiral  Avelan,  with  bared  head,  and  accom- 
panied by  Eussian  and  French  officers,  directed  his  steps 
to  the  building  of  the  Marine  Office,  where  the  French 
minister  of  marine  was  waiting  for  him. 

"  In  receiving  the  admiral,  the  minister  said  :  '  Kron- 
stadt  and  Toulon  are  two  places  which  bear  witness  to  the 
sympathy  between  the  Eussian  and  the  French  nations ; 
you  will  everywhere  be  met  as  dear  friends.  The  govern- 
ment and  all  of  France  welcome  you  upon  your  arrival 
and  that  of  your  companions,  who  represent  a  great  and 
noble  nation.' 

"  The  admiral  replied  that  he  was  not  able  to  express 
all  liis  gratitutle.  '  The  Eussian  squadron  and  all  of 
Eussia,'  he  said,  '  will  remember  the  reception  you  have 
given  us.' 


386  CHRISTIANITY    AND    PATRIOTISM 

"  After  a  short  conversation,  the  admiral,  saying  good- 
bye to  the  minister,  a  second  time  thanked  him  for  the 
reception,  and  added,  '  I  do  not  want  to  part  from  you 
before  pronouncing  those  words  which  are  imprinted  in 
all  Kussian  hearts :  "  Long  live  France  ! " '"  {Rural  Mes' 
senger,  1893,  No. 41.) 

Such  was  the  meeting  at  Toulon.  In  Paris  the  meeting 
and  the  celebrations  were  more  remarkable  still. 

Here  is  the  way  the  meeting  in  Paris  was  described  in 
the  newspapers :  "  All  eyes  were  directed  to  the  Boule- 
vard des  Itahens,  whence  the  Kussian  sailors  were  to 
appear.  Finally  the  boom  of  a  whole  hurricane  of  ex- 
clamations and  applauses  is  heard  in  the  distance.  The 
boom  grows  stronger  and  more  audible.  The  hurricane  is 
apparently  approaching.  A  mighty  motion  takes  place  on 
the  square.  Policemen  rush  forward  to  clear  a  path 
toward  the  Cercle  Militaire,  but  this  is  by  no  means  an 
easy  task.  There  is  an  incredible  crush  and  pressure  in 
the  crowd.  .  .  .  Finally  the  head  of  the  procession  ap- 
pears in  the  square.  At  the  same  moment  a  deafening 
shout,  *  Vive  la  Bussie  !  Vive  les  Busses  ! '  rises  over  it.  All 
bare  their  heads,  the  public,  packed  close  in  the  windows, 
on  the  balconies,  perched  even  on  the  roofs,  wave  hand- 
kerchiefs, flags,  and  hats,  applaud  madly,  and  from  the 
windows  of  the  upper  stories  throw  clouds  of  small  many- 
coloured  cockades.  A  whole  sea  of  handkerchiefs,  hats, 
and  flags  surges  above  the  heads  of  the  crowd  in  the 
square :  '  Vive  la  Bussie  !  Vive  les  Busses  ! '  shouts  this 
mass  of  one  hundred  thousand  people,  trying  to  get  a  look 
at  the  dear  guests,  extending  their  hands  to  them,  and  in 
every  way  expressing  their  sympathies  "  {New  Time). 

Another  correspondent  writes  that  the  transport  of  the 
crowd  bordered  on  delirium.  A  Piussian  pubhcist,  who 
was  in  Paris  at  that  time,  describes  this  entrance  of  the 
sailors  in  the  following  manner :  "  They  tell  the  truth,  — 
it   was   an    incident    of   world-wide    import,   wondrous, 


CHRTSTTANTTT   AND   PATRIOTISM  387 

touching,  soul-stirring,  making  the  heart  quiver  with  that 
love  which  discerns  the  brothers  in  men,  and  which 
detests  bloodshed  and  concomitant  acts  of  violence,  the 
tearing  away  of  the  children  from  their  beloved  mother. 
I  have  been  in  some  kind  of  an  intoxication  for  several 
hours.  I  felt  so  strange,  and  even  so  weak,  as  I  stood  at 
the  station  of  the  Lyons  Railway,  among  the  representa- 
tives of  the  French  administration  in  their  gold-embroid- 
ered uniforms,  among  the  members  of  the  municipality  in 
full  dress,  and  heard  the  shouts,  '  Vive  la  Bussie  !  Vive 
le  Czar!'  and  our  national  hymn,  which  was  played 
several  times  in  succession.  Where  am  I  ?  What  has 
happened  ?  What  magic  stream  has  united  all  this  into 
one  feeling,  into  one  mind  ?  Does  one  not  feel  here  the 
presence  of  the  God  of  love  and  brotherhood,  the  presence 
of  something  higher,  something  ideal,  which  descends 
upon  men  only  in  lofty  moments  ?  The  heart  is  so  full 
of  something  beautiful  and  pure  and  exalted,  that  the  pen 
is  not  able  to  express  it  all.  Words  pale  before  what  I 
saw,  what  I  felt.  It  is  not  transport,  —  the  word  is  too 
banal,  —  it  is  something  better  than  transport.  It  is  more 
picturesque,  profounder,  more  joyous,  more  varied.  It  is 
impossible  to  describe  what  happened  at  the  Cercle  Mili- 
taire,  when  Admiral  Avelan  appeared  on  the  balcony  of  a 
second  story.  Words  will  not  tell  anything  here.  Dur- 
ing the  Te  Deum,  when  the  choristers  sang  in  the  church 
*  Save,  0  Lord,  thy  people,'  tliere  burst  through  the 
open  door  the  solemn  sounds  of  the  IMarseillaise, 
which  was  played  in  tlie  street  by  an  orchestra  of  wind- 
instruments.  There  was  something  astounding  and  in- 
expressible in  the  impression  conveyed"  {New  Time, 
October,  1893). 


n. 

After  arriving  in  France,  the  Russian  sailors  for  two 
weeks  went  from  one  celebration  to  another,  and  in  the 
middle  or  at  the  end  of  every  celebration  they  ate, 
drank,  and  talked ;  and  the  information  as  to  what  they 
ate  and  drank  on  Wednesday  and  where  and  what  on  Fri- 
day, and  what  was  said  upon  that  occasion,  was  wired  home 
and  conveyed  to  the  whole  of  Russia.  The  moment  some 
Russian  captain  drank  the  health  of  France,  this  at  once 
became  known  to  the  whole  world,  and  the  moment  the 
Russian  admiral  said,  "  I  drink  to  fair  France ! "  these 
words  were  immediately  borne  over  the  whole  world. 
But  more  than  that :  the  scrupulousness  of  the  news- 
papers was  such  that  they  reported  not  only  the  toasts, 
but  even  many  dinners,  with  the  cakes  and  appetizers 
which  were  used  at  these  dinners. 

Thus  it  said  in  one  issue  of  a  newspaper  that  the 
dinner  was  "  an  artistic  production  :  " 

"  Consomm^  de  volailles,  petits  pS,t6s 
Mousse  de  hoinmard  parisienne 
Noisette  de  boeuf  a  la  b(5aniaise 
Faisans  a  la  Pferigord 
Casseroles  de  truffes  av;  champagne 
Chaufroid  de  volailles  a  la  Toulouse 
Salade  russe 
Croute  de  fruits  toulonaise 
Parfait  a  Tanaiias 
Desserts  " 

In  the  next  number  it  said : 

"  In  a  culinary  sense  the  dinner  left  nothing  to   be 

desired.     The  menu  consisted  of  the  following: 

388 


CHRISTIANITY    AND    PATRIOTISM  389 

"  Potage  livonien  et  St.  Germain 

Zephyrs  Nantua 

Esturgeon  brais6  uioldave 

Selle  de  daguet  grand  veneur," 

and  so  forth. 

The  next  number  described  another  menu.  With  every 
menu  a  detailed  description  was  given  of  the  wines  which 
the  feted  men  consumed,  —  such  and  such  "  voodka " 
such  and 'such  Bourgogne  vieux,  Grand  Moet,  and  so 
f(jrth.  In  an  English  paper  there  was  an  account  of 
all  the  intoxicants  consumed  by  the  celebrators.  This 
amount  is  so  enormous  that  it  is  doubtful  if  all  the 
drunkards  of  Russia  and  of  France  could  have  drunk  so 
much  in  so  short  a  time. 

They  reported  also  the  speeches  which  were  made  by 
the  celebrators,  but  the  menus  were  more  varied  than  the 
speeches.  The  speeches  consisted  invariably  of  the  same 
words  in  all  kinds  of  combinations  and  permutations.  The 
meaning  of  these  words  was  always  one  and  the  same : 
"  We  love  one  another  tenderly,  we  are  in  transport, 
because  we  have  so  suddenly  fallen  in  love  with  one 
another.  Our  aim  is  not  war  and  not  revanche,  and  not 
the  return  of  provinces  taken,  but  only  peace,  the  benefac- 
tion of  peace,  the  security  of  peace,  the  rest  and  peace  of 
Europe.  Long  live  the  l^^mperor  of  Russia  and  the 
empress,  —  we  love  them  and  we  love  peace.  Long  live 
the  president  of  the  republic  and  his  wife,  —  we  love 
them,  too,  and  we  love  peace.  Long  live  France,  Russia, 
their  fleets,  and  their  armies.  We  love  the  army,  too,  and 
peace,  and  the  chief  of  the  squadron."  The  speeches  gen- 
erally ended,  as  in  couplets,  with  the  words,  "  Toulon, 
Kronstadt,"  or  "  Kronstadt,  Toulon."  And  the  names  of 
these  places,  where  so  much  food  was  eaten  and  so  many 
kinds  of  wine  were  consumed,  were  pronounced  like  words 
reminding  one  of  the  loftiest,  most  valorous  of  acts  of  the 
representatives  of  both  nations,  words  after  which  there 


390  CHKISTIANITY   AND    PATRIOTISM 

was  nothing  else  to  be  said,  because  everything  was  com- 
prehensible. "  We  love  one  another,  and  we  love  peace. 
Kronstadt,  Toulon  ! "  What  else  can  be  added  to  this  ? 
Especially  with  the  accompaniment  of  solemn  music, 
playing  simultaneously  two  hymns,  one  —  praising  the 
Tsar  and  asking  God  for  all  kinds  of  benefactions  for 
him,  and  the  other  —  cursing  all  kings  and  promising 
their  ruin. 

The  men  who  expressed  their  sentiments  of  love  partic- 
ularly well  received  decorations  and  rewards ;  other  men 
for  the  same  services,  or  simply  out  of  a  superabundance 
of  feehngs,  were  given  the  strangest  and  most  unexpected 
presents,  —  thus  the  Emperor  of  Russia  received  from 
the  French  squadron  some  kind  of  a  golden  book,  in 
which,  I  think,  nothing  was  written,  and  if  there  was, 
it  was  something  that  nobody  needed  to  know,  and  the 
chief  of  the  Russian  squadron  received,  among  other  pres- 
ents, a  still  more  remarkable  object,  an  aluminum  plough, 
covered  with  flowers,  and  many  other  just  as  unexpected 
presents. 

Besides,  all  these  strange  acts  were  accompanied  by 
still  stranger  religious  ceremonies  and  public  prayers, 
which,  it  would  seem,  the  French  had  long  ago  outlived. 
Since  the  days  of  the  Concordat  there  had  hardly  been 
offered  so  many  prayers  as  in  that  short  time.  All  the 
French  suddenly  became  unusually  pious,  and  carefully 
hung  up  in  the  rooms  of  the  Russian  sailors  those  very 
images  which  they  had  just  as  carefully  removed  from 
their  schools,  as  being  harmful  tools  of  superstition,  and 
they  kept  praying  all  the  time.  Cardinals  and  bishops 
everywhere  prescribed  prayers,  and  themselves  prayed,  ut- 
tering the  strangest  prayers.  Thus  the  Bishop  of  Toulon 
at  the  launching  of  the  ironclad  Joriguiheri  prayed  to  the 
God  of  peace,  making  people  feel,  however,  that,  if  it  came 
to  a  pinch,  he  could  address  also  the  God  of  war. 

"  What  her  fate  will  be,"  said  the  bishop,  in  reference  to 


CHRISTIANITY   AND    PATRIOTISM  391 

the  ironclad,  "  God  alone  knows.  No  one  knows  whether 
she  will  belch  forth  death  from  her  appalling  bosom. 
But  if,  invoking  now  the  God  of  peace,  we  should  later 
have  occasion  to  invoke  the  God  of  war,  we  are  firmly  con- 
vinced that  the  Joriguiberi  will  go  forth  side  by  side  with 
the  mighty  boats  whose  crews  have  this  day  entered  into 
such  a  close  fraternal  union  with  our  own.  Far  from  us 
be  such  a  prospect,  and  may  the  present  festivity  leave 
nothing  but  a  peaceful  recollection,  like  the  recollection 
of  the  Grand  Duke  Constantine,  which  was  present  here 
(in  1857)  at  the  launching  of  the  ship  Quirinal,  and  may 
the  friendship  of  France  and  of  Eussia  make  these  two 
nations  the  guardians  of  peace." 

In  the  meantime  tens  of  thousands  of  telegrams  flew 
from  Eussia  to  France,  and  from  France  to  Eussia. 
French  women  greeted  Eussian  women,  Eussian  women 
expressed  their  gratitude  to  the  French  women.  A  troupe 
of  Eussian  actors  greeted  some  French  actors,  and  the 
French  actors  informed  them  that  they  harboured  deeply 
in  their  hearts  the  greeting  of  the  Eussian  actors.  Some 
Eussian  candidates  for  judicial  positions,  who  served  in 
a  Circuit  Court  of  some  town  or  other,  expressed  their 
enthusiasm  for  the  French  nation.  General  So  and  So 
thanked  Madame  So  and  So,  and  Madame  So  and  So  as- 
sured General  So  and  So  of  her  sentiments  for  the  Eus- 
sian nation  ;  Eussian  children  wrote  verses  of  welcome  to 
French  children,  and  the  French  children  answered  in 
verse  and  in  prose ;  the  Eussian  minister  of  education 
assured  the  French  minister  of  education  of  the  senti- 
ments of  sudden  love  for  the  French,  which  were  experi- 
enced by  all  the  children,  scholars,  and  authors  subject  to 
his  ministry ;  members  of  a  society  for  the  protection  of 
animals  expressed  their  ardent  attachment  for  the  French, 
and  so  did  the  Council  of  the  City  of  Kazj^n. 

The  canon  of  the  eparchy  of  Arras  informed  his  Wor- 
ship, the  chief  priest  of  the  Eussian  court  clergy,  that  he 


392  CHRISTIANITY    AND    PATRIOTISM 

could  affirm  that  deep  in  the  hearts  of  all  the  French  car- 
dinals and  archbishops  there  was  imprinted  a  love  for 
Russia  and  his  Majesty  Alexander  III.  and  his  most 
august  family,  and  that  the  Eussian  and  French  clergy 
professed  almost  the  selfsame  religion  and  equally  hon- 
oured the  Virgin ;  to  which  his  Worship,  the  chief  priest, 
replied  that  the  prayers  of  the  French  clergy  for  the 
most  august  family  reechoed  joyfully  in  the  hearts  of 
the  whole  Russian  Tsar-loving  family,  and  that,  since  the 
Russian  people  also  worshipped  the  Holy  Virgin,  it  could 
count  on  France  in  life  and  in  death.  Almost  the  same 
information  was  vouchsafed  by  different  generals,  telegraph 
operators,  and  dealers  in  groceries.  Everybody  congratu- 
lated somebody  on  something  and  thanked  somebody  for 
something. 

The  excitement  was  so  great  that  the  most  unusual 
acts  were  committed,  but  no  one  observed  their  unusual 
character,  and  all,  on  the  contrary,  approved  of  them,  went 
into  ecstasies  over  them,  and,  as  though  fearing  lest  they 
should  be  too  late,  hastened  to  commit  similar  acts,  so  as 
not  to  fall  behind  the  rest.  If  protests  were  expressed  in 
words  and  in  writing  and  in  printing  against  these  mad 
acts,  pointing  out  their  irrationality,  such  protests  were 
concealed  or  squelched.^ 

iThus  I  know  of  the  following  protest  of  students,  sent  to  Paris, 
which  was  not  accepted  by  a  single  newspaper  : 

"open    letter    to    the    FRENCH    STUDENTS 

"Lately  a  group  of  Moscow  students  of  law,  with  the  university 
authorities  at  their  head,  took  it  upon  themselves  to  speak  in  behalf 
of  all  the  student  body  of  Moscow  University  in  respect  to  the  Toulon 
festivities. 

"  We,  the  representatives  of  the  association  of  student  societies, 
protest  in  the  most  emj^hatic  manner  possible  both  against  the  arro- 
gation  of  this  group  and  substantially  against  the  exchange  of  civili- 
ties between  it  and  the  French  students.  We,  too,  look  with  ardent 
love  and  profound  respect  upon  France,  and  we  do  so,  because  we 
see  in  it  a  great  nation,  which  formerly  used  to  appear  before  the 
whole  world  as  the  herald  and  proclaimer  of  great  ideals  of  liberty, 


CHRISTIANITY   AND   PATRIOTISM  393 

To  say  nothing  of  all  the  millions  of  work-days  which 
were  wasted  on  these  festivities,  of  the  wholesale  drunk- 
enness of  all  the  participants,  which  was  encouraged  by 
all  the  powers,  to  say  nothing  of  the  insipidity  of  the 
speeches  made,  the  maddest  and  most  cruel  things  were 
done,  and  no  one  paid  any  attention  to  them. 

Thus  several  dozens  of  men  were  crushed  to  death,  and 
no  one  found  it  necessary  to  mention  this  fact.  One  cor- 
respondent wrote  that  a  Frenchman  told  him  at  a  ball 
that  now  there  could  hardly  be  found  a  woman  in  Paris 

equality,  and  fraternity;  and  which  was  also  the  first  in  the  matter  of 
bold  endeavour  for  the  materialization  of  these  great  ideals,  —  and 
the  best  part  of  the  Russian  youth  has  always  been  ready  to  welcome 
France  as  the  leading  champion  for  the  best  future  of  humanity  ;  but 
we  do  not  consider  such  festivities  as  those  of  Kroustadt  and  Toulon 
a  suitable  occasion  for  such  civilities. 

"  On  the  contrary,  these  festivities  signal  a  sad  but,  let  us  hope, 
temporary  phenomenon,  —  the  disloyalty  of  France  to  its  former 
great  historic  role  :  the  country,  which  once  called  the  whole  world 
to  break  the  fetters  of  despotism  and  offered  its  fraternal  aid  to  every 
nation  that  revolted  for  the  sake  of  its  freedom,  now  burns  incense 
before  the  Russian  government,  which  systematically  trigs  the  normal, 
organic,  and  vital  growth  of  the  national  life,  and  mercilessly  crushes, 
without  stopping  at  anything,  all  the  strivings  of  Russian  society 
toward  the  light,  toward  freedom,  and  toward  independence.  The 
Toulon  manifestations  are  one  of  the  acts  of  that  drama  which  is  pre- 
sented by  the  antagonism  —  the  creation  of  Napoleon  III.  and  Bis- 
marck—  between  two  great  nations,  France  and  Germany.  This 
antagonism  keeps  all  of  Europe  under  arms,  and  makes  the  Russian 
absolutism,  whicli  has  always  been  the  stay  of  despotism  and  arbitra- 
riness against  freedom,  of  the  exploiters  against  the  exploited,  the 
executor  of  the  political  destinies  of  the  world.  A  sensation  of  an- 
guish for  our  country,  of  pity  for  the  blindness  of  a  considerable  part 
of  French  society,  such  are  the  sensations  evoked  in  us  by  these 
festivities. 

"  We  are  fully  convinced  that  the  young  generation  of  France  will 
not  be  carried  away  by  the  national  Chauvinism,  and  that,  prepared 
to  struggle  for  that  better  social  structure  toward  which  humanity  is 
marching,  it  will  know  how  to  render  to  itself  an  account  of  the 
present  events  and  to  take  the  proper  stand  about  them  ;  we  hope 
that  our  fervent  protest  will  find  a  sympathetic  echo  in  the  hearts  of 
the  French  youth. 

"  The  union  council  of  twenty -four  united  Moscow  student  socie- 
ties." -^Author's  Note. 


394  CHRISTIANITY    AND    PATRIOTISM 

who  would  not  be  false  to  her  duties,  in  order  to  satisfy 
the  wishes  of  some  Eussian  sailor  —  and  all  this  passed 
by  unnoticed,  as  something  that  ought  to  be.  There  oc- 
curred cases  of  distinct  madness.  Thus  one  woman, 
dressing  herself  in  a  garment  of  the  colours  of  the  Franco- 
Kussian  flags,  waited  for  the  sailors  and,  exclaiming, 
"  Vive  la  Bussie  !  "  jumped  from  the  bridge  into  the  river 
and  was  drowned. 

Women  in  general  played  in  these  festivities  a  promi- 
nent part  and  even  guided  the  men.  Besides  throwing 
flowers  and  all  kinds  of  ribbons,  and  offering  presents  and 
addresses,  French  women  made  for  the  Eussian  sailors 
and  kissed  them  ;  some  of  them  for  some  reason  brought 
their  children  to  them,  to  be  kissed  by  them,  and  when 
the  Eussian  sailors  complied  with  their  wish,  all  persons 
present  went  into  ecstasies  and  wept. 

This  strange  excitement  was  so  infectious  that,  as  one 
correspondent  tells,  an  apparently  absolutely  sound  Eus- 
sian sailor,  after  two  days  of  contemplation  of  what  took 
place  around  him,  in  the  middle  of  the  day  jumped  from 
the  ship  into  the  sea  and,  swimming,  shouted,  "  Vive  la 
France  ! "  When  he  was  taken  aboard  and  asked  why 
he  had  done  so,  he  replied  that  he  had  made  a  vow  that 
in  honour  of  France  he  would  swim  around  the  ship. 

Thus  the  undisturbed  excitement  grew  and  grew,  like  a 
ball  of  rolling  wet  snow,  and  finally  reached  such  dimen- 
sions that  not  only  the  persons  present,  not  only  predis- 
posed, weak-nerved,  but  even  strong,  normal  men  fell  a 
prey  to  the  general  mood  and  became  abnormally  affected. 

I  remember  how  I,  absent-mindedly  reading  one  of 
these  descriptions  of  the  solemnity  of  the  reception  of  the 
sailors,  suddenly  felt  a  feeling,  akin  to  meekness  of  spirit, 
even  a  readiness  for  tears,  communicated  to  me,  so  that  I 
had  to  make  an  effort  to  overcome  this  feeling. 


m. 

Lately  Sikdrski,  a  professor  of  psychiatry,  described  in 
the  Kiev  University  Record  the  psychopathic  epidemic,  as 
he  calls  it,  of  the  Mal^vannians,  as  manifested  in  a  few 
villages  of  Vasilkov  County  of  the  Government  of  Kiev, 
The  essence  of  this  epidemic,  as  Mr.  Sikdrski,  the  investi- 
gator of  it,  says,  consisted  in  this,  that  certain  persons  of 
these  villages,  under  the  influence  of  their  leader,  by  the 
name  of  Maldvanny,  came  to  imagine  that  the  end  of 
the  world  was  at  hand,  and  so,  changing  their  whole 
mode  of  life,  began  to  distribute  their  property,  to  dress 
up,  and  to  eat  savoury  food,  and  stopped  working.  The 
professor  found  the  condition  of  these  men  to  be  abnormal. 
He  says :  "  Their  unusual  good  nature  frequently  passed 
into  exaltation,  a  joyous  condition,  which  was  devoid  of 
external  motives.  They  were  sentimentally  disposed : 
excessively  polite,  talkative,  mobile,  with  tears  of  joy 
appearing  easily  and  just  as  easily  disappearing.  They 
sold  their  necessaries,  in  order  to  provide  themselves  with 
umbrellas,  silk  kerchiefs,  and  similar  objects,  and  at  that 
the  kerchiefs  served  them  only  as  ornaments  for  their 
toilet.  They  ate  many  sweet  things.  They  were  always 
in  a  cheerful  mood,  and  they  led  an  idle  life,  —  visited 
one  another,  walked  together.  .  .  .  When  the  obviously 
absurd  character  of  their  refusal  to  work  was  pointed  out 
to  them,  one  every  time  heard  in  reply  the  stereotyped 
phrase,  '  If  I  want  to,  I  shall  work,  and  if  I  do  not  want 
to,  why  should  I  compel  myself  ? ' " 

The  learned  professor  considers  the  condition  of  these 
men  a  pronounced  case  of  a  psychopathic  epidemic,  and, 

395 


396  CHRISTIANITY    AND    PATRIOTISM 

advising  the  government  to  take  certain  measures  against 
its  spread,  ends  his  communication  with  the  words :  "  Male- 
vannism  is  the  wail  of  a  morbidly  sick  population  and  a 
supplication  to  be  freed  from  liquor  and  to  have  education 
and  sanitary  conditions  improved." 

But  if  Malevannism  is  the  wail  of  a  morbidly  sick  pop- 
ulation and  a  supplication  to  be  freed  from  liquor  and  from 
harmful  social  conditions,  then  this  new  disease,  which 
has  appeared  in  Paris  and  has  with  alarming  rapidity 
embraced  a  great  part  of  the  city  population  of  France 
and  almost  the  whole  of  governmental  and  cultured  Eus- 
sia,  is  just  such  an  alarming  wail  of  a  morbid  population 
and  just  such  a  supplication  to  be  freed  from  liquor  and 
from  false  social  conditions. 

And  if  we  must  admit  that  the  psychopathic  suffering 
of  Malevannism  is  dangerous,  and  that  the  government 
has  done  well  to  follow  the  professor's  advice  and  remove 
the  leaders  of  MaMvannism  by  confining  some  of  them  in 
lunatic  asylums  and  monasteries  and  by  deporting  others 
to  distant  places,  how  much  more  dangerous  must  be  con- 
sidered to  be  this  new  epidemic,  which  appeared  in  Toulon 
and  Paris  and  from  there  spread  over  the  whole  of  France 
and  of  Eussia,  and  how  much  more  necessary  it  is,  if  not 
for  the  government,  at  least  for  society,  to  take  decisive 
measures  against  the  spread  of  such  epidemics  ! 

The  resemblance  between  the  diseases  is  complete. 
There  is  the  same  good  nature,  passing  into  causeless  and 
joyful  exaltation,  the  same  sentimentality,  excessive  po- 
hteness,  talkativeness,  the  same  constant  tears  of  meek- 
ness of  spirit,  which  come  and  go  without  cause,  the  same 
festive  mood,  the  same  walking  for  pleasure  and  visiting 
one  another,  the  same  dressing  up  in  the  best  clothes,  the 
same  proneness  for  sweet  food,  the  same  senseless  talks, 
the  same  idleness,  the  same  singing  and  music,  the  same 
leadership  of  the  women,  and  the  same  clownish  phase  of 
attitudes  passionelles,  which  Mr.  Sikorski  has  noticed  in 


CHRISTIANITY    AND    PATRIOTISM  397 

the  case  of  the  Mal^vannians  ;  that  is,  as  I  understand  this 
word,  those  different,  unnatural  poses,  which  men  assume 
during  solemn  meetings,  receptions,  and  after-dinner 
speeches. 

The  resemblance  is  complete.  The  only  difference  is 
this,  —  and  the  difference  is  very  great  for  the  society  in 
which  these  phenomena  are  taking  place,  —  that  there 
it  is  the  aberration  of  a  few  dozen  peaceful,  poor  village 
people,  who  live  on  their  small  means  and,  therefore,  can- 
not exert  any  violence  on  their  neighl)0urs,  and  who  infect 
others  only  by  the  personal  and  oral  transmission  of  their 
mood,  while  here  it  is  the  aberration  of  millions  of  people, 
who  possess  enormous  sums  of  money  and  means  for 
exerting  violence  against  other  people,  —  guns,  bayonets, 
fortresses,  ironclads,  melinite,  dynamite,  and  who,  besides, 
have  at  their  command  the  most  energetic  means  for  the 
dissemination  of  their  madness,  the  post,  the  telegraph, 
an  enormous  number  of  newspapers,  and  all  kinds  of  pub- 
lications, which  are  printed  without  cessation  and  carry 
the  infection  to  all  the  corners  of  the  globe.  There  is 
also  this  difference,  that  the  first  not  only  do  not  get 
themselves  drunk,  but  even  do  not  use  any  intoxicating 
liquor,  while  the  second  are  constantly  in  a  state  of  semi- 
intoxication,  which  they  never  stop  maintaining  in  them- 
selves. And  so  for  a  society  in  which  these  phenomena 
are  taking  place,  there  is  the  same  difference  between  the 
Kiev  epidemic,  during  which,  according  to  Mr.  Sikorski's 
information,  it  does  not  appear  that  they  commit  any 
violence  or  murders,  and  the  one  which  made  its  appear- 
ance in  Paris,  where  in  one  procession  twenty  women 
were  crushed  to  death,  as  there  is  between  a  piece  of  coal, 
which  has  leaped  out  of  the  stove  and  is  glowing  on  the 
Huor  without  igniting  it,  and  a  fire  which  is  already  en- 
veloping the  door  and  walls  of  the  house.  In  the  worst 
case  the  consequences  of  the  Kiev  epidemic  will  consist  in 
this,  that  the  peasants  of  one  millionth  part  of  Russia  will 


398  CHRISTIANITY    AND    PATRIOTISM 

spend  what  they  have  earned  by  hard  labour,  and  will  be 
unable  to  pay  the  Crown  taxes ;  but  the  consequences 
from  the  Toulon-Paris  epidemic,  which  is  embracing  men 
who  are  in  possession  of  a  terrible  power,  of  vast  sums  of 
money,  and  of  implements  of  violence  and  of  the  dissemi- 
nation of  their  madness,  can  and  must  be  terrible. 


I 


■ 
I 


IV. 

We  can  with  pity  listen  to  the  delirium  of  a  feeble, 
defenceless,  crazy  old  man,  in  his  cap  and  cloak,  and  even 
not  contradict  him,  and  even  jestingly  agree  with  him ; 
but  when  it  is  a  whole  crowd  of  sound  insane  people,  who 
have  broken  away  from  their  confinement,  and  these  people 
bristle  from  head  to  foot  with  sharp  daggers,  swords,  aud 
loaded  revolvers,  and  madly  flourish  these  death-dealing 
weapons,  we  can  no  longer  agree  with  them,  and  we  can- 
not be  at  rest  even  for  a  minute.  The  same  is  true  of 
that  condition  of  excitement,  provoked  by  the  French 
celebrations,  in  which  Russian  and  French  society  finds 
itself  at  the  present  time. 

It  is  true,  in  all  the  speeches,  in  all  the  toasts,  pro- 
nounced at  these  celebrations,  in  all  the  articles  concern- 
ing these  celebrations,  they  never  stopped  talking  of  the 
importance  of  everything  which  was  taking  place  for 
the  guarantee  of  peace.  Even  the  advocates  of  war  did 
not  speak  of  hatred  of  those  who  snatch  away  provinces, 
but  of  some  kind  of  a  love  which  somehow  hates. 

But  we  know  of  the  slyness  of  all  men  who  are  men- 
tally diseased,  and  it  is  this  most  persistent  repetition  of 
our  not  wanting  war,  but  peace,  and  the  reticence  regard- 
ing that  of  which  all  think,  that  form  a  most  menacing 
phenomenon. 

In  answering  a  toast  at  a  dinner  given  in  the  Palace  of 
the  Elys^es,  the  Eussian  ambassador  said :  "  Before  drink- 
ing a  toast  to  which  will  respond  from  the  depth  of  their 
hearts,  not  only  those  who  are  within  these  walls,  but 
even  ttiose  —  and,  that,  too,  with  equal  force  —  whose 
hearts  near  by  and  far  away,  at  aU  the  points  of  great,  fair 

399 


400  CHKISTIANITY    AND    PATKIOTISM 

France,  as  also  in  all  of  Eussia,  at  the  present  moment 
are  beating  in  unison  with  ours,  —  permit  me  to  offer  to 
you  the  expression  of  our  profoundest  gratitude  for  the 
words  of  welcome  which  were  addressed  by  you  to  our 
admiral,  whom  our  Tsar  has  charged  with  the  mission  of 
paying  back  your  visit  at  Kronstadt.  Considering  the  high 
importance  which  you  enjoy,  your  words  characterize  the 
true  significance  of  the  magnificent  peaceful  festivities, 
which  are  celebrated  with  such  wonderful  unanimity, 
loyalty,  and  sincerity." 

The  same  unjustifiable  mention  of  peace  is  found  in 
the  speech  of  the  French  president :  "  The  ties  of  love, 
which  unite  Russia  and  France,"  he  said,  "  and  which  two 
years  ago  were  strengthened  by  touching  manifestations, 
of  which  our  fleet  was  the  object  at  Kronstadt,  become 
tighter  and  tighter  with  every  day,  and  the  honourable 
exchange  of  our  amicable  sentiments  must  inspire  all  those 
who  take  to  heart  the  benefactions  of  peace,  confidence, 
and  security,"  and  so  forth. 

Both  speeches  quite  unexpectedly  and  without  any 
cause  refer  to  the  benefactions  of  peace  and  to  peaceful 
celebrations. 

The  same  occurs  in  the  telegrams  which  were  ex- 
changed between  the  Emperor  of  Eussia  and  the  Presi- 
dent of  France.     The  Emperor  of  Eussia  telegraphed : 

"  Au  mome7it  ou  Vescadre  russe  quitte  la  France,  il  me 
tient  a  cceur  de  vous  expriincr  comhien  je  suis  louche  et 
reconnaissant  de  Vaccueil  chaleureux  et  splendide,  que  7nes 
marins  ont  trouve  partout  sur  le  sol  frangais.  Les 
temoignages  de  vive  sympatliie  qui  se  sont  manifestes  encore 
une  fois  avec  tant  d' eloquence,  joindront  un  nouveau  lien  ii 
ceux  qui  unissent  les  deux  pays  et  contrihueront,  je  I'cspere, 
h  I' affermissement  de  la  paix  generate,  ohjet  de  leurs  efforts 
et  de  leurs  vceux  les  plus  constants,"  etc. 

The  President  of  France  in  his  reply  telegraphed  as 
follows : 


CHRISTIANITY    AND    i'd^TRIOTISM  401 

"  La  depeche  dont  je  remercie  voire  Majeste  iii'est  par- 
venue  au  moment  oit  je  quittais  Toulon  pour  rcntrer  d, 
Paris.  La  hellc  escadre  sur  laquelle  fai  eu  la  vive  satis- 
faction de  saluer  le  pavilion  russe  dans  les  eaux  fran- 
^aises,  I'accueil  cordial  et  spontane  que  vos  braves  marins 
out  rencontre  partoiit  en  France  ajjirment  une  fois  de  plus 
avec  eclat  les  sympathies  sinceres  qui  unissent  nos  deux 
pays.  lis  marquent  en  mhne  temps  une  foi  profonde  dans 
I'injluence  bicnfaisante  que  peuvent  exercer  ensemble  deux 
grandcs  nations  devouees  h  la  cause  de  la  paioz^ 

Again  there  is  in  both  telegrams  a  gratuitous  mention 
of  peace,  which  has  nothing  in  common  with  the  celebra- 
tions of  the  sailors. 

There  is  not  one  speech,  not  one  article,  in  which  men- 
tion is  not  made  of  this,  that  the  aim  of  all  these  past 
orgies  is  the  peace  of  Europe.  At  a  dinner,  which  is 
given  by  the  representatives  of  the  Eussian  press,  every- 
body speaks  of  peace.  Mr.  Zola,  who  lately  wrote  about 
the  necessity  and  even  usefulness  of  war,  and  Mr.  Voglit^, 
who  more  than  once  expressed  the  same  idea,  do  not  say 
one  word  about  war,  but  speak  only  of  peace.  The  meet- 
ings of  the  Chambers  are  opened  with  speeches  respecting 
the  past  celebrations,  and  the  orators  affirm  that  these  fes- 
tivities are  the  declaration  of  the  peace  of  Europe. 

It  is  as  though  a  man,  coming  into  some  peaceful 
society,  should  go  out  of  his  way  on  every  occasion  to 
assure  the  persons  present  that  he  has  not  the  slightest 
intention  of  knocking  out  anybody's  teeth,  smashing  eyes, 
or  breaking  arms,  but  means  only  to  pass  a  peaceable 
evening.  "  But  nobody  has  any  doubts  about  that,"  one 
feels  like  saying  to  him.  "  But  if  you  have  such  base 
intentions,  at  least  do  not  dare  speak  of  them  to  us." 

In  many  articles,  which  were  written  about  these  cele- 
brations, there  is  even  a  direct  and  naive  expression  of 
pleasure,  because  during  the  festivities  no  one  gave 
utterance  to  what  by  tacit  consent  it  had  been  decided  to 


402  CHRISTIANITY   AND    PATRIOTISM 

conceal  from  everybody,  and  what  only  one  incautious 
man,  who  was  immediately  removed  by  the  police,  dared 
to  shout,  giving  expression  to  the  secret  thought  of  all, 
namely,  "  A  has  rAllemagne  !  "  Thus  children  are  fre- 
quently so  happy  at  having  concealed  their  naughtiness, 
that  their  very  joy  gives  them  away. 

Why  should  we  so  rejoice  at  the  fact  that  no  mention 
was  made  of  war,  if  we  indeed  are  not  thinking  of  it  ? 


V. 

No  one  is  thinking  of  war,  but  yet  milliards  are  wasted 
on  military  preparations,  and,  millions  of  men  are  under 
arms  in  Eussia  and  in  France. 

"  But  all  this  is  being  done  for  the  security  of  peace. 
Si  vis  pacem,  2Jctra  helium.  L'empire  c'est  la  paix,  la  re- 
puhlique  c'est  la  paix." 

But  if  it  is  so,  why  are  the  military  advantages  of  our 
alliance  with  France  in  case  of  a  war  with  Germany 
explained,  not  only  in  all  the  periodicals  and  newspapers 
pul)hshed  for  the  so-called  cultured  people,  but  also  in  the 
Rural  Messenger,  a  newspaper  published  by  the  Russian 
government  for  the  masses,  by  means  of  which  these 
unfortunate  masses,  deceived  by  the  government,  are  im- 
pressed with  this,  that  "  to  be  friendly  with  France  is  also 
useful  and  profitable,  because,  if,  beyond  all  expectation, 
the  a})ove-mentioned  powers  (Germany,  Austria,  Italy) 
should  decide  to  violate  the  peace  with  Russia,  Russia, 
though  able  with  God's  aid  to  protect  itself  and  handle  a 
very  powerful  alliance  of  adversaries,  would  not  find  this 
to  be  an  easy  task,  and  for  a  successful  struggle  great 
sacrifices  and  losses  would  be  needed,"  and  so  forth 
{Rural  Messenger,  No.  43,  1893). 

And  why  do  they  in  all  the  French  colleges  teach 
history  from  a  text-l)ook  composed  by  Mr.  Lavisse, 
twenty-first  edition,  1889,  in  which  the  following  passage 
is  found  : 

"  Depuis  que  V insurrection  de  la  Commune  a  M  vaincue, 
la  France  n'a  plus  etc  trouhUe.  Au  hndcmain  de  la  gverre, 
elk  s'est  remise  au  travail.     JElle  a  paijS  aux  Allemands 

403 


404  CHRISTIANITY   AND    PATRIOTISM 

sans  difficulte  I'enorme  contribution  de  guerre  de  cinq 
milliards.     Mais  la  France  a  perdu  sa  renommee  militaire 

'pendant  la  guerre  de  1870.  Elle  a  perdu,  une  partie  de 
son  territoire.  Plus  de  qicinze  cents  mille  hommes,  qui 
hahitaient  nos  departements  du  Haut  Rhin,  du  Bas  Rhin 
et  de  la  Moselle,  et  quietaient  de  Ions  Frangais,  out  ete  obli- 
ges de  devenir  Allemands.  lis  ne  sont  pas  resignes  ^  leitr 
sort.  lis  detestent  VAllemagne ;  Us  espercnt  toujour s 
redevenir  Franfciis.  Mais  I'Allemagne  tient  it  sa  conquete, 
et  c'est  un  grand  pays,  dont  tous  les  habitants  aiment  sin- 
cerement  leur  patrie  et  dont  les  soldats  sont  braves  et 
disciplines.    Pour  reprendre  h  I'Allemagne  ce  quelle  nous  a 

pris,  il  faut  que  nous  soyons  de  bons  citoyens  et  de  bons 
soldats.  C'est  pour  que  vous  deveniez  de  bons  soldats,  que 
vos  maitres  vous  apprennent  I'histoire  de  la  France.  Z'his- 
toire  de  la  France  monti^e  que  dans  notre  pays  les  fits  ont 
toujours  venge  les  desastres  de  leurs  peres.  Les  Frangais 
du  temps  de  Charles  VII.  ont  venge  leiirs  percs  vaincus  a 
Crecy,  a  Poitiers,  d,  Azincourt.  C'est  a  vous,  enfants 
eleves  aujourd'hid  dans  nos  ecoles,  qu'il  appartient  de 
venger  vos  peres,  vaincus  a  Sedan  et  h  Metz.  C'est  votre 
devoir,  le  grand  devoir  de  votre  vie.  Vous  devez  y  penser 
toujours,"  etc. 

At  the  foot  of  the  page  there  is  a  whole  series  of  ques- 
tions, to  correspond  to  the  articles.  The  questions  are  as 
follows :  "  What  did  France  lose  when  she  lost  part  of 
her  territory  ?  How  many  Frenchmen  became  German 
with  the  loss  of  this  territory  ?  Do  the  French  love 
Germany  ?  What  must  we  do,  in  order  to  regain  what 
was  taken  away  from  us  by  Germany  ?  "  In  addition  to 
these  there  are  also  "  Reflexions  sur  le  Livre  VII.,"  in 
which  it  says  that "  the  children  of  France  must  remem- 
ber our  defeats  of  1870,"  that  "  they  must  feel  on  their 
hearts  the  burden  of  this  memory,"  but  that  "  this  memory 
must  not  discourage  them :  it  should,  on  the  contrary, 
incite  them  to  bravery." 


CHRISTIANITY    AND    PATRIOTISM  405 

Thus,  if  in  official  speeches  peace  is  mentioned  with 
great  persistency,  the  masses,  the  younger  generations, 
yes,  all  the  Paissiaus  and  Frenchmen  in  general,  are  im- 
perturbably  impressed  with  the  necessity,  legahty,  profit- 
ableness, and  even  virtue  of  war. 

"  We  are  not  thinking  of  war,  —  we  are  concerned  only 
about  peace." 

One  feels  like  asking  "  Qid,  diahle,  trompe-t-on  ici  ? " 
if  it  were  necessary  to  ask  this,  and  if  it  were  not  quite 
clear  who  the  unfortunate  cheated  are. 

The  cheated  are  the  same  eternally  deceived,  stupid, 
labouring  masses,  the  same  who  with  their  callous  hands 
have  built  all  tliesci  ships,  and  fortresses,  and  arsenals, 
and  barracks,  and  guns,  and  steamboats,  and  quays,  and 
moles,  and  all  these  palaces,  halls,  and  platforms,  and  tri- 
umphal arches ;  and  have  set  and  printed  all  these  news- 
papers and  books  ;  and  have  secured  and  broiiglit  all  those 
pheasants,  and  ortolans,  and  oysters,  and  wines,  which  are 
consumed  by  all  those  men,  whom  they,  again,  have 
nurtured  and  brought  up  and  sustained,  —  men  who, 
deceiving  the  masses,  prepare  the  most  terrible  calamities 
for  them  ;  the  same  good-natured,  stupid  masses,  who, 
displaying  their  sound,  white  teeth,  have  grinned  in 
childish  fashion,  naively  enjoying  the  sight  of  all  the 
dressed-up  admirals  and  presidents,  of  the  flags  fluttering 
above  them,  the  fireworks,  the  thundering  music,  and  who 
will  hardly  have  time  to  look  around,  when  there  shall 
be  no  longer  any  admirals,  nor  presidents,  nor  flags,  nor 
music,  but  there  will  be  only  a  wet,  waste  field,  hunger, 
cold,  gloom,  in  front  the  slaying  enemy,  beliind  the 
goading  authorities,  blood,  wounds,  sufferings,  rotting 
corpses,  and  a  senseless,  useless  death. 

And  the  men  like  those  who  now  are  celebrating  at  the 
festivities  in  Toulon  and  Paris,  will  be  sitting,  after  a  good 
dinner,  with  unfinished  glasses  of  good  wine,  with  a  cigar 
between  their  teeth,  in  a  dark  cloth  tent,  and  will  with 


406  CHRISTIANITY    AND    PATRIOTISM 

pins  mark  down  the  places  on  the  map  where  so  much 
food  for  cannon,  composed  of  the  masses,  should  be  left, 
in  order  to  seize  such  and  such  a  fortress,  and  in  order  to 
obtain  such  or  such  a  ribbon  or  promotion. 


VI. 

"  But  there  is  nothing  of  the  kind,  and  there  are  no 
warlike  intentions,"  we  are  told.  "  All  there  is,  is  that 
two  nations  feeling  a  mutual  sympathy  are  expressing 
this  sentiment  to  one  another.  What  harm  is  there  in 
this,  that  the  representatives  of  a  friendly  nation  were 
received  with  especial  solemnity  and  honour  by  the  repre- 
sentatives of  the  other  nation  ?  What  harm  is  there  in 
it,  even  if  it  be  admitted  that  the  alliance  may  have  the 
significance  of  a  protection  against  a' dangerous  neighbour, 
threatening  the  peace  of  Europe  ? " 

The  harm  is  this,  that  all  this  is  a  most  palpable  and 
bold  lie,  an  unjustifiable,  bad  lie.  The  sudden  outburst  of 
an  exclusive  love  of  the  liussians  for  the  French,  and 
of  the  French  for  the  Kussians,  is  a  lie  ;  and  our  hatred  for 
the  Germans,  our  distrust  of  them,  which  is  understood 
by  it,  is  also  a  lie.  And  the  statement  that  the  aim  of  all 
these  indecent  and  mad  orgies  is  the  guarantee  of  European 
peace,  is  a  still  greater  lie. 

We  all  know  that  we  have  experienced  no  particular 
love  for  the  French,  neither  before,  nor  even  now,  even  as 
we  have  not  experienced  any  hostile  feeling  toward  the 
Germans. 

We  are  told  that  Germany  has  some  intentions  against 
Eussia,  that  the  Triple  Alliance  threatens  the  peace  of 
Europe  and  us,  and  that  our  alliance  with  France  bal- 
ances the  forces,  and  so  guarantees  the  peace.  But  this 
assertion  is  so  obviously  absurd,  that  it  makes  one  feel 
ashamed  to  give  it  a  serious  denial.  For  this  to  be  so, 
that  is,  for  the  alliance  to  guarantee  peace,  it  is  necessary 

407 


408  CHRISTIANITY   AND    PATRIOTISM 

that  the  forces  be  mathematically  even.  If  now  the  ex- 
cess is  on  the  side  of  the  Franco-Eussian  alliance,  the 
danger  is  still  the  same.  It  is  even  greater,  because,  if 
there  was  a  danger  that  William,  who  stood  at  the  head 
of  the  European  alliance,  would  violate  the  peace,  there  is 
a  much  greater  danger  that  France,  which  cannot  get  used 
to  the  loss  of  her  provinces,  will  do  so.  The  Triple  Alli- 
ance was  called  a  league  of  peace,  but  for  us  it  was  a 
league  of  war.  Even  so  now  the  Franco-Eussian  alliance 
cannot  present  itself  as  anything  else  than  what  it  is, — 
a  league  of  war. 

And  then,  if  peace  depends  on  the  balance  of  the  powers, 
how  are  the  units  to  be  determined,  between  whom  the 
balance  is  to  be  estabhshed  ?  Now  the  Enghsh  say  that 
the  alliance  between  Eussia  and  France  menaces  them, 
and  that  they  must,  therefore,  form  another  alliance.  And 
into  how  many  units  of  alliances  must  Europe  be  divided, 
in  order  that  there  be  a  balance  ?  If  so,  then  every  man 
stronger  than  another  in  society  is  already  a  danger,  and 
the  others  must  form  into  alliances,  to  withstand  him. 

They  ask,  "  What  harm  is  there  in  this,  that  France  and 
Eussia  have  expressed  their  mutual  sympathies  for  the 
guarantee  of  peace  ? "  What  is  bad  is,  that  it  is  a  lie,  and 
a  lie  is  never  spoken  with  impunity,  and  does  not  pass 
unpunished. 

The  devil  is  a  slayer  of  men  and  the  father  of  lies.  And 
the  lies  always  lead  to  the  slaying  of  men,  —  in  this  case 
more  obviously  than  ever. 

In  just  the  same  manner  as  now,  the  Turkish  war  was 
preceded  by  a  sudden  outburst  of  love  of  our  Eussians 
for  their  brothers,  the  Slavs,  whom  no  one  had  known  for 
hundreds  of  years,  while  the  Germans,  the  French,  the 
English  have  always  been  incomparably  nearer  and  more 
closely  related  to  us  than  Montenegrins,  Servians,  or  Bul- 
garians. And  there  began  transports,  receptions,  and  fes- 
tivities, which  were  fanned  by  such  men  as  Aksdkov  and 


CHRISTIANITY    AND    PATRIOTISM  409 

Katkov,  who  are  mentioned  now  in  Paris  as  models  of 
patriotism.  Then,  as  now,  they  spoke  of  nothing  but  the 
mutual  sudden  outburst  of  love  between  the  Eussians  and 
the  Slavs.  In  the  beginning  they  ate  and  drank  in  Moscow, 
even  as  now  in  Paris,  and  talked  nonsense  to  one  another, 
becoming  affected  by  their  own  exalted  sentiments,  spoke 
of  union  and  peace,  and  did  not  say  anything  about  the 
chief  thing,  the  intentions  against  Turkey.  The  news- 
papers fanned  the  excitement,  and  the  government  by 
degrees  entered  into  the  game.  Servia  revolted.  There 
began  an  exchange  of  diplomatic  notes  and  the  publica- 
tion of  semiofficial  articles ;  the  newspapers  lied  more  and 
more,  invented  and  waxed  wroth,  and  the  end  of  it  all 
was  that  Alexander  II.,  who  really  did  not  want  any  war, 
could  not  help  but  agree  to  it,  and  we  all  know  what 
happened :  the  destruction  of  hundreds  of  thousands  of  in- 
nocent people  and  the  bestialization  and  dulling  of  millions. 

What  was  done  in  Toulon  and  in  Paris,  and  now  con- 
tinues to  be  done  in  the  newspapers,  obviously  leads  to 
the  same,  or  to  a  still  more  terrible  calamity.  Just  so  all 
kinds  of  generals  and  ministers  will  at  first,  to  the  sounds 
of  "  God  save  the  Tsar  "  and  the  Marseillaise  drink  the 
health  of  France,  of  Pussia,  of  the  various  regiments  of 
the  army  and  the  navy ;  the  newspapers  will  print  their 
lies ;  the  idle  crowd  of  the  rich,  who  do  not  know  what  to 
do  witli  their  powers  and  with  their  time,  will  babble 
patriotic  speeches,  fanning  hatred  against  Germany,  and 
no  matter  how  peaceful  Alexander  III.  may  be,  the  con- 
ditions will  be  such  that  he  will  be  unable  to  decline  a 
war  which  will  be  demanded  by  all  those  who  surround 
liim,  l)y  all  the  newspapers,  and,  as  always  seems,  by  the 
])ublic  opinion  of  the  whole  nation.  And  before  we  shall 
have  had  time  to  look  around,  there  will  appear  in  the 
columns  of  the  newspapers  the  usual,  ominous,  stupid 
proclamation : 

"  By  God's  grace,  we,  the  most  autocratic  great  Emperor 


410  CHRISTIANITY   AND    PATRIOTISM 

of  all  Russia,  the  King  of  Poland,  the  Grand  Duke  of  Fin- 
land, etc.,  etc.,  inform  all  our  faithful  subjects  that  for  the 
good  of  these  dear  subjects,  entrusted  to  us  by  Gpd,  we 
have  considered  it  our  duty  before  God  to  send  them  out 
to  slaughter.     God  be  with  them,"  and  so  forth. 

The  bells  will  be  rung,  and  long-haired  men  will  throw 
gold-embroidered  bags  over  themselves  and  will  begin  to 
pray  for  the  slaughter.  And  there  will  begin  again  the 
old,  well-known,  terrible  deed.  The  newspaper  writers, 
who  under  the  guise  of  patriotism  stir  people  up  to  hatred 
and  murder,  will  be  about,  in  the  hope  of  double  earnings. 
Manufacturers,  merchants,  purveyors  of  military  supplies, 
will  bestir  themselves  joyfully,  expecting  double  profits. 
All  kinds  of  officials  will  bestir  themselves,  foreseeing  a 
chance  to  steal  more  than  they  usually  do.  The  military 
authorities  will  bestir  themselves,  for  they  will  receive 
double  salaries  and  rations,  and  will  hope  to  get  for  the 
killing  of  people  all  kinds  of  trifles,  which  they  value  very 
much,  —  ribbons,  crosses,  galloons,  stars.  Idle  gentlemen 
and  ladies  will  bestir  themselves,  inscribing  themselves 
in  advance  in  the  Red  Cross,  preparing  themselves  to  dress 
the  wounds  of  those  whom  their  own  husbands  and  brothers 
will  kill,  and  imagining  that  they  are  thus  doing  a  most 
Christian  work. 

And,  drowning  in  their  hearts  their  despair  by  means 
of  songs,  debauches,  and  vodka,  hundreds  of  thousands  of 
simple,  good  people,  torn  away  from  peaceful  labour,  from 
their  wives,  mothers,  children,  will  march,  with  weapons 
of  murder  in  their  hands,  whither  they  will  be  driven. 
They  will  go  to  freeze,  to  starve,  to  be  sick,  to  die  from 
diseases,  and  finally  they  will  arrive  at  the  place  where 
they  will  be  killed  l)y  the  thousand,  and  they  will  kill 
by  the  thousand,  themselves  not  knowing  why,  men  whom 
they  have  never  seen  and  who  have  done  them  and  can 
do  them  no  harm. 

And    when    there    shall   be    collected    so    many    sick, 


CHRISTIANITY   AND   PATRIOTISM  411 

wounded,  and  killed  that  nobody  will  have  the  time  to 
pick  them  up,  and  when  the  air  shall  already  be  so  in- 
fected by  this  rotting  food  for  cannon  that  even  the 
authorities  will  feel  uncomfortable,  then  they  will  stop  for 
awhile,  will  somehow  manage  to  pick  up  the  wounded, 
will  haul  off  and  somewhere  throw  into  a  pile  the  sick, 
and  will  bury  the  dead,  covering  them  with  lime,  and 
again  they  will  lead  on  the  whole  crowd  of  the  deceived, 
and  will  continue  to  lead  them  on  in  this  manner  until 
those  who  have  started  the  whole  thing  will  get  tired  of 
it,  or  until  those  who  needed  it  will  get  what  they  needed. 
And  again  will  men  become  infuriated,  brutalized,  and 
bestiahzed,  and  love  will  be  diminished  in  the  world,  and 
the  incipient  Christianization  of  humanity  will  be  delayed 
for  decades  and  for  centuries.  And  again  will  the  people, 
who  gain  thereby,  begin  to  say  with  assurance  that,  if 
there  is  a  war,  this  means  that  it  is  necessary,  and  again 
they  will  begin  to  prepare  for  it  the  future  generations,  by 
corrupting  them  from  childhood. 


VII. 

And  so,  when  there  appear  such  patriotic  manifestations 
as  were  the  Toulon  celebrations,  which,  though  still  at  a 
distance,  in  advance  bind  the  wills  of  men  and  obhge 
them  to  commit  those  customary  malefactions  which  al- 
ways result  from  patriotism,  every  one  who  understands 
the  significance  of  these  celebrations  cannot  help  but  pro- 
test against  everything  which  is  tacitly  included  in  them. 
And  so,  when  the  journalists  say  in  print  that  all  the 
Russians  sympathize  with  what  took  place  at  Kronstadt, 
Toulon,  and  Paris ;  that  this  alliance  for  life  and  death  is 
confirmed  by  the  will  of  the  whole  nation ;  and  when  the 
Russian  minister  of  education  assures  the  French  minis- 
ters that  his  whole  company,  the  Russian  cbildren,  the 
learned,  and  the  authors,  share  his  sentiments ;  or  when 
the  commander  of  the  Russian  squadron  assures  the 
French  that  the  whole  of  Russia  will  be  grateful  to  them 
for  their  reception ;  and  when  the  chief  priests  speak  for 
their  flocks  and  assure  the  French  that  their  prayers  for 
the  life  of  the  most  august  house  have  reechoed  joyfully 
in  the  hearts  of  the  Russian  Tsar-loving  nation  ;  and  when 
the  Russian  ambassador  in  Paris,  who  is  considered  to  be 
the  representative  of  the  Russian  nation,  says  after  a  din- 
ner of  ortolans  h  la  souhisc  et  logojpecles  glacis,  with  a  glass 
of  champagne  Grand  Moet  in  his  hand,  that  all  Russian 
hearts  are  beating  in  unison  with  his  heart,  which  is  filled 
with  a  sudden  outburst  of  exclusive  love  for  fair  France 
{la  belle  France),  —  we,  the  people  who  are  free  from  the 
stultification,  consider  it  our  sacred  duty,  not  only  for  our 

412 


CHRISTIANITY    AND    PATRIOTISM  413 

own  sakes,  but  also  for  the  sake  of  tens  of  millions  of 
Eussians,  in  the  most  emphatic  manner  to  protest  against 
it  and  to  declare  that  our  hearts  do  not  beat  in  unison 
with  the  hearts  of  the  journaUsts,  ministers  of  education, 
commanders  of  squadrons,  chief  priests,  and  ambassadors, 
but,  on  the  contrary,  are  full  to  the  brim  with  indignation 
and  loathing  for  that  harmful  lie  and  that  evil  which  they 
consciously  and  unconsciously  disseminate  with  their  acts 
and  their  speeches.  Let  them  drink  Moet  as  much  as 
they  please,  and  let  them  write  articles  and  deliver  ad- 
dresses in  their  own  name,  but  we,  all  the  Christians,  who 
recognize  ourselves  as  such,  cannot  admit  that  we  are 
bound  by  everything  that  these  men  say  and  write.  We 
cannot  admit  it,  because  we  know  what  is  concealed  be- 
neath all  these  drunken  transports,  speeches,  and  embraces, 
which  do  not  resemble  the  confirmation  of  peace,  as  we 
are  assured,  but  rather  those  orgies  and  that  drunkenness 
to  which  evil-doers  abandon  themselves  when  they  prepare 
themselves  for  a  joint  crime. 


VIII. 

About  four  years  ago,  —  the  first  swallow  of  the  Toulon 
spring,  —  a  certain  French  agitator  in  favour  of  a  war 
with  Germany  came  to  Russia  for  the  purpose  of  prepar- 
ing the  Franco-Russian  alHance,  and  he  visited  us  in  the 
country.  He  arrived  at  our  house  when  we  were  working 
in  the  mowing.  At  breakfast,  as  we  returned  home,  we 
made  the  acquaintance  of  the  guest,  and  he  immediately 
proceeded  to  tell  us  how  he  had  fought,  had  been  in  cap- 
tivity, had  run  away  from  it,  and  how  he  had  made  a 
patriotic  vow,  of  which  he  was  apparently  proud,  that  he 
would  not  stop  agitating  a  war  against  Germany  until  the 
integrity  and  glory  of  France  should  be  reestablished. 

In  our  circle  all  the  convictions  of  our  guest  as  to  how 
necessary  an  alliance  between  Russia  and  France  was  for 
the  reestablishment  of  the  former  borders  of  France  and 
its  might  and  glory,  and  for  making  us  secure  against  the 
malevolent  intentions  of  Germany,  were  of  no  avail  to 
him.  In  reply  to  his  arguments  that  France  could  not 
be  at  peace  so  long  as  the  provinces  taken  from  it  were 
not  returned  to  it,  we  said  that  similarly  Prussia  could 
not  be  at  rest,  so  long  as  it  had  not  paid  back  for  Jena, 
and  that,  if  the  French  "  revanche "  should  now  be  suc- 
cessful, the  Germans  would  have  to  pay  them  back,  and 
so  on  without  end. 

In  reply  to  his  arguments  that  the  French  were  obliged 
to  save  their  brothers,  who  had  been  torn  away  from 
them,  we  said  that  the  condition  of  the  inhabitants,  of 
the  majority  of  the  inhabitants,  of  the  working  people 
in  Alsace-Lorraine,  was  hardly  any  worse  under  German 

41i 


CHRISTIANITY    AND    PATRIOTISM  415 

rule  than  it  had  been  under  France,  and  that,  because 
some  Alsatians  preferred  to  belong  to  France  rather  than 
to  Germany,  and  he,  our  guest,  found  it  desirable  to  re- 
establish the  glory  of  French  arms,  it  was  not  worth 
while,  either  to  begin  those  terrible  calamities  which  re- 
sult from  war,  or  even  to  sacrifice  one  single  human  life. 
In  reply  to  liis  arguments  that  it  was  all  very  well  for 
us  to  speak  thus,  since  we  had  not  experienced  the  same, 
and  that  we  should  be  speaking  differently,  if  we  had  the 
Baltic  provinces  and  Poland  taken  away  from  us,  we  said 
that  even  from  the  political  standpoint  the  loss  of  Poland 
and  of  the  Baltic  provinces  could  not  be  a  calamity  for 
us,  but  might  rather  be  considered  an  advantage,  since  it 
would  diminish  the  necessity  for  a  military  force  and  the 
expenses  of  state ;  and  from  the  Christian  point  of  view 
we  never  could  permit  a  war,  since  a  war  demanded  the 
killing  of  men,  whereas  Christianity  not  only  forbade  every 
murder,  but  even  demanded  that  we  do  good  to  all  men, 
considering  all,  without  distinction  of  nationalities,  as  our 
brothers.  The  Christian  state,  we  said,  which  enters  upon 
war,  to  be  consistent,  must  not  only  haul  down  the  crosses 
from  the  churches,  turn  all  the  churches  into  buildings 
for  different  purposes,  give  the  clergy  other  offices,  and, 
above  all,  prohibit  the  Gospel,  but  must  also  renounce  all 
the  demands  of  morality  which  result  from  the  Christian 
law.  "  C'est  ti  prendre  ou  t't  laisser,"  we  said.  But  until 
Christianity  was  abolished,  it  would  be  possible  to  entice 
men  to  war  only  by  cunning  and  deceit,  as  indeed  is  being 
done  nowadays.  We  see  this  cunning  and  deception,  and 
so  cannot  submit  to  it.  As  there  was  no  music,  no 
champagne,  nothing  intoxicating  about  us,  our  guest 
only  shrugged  his  shoulders  and  with  customary  French 
amiability  remarked  tliat  he  was  very  thankful  for  the 
fine  reception  accorded  to  him  in  our  house,  but  that  he 
was  sorry  that  his  ideas  were  not  treated  in  the  same 
way. 


IX. 

After  this  conversation  we  went  to  the  mowing,  and 
there  he,  in  the  hope  of  finding  more  sympathy  for  his 
ideas  among  the  masses,  asked  me  to  translate  to  the 
peasant  Prokdfi,  an  old,  sickly  man,  with  an  enormous 
rupture,  who  none  the  less  stuck  to  his  work,  and  was  my 
companion  in  the  mowing,  his  plan  of  attacking  the  Ger- 
mans, which  was  to  squeeze  the  Germans,  who  were  be- 
tween the  French  and  the  Russians,  from  both  sides. 
The  Frenchman  gave  an  ocular  demonstration  of  this  to 
Prokofi,  by  touching  from  two  sides  Prokdfi's  sweaty 
hempen  shirt  with  his  white  fingers.  I  recall  Prokofi's 
good-naturedly  scornful  surprise,  when  I  explained  to  him 
the  Frenchman's  words  and  gestures.  The  proposition  to 
squeeze  the  Germans  from  both  sides  was  apparently 
taken  by  Prokofi  as  a  joke,  for  he  would  not  admit  the 
idea  that  a  grown  man  and  a  scholar  should  calmly  and 
when  he  was  sober  talk  of  the  desirability  of  war. 

"  Well,  if  we  squeeze  the  German  from  both  sides,"  he 
replied  jestingly  to  what  he  thought  was  a  joke,  "  he  will 
have  no  place  to  go  to.     We  must  give  him  room." 

I  translated  this  to  my  guest. 

"  Dites  lui  que  nous  aimons  les  Busses"  he  said. 

These  words  obviously  startled  Prokofi  even  more  than 
the  proposition  to  squeeze  the  German,  and  provoked  a 
certain  sentiment  of  suspicion. 

"  Who  is  he  ? "  Prokofi  asked  me,  with  mistrust,  indicat- 
ing my  guest  with  his  head. 

I  told  him  that  he  was  a  Frenchman,  a  rich  man. 

416 


CHRISTIANITY   AND   PATRIOTISM  417 

"  What  is  his  business  ? "  Prokofi  asked  me. 

When  I  explained  to  him  that  he  had  come  to  invite 
the  Russians  to  form  an  alliance  with  France  in  case  of 
a  war  with  Germany,  Prokofi  apparently  became  quite 
dissatisfied,  and,  turning  to  the  women,  who  were  sitting 
near  a  haycock,  he  shouted  at  them  in  a  strong  voice, 
which  involuntarily  betrayed  the  feelings  which  this  con- 
versation had  provoked  in  him,  that  they  should  go  and 
rake  up  the  unraked  hay. 

"  Come  now,  you  crows  !  Have  you  fallen  asleep  ? 
Come !  Much  time  we  have  to  squeeze  the  German ! 
We  have  not  finished  the  mowing  yet,  and  it  looks  likely 
that  we  shall  be  mowing  on  Wednesday,"  he  said.  And 
then,  as  though  fearing  to  oft'end  the  stranger  by  such  a 
remark,  he  added,  displaying  his  half-worn-off  teeth  in 
a  good-natured  smile,  "  You  had  better  come  and  work 
with  us,  and  send  the  German,  too.  When  we  get 
through  working,  we  shall  have  a  good  time.  We'll  take 
the  German  along.  They  are  just  such  folk  as  we." 
And,  having  said  this,  Prokofi  took  his  muscular  arm  out 
of  the  crotch  of  the  fork,  on  which  he  had  been  leaning, 
threw  the  fork  over  his  shoulders,  and  went  away  to  the 
women. 

"  Oh,  le  brave  Jiomme  !  "  the  polite  Frenchman  exclaimed, 
smiling.  And  with  this  he  then  concluded  his  diplo- 
matic mission  to  the  Russian  people. 

The  sight  of  these  so  radically  different  men,  —  the  one 
beaming  with  freshness,  alacrity,  elegance,  the  well-fed 
Frenchman,  in  a  silk  hat  and  long  overcoat  of  the  latest 
fashion,  energetically  illustrating  with  his  white  hands, 
unused  to  labour,  how  to  squeeze  the  Germans,  and  the 
sight  of  the  dishevelled  Prokdfi,  with  hay-seed  in  his  hair, 
dried  up  from  work,  sunburnt,  always  tired  and  always 
working,  in  spite  of  his  immense  rupture,  with  fingers 
swollen  from  work,  with  his  loosely  hanging  homespun 
trousers,  battered  bast  shoes,  jogging  along  with  an  im- 


418  CHKISTIANITY   AND   PATRIOTISM 

mense  forkful  of  hay  over  his  shoulder  in  that  indoleut 
pace  of  a  labouring  man,  which  economizes  motion,  —  the 
sight  of  these  two  so  radically  different  men  elucidated  to 
me  then  many  things,  and  has  occurred  to  me  now,  after 
the  Toulon-Paris  celebrations.  One  of  them  personified 
all  those  men,  nurtured  by  the  labours  of  the  masses,  who 
later  use  these  masses  as  food  for  cannon  ;  and  Prokdfi 
personified  to  me  that  food  for  cannon,  which  nurtures 
and  makes  secure  the  men  who  dispose  of  it. 


X. 

"  But  France  has  been  deprived  of  two  provinces,  — 
two  children  have  been  violently  removed  from  their 
mother.  But  Eussia  cannot  permit  Germany  to  prescribe 
laws  to  it  and  to  deprive  it  of  its  historic  destiny  in  the 
East,  —  it  cannot  tolerate  the  chance  of  having  its  prov- 
inces, the  Baltic  provinces,  Poland,  the  Caucasus,  taken 
from  it,  as  was  done  in  the  case  of  France,  But  Germany 
cannot  tolerate  the  possibility  of  losing  its  prerogatives, 
which  it  has  gained  through  so  many  sacrifices.  But, 
England  cannot  yield  its  supremacy  on  the  seas  to  any 
one."  And,  having  spoken  such  words,  it  is  generally 
assumed  that  a  Frenchman,  a  Russian,  a  German,  an 
Englishman  must  be  prepared  to  sacrifice  everything 
in  order  to  regain  the  lost  provinces,  to  establish  their 
predominance  in  the  East,  to  maintain  their  unity  and 
power,  their  supremacy  on  the  seas,  and  so  forth. 

It  is  assumed  that  the  sentiment  of  patriotism  is,  in 
the  first  place,  a  sentiment  which  is  always  inherent 
in  men,  and,  in  the  second,  such  an  exalted  moral  senti- 
ment that,  if  it  is  absent,  it  has  to  be  evoked  in  those 
who  do  not  have  it.  But  neither  is  correct.  I  have 
passed  half  a  century  among  the  Russian  masses,  and 
among  the  great  majority  of  the  real  Russian  people  I 
have  in  all  that  time  never  seen  or  heard  even  once  any 
manifestation  or  expression  of  this  sentiment  of  patriot- 
ism, if  we  do  not  count  those  patriotic  phrases,  which  are 
learned  by  rote  during  military  service  or  are  repeated 
from  books  by  the  most  frivolous  and  spoiled  men  of  the 
nation.  I  have  never  heard  any  expression  of  patriotic 
sentiments  from  the  people ;  but,  I  have,  on  the  contrary, 

419 


420  CHRISTIANITY    AND    PATRIOTISM 

frequently  heard  the  most  serious  and  respectable  men 
from  among  the  masses  giving  utterance  to  the  most 
absolute  indifference  and  even  contempt  for  all  kinds  of 
manifestations  of  patriotism.  The  same  tiling  I  have 
observed  among  the  labouring  classes  of  other  nations, 
and  I  have  often  been  assured  of  the  same  by  cultured 
Frenchmen,  Germans,  and  Englishmen  concerning  their 
own  working  people. 

The  working  people  are  too  busy  with  the  all-absorbing 
business  of  supporting  themselves  and  their  families,  to 
be  interested  in  those  pohtical  questions,  which  present 
themselves  as  the  chief  motive  of  patriotism,  —  the  ques- 
tions of  Eussia's  influence  in  the  East,  the  unity  of  Ger- 
many, or  the  restitution  of  the  lost  provinces  to  France, 
•or  the  acts  of  this  or  that  part  of  one  state  toward 
another,  and  so  forth,  do  not  interest  them,  not  only 
because  they  hardly  ever  know  the  conditions  under 
which  these  questions  have  arisen,  but  also  because  the  in- 
terests of  their  lives  are  quite  independent  of  the  political 
interests.  It  is  always  very  much  a  matter  of  indifference 
to  a  man  from  the  masses,  where  certain  borders  will  be 
marked  down,  or  to  whom  Constantinople  will  belong, 
or  whether  Saxony  or  Brunswick  will  be  a  member  of  the 
German  union,  or  whether  Australia  or  Matabeleland  will 
belong  to  England,  or  even  to  what  government  he 
will  have  to  pay  taxes  and  to  what  army  he  will  have 
to  send  his  sons ;  but  it  is  always  very  important  for 
him  to  know  how  much  he  will  have  to  pay  in  taxes, 
how  long  he  has  to  serve,  and  how  much  he  will  receive 
for  his  labour,  —  and  these  are  questions  that  are  quite 
independent  of  the  common  pohtical  interests.  It  is  for 
this  reason  that,  in  spite  of  all  the  intensified  means  used 
by  the  governments  for  the  inoculation  of  the  masses 
with  a  patriotism  which  is  alien  to  them  and  for  the  sup- 
pression of  the  ideas  of  socialism,  which  are  developing 
among  them,  the   socialism  more  and    more   penetrates 


CHKISTIANITY    AND    PATKIOTISM  421 

into  the  masses,  and  the  patriotism,  which  is  so  carefully 
inoculated  by  the  governments,  is  not  only  not  adopted  by 
the  masses,  but  is  disappearing  more  and  more,  maintain- 
ing itself  only  among  the  upper  clasps,  to  whom  it  is 
advantageous.  If  it  happens  that  at  times  patriotism 
takes  hold  of  the  popular  crowd,  as  was  the  case  in  Paris, 
this  is  only  so  when  the  masses  are  subjected  to  an  in- 
tensitied  hypnotic  influence  by  the  governments  and  the 
ruling  classes,  and  the  patriotism  is  maintained  among 
the  masses  only  so  long  as  this  influence  lasts. 

Thus,  for  example,  in  Eussia,  where  patriotism,  in  the 
form  of  love  and  loyalty  for  the  faith,  the  Tsar,  and 
the  country,  is  inoculated  in  the  masses  with  extraordi- 
nary tension  and  with  the  use  of  all  the  tools  at  the  com- 
mand of  the  governments,  such  as  the  church,  the  school, 
the  press,  and  all  kinds  of  solemnities,  the  Eussian  labour- 
ing classes,  —  one  hundred  millions  of  the  Eussian  nation, 
—  in  spite  of  Eussia's  unearned  reputation  as  a  nation  that 
is  particularly  devoted  to  its  faith,  its  Tsar,  and  its  coun- 
try, are  most  free  from  the  deception  of  patriotism  and 
from  loyalty  to  faith,  the  Tsar,  and  country.  The  men  of 
the  masses  for  the  most  part  do  not  know  their  Orthodox, 
state  faith,  to  which  they  are  suj)posed  to  be  so  loyal,  and 
when  they  come  to  know  it,  they  immediately  give  it  up 
and  become  rationalists,  that  is,  accept  a  faith  which 
it  is  impossible  to  attack  or  to  defend ;  on  their  Tsar 
they,  in  spite  of  the  constant  and  persistent  influences 
brought  to  bear  upon  them,  look  as  upon  all  the  powers 
of  violence,  if  not  with  condemnation,  at  least  with  abso- 
lute indifference ;  but  their  country,  if  by  that  we  do  not 
mean  their  village  or  township,  they  do  not  know  at  all, 
or,  if  they  do,  they  do  not  distinguish  it  from  any  other 
countries,  so  that,  as  Eussian  colonists  used  to  go  to 
Austria  and  to  Turkey,  they  now  with  just  as  much 
indiiference  settle  in  Eussia,  outside  of  Eussia,  in  Turkey 
or  in  China. 


XL 

My  old  friend  D ,  who  in  the  winter  hved  alone  in 

the  country,  while  his  wife,  whom  he  went  to  see  but 
rarely,  lived  in  Paris,  used  to  talk  during  the  long  autumn 
evenings  with  an  illiterate,  but  very  clever  and  respectable 
peasant,  an  elder,  who  came  in  the  evening  to  report,  and 
my  friend  told  him,  among  other  things,  of  the  superior- 
ity of  the  French  political  order  over  our  own.  This  was 
on  the  eve  of  the  last  Polish  insurrection  and  the  inter- 
ference of  the  French  government  in  our  affairs.  The 
patriotic  Eussian  newspapers  at  that  time  burned  with 
indignation  on  account  of  such  interference,  and  so  heated 
up  the  ruling  classes  that  they  talked  of  a  war  with 
France. 

My  friend,  who  had  read  the  papers,  told  the  elder  also 
of  these  relations  between  Eussia  and  France.  Submit- 
ting to  the  tone  of  the  papers,  my  friend  said  that  if 
there  should  be  any  war  (he  was  an  old  soldier),  he  would 
serve  and  fight  against  France.  At  that  time  the  "  re- 
vanche "  against  the  French  seemed  necessary  to  the  Eus- 
sians  on  account  of  Sevastopol. 

"  But  why  should  we  wage  war  ? "  asked  the  elder. 

"How  can  we  permit  France  to  manage  our  affairs?" 

"  But  you  say  yourself  that  things  are  better  arranged 
with  them  than  with  us,"  the  elder  said,  quite  seriously, 
"  Let  them  arrange  matters  in  our  country,  too." 

My  friend  told  me  that  this  reflection  so  startled  him 
that  he  was  absolutely  at  a  loss  what  to  say,  and  only 
laughed,  as  laugh  those  who  awaken  from  a  deceptive 
dream. 

422 


CHRISTIANITY   AND    PATRIOTISM  423 

Such  reflections  one  may  hear  from  any  sober  Russian 
labouring  man,  if  only  he  is  not  under  any  hypnotic 
influence  of  the  government.  They  talk  of  the  love  of 
the  Russian  masses  for  their  faith,  their  Tsar,  and  their 
government,  and  yet  there  will  not  be  found  one  com- 
mune of  peasants  in  the  whole  of  Russia,  which  would 
hesitate  for  a  moment,  which  of  the  two  places  to  choose 
for  its  colonization,  —  Russia,  with  the  Tsar,  the  little 
father,  as  they  write  in  books,  and  with  the  holy  Ortho- 
dox faith  in  its  adored  country,  but  with  less  and  worse 
land,  or  without  the  little  father,  the  white  Tsar,  and 
without  the  Orthodox  faith,  somewhere  outside  of  Russia, 
in  Prussia,  China,  Turkey,  Austria,  but  with  some  greater 
and  better  advantages,  as  indeed  we  have  seen  before  and 
see  at  present.  For  every  Russian  peasant  the  question 
as  to  what  government  he  will  be  under  (since  he  knows 
that,  no  matter  under  what  government  he  may  be,  he 
will  be  fleeced  just  the  same)  has  incomparably  less 
meaning  than  the  question  as  to  whether,  I  will  not  say 
the  water  is  good,  but  as  to  whether  the  clay  is  soft  and 
as  to  whether  there  will  be  a  good  crop  of  cabbage. 

But  it  may  be  thought  that  the  indifference  of  the  Rus- 
sians is  due  to  this,  that  any  other  government  under 
whose  power  they  may  come  will  certainly  be  better  than 
the  Russian,  because  in  Europe  there  is  not  one  that  is 
worse  than  the  Russian ;  but  that  is  not  so :  so  far  as  I 
know,  we  have  seen  the  same  in  the  case  of  the  English, 
Dutch,  German  immigrants  in  America,  and  of  all  the 
other  colonists  in  Russia. 

The  transference  of  the  European  nations  from  the 
power  of  one  government  to  another,  from  the  Turkish  to 
the  Austrian,  or  from  the  French  to  the  German,  changes 
the  condition  of  the  nations  so  little  that  in  no  cass  can 
they  provoke  the  dissatisfaction  of  the  working  classes,  so 
long  as  they  are  not  artificially  subjected  to  the  sug- 
gestions of  the  governments  and  the  ruling  classes. 


XII. 

People  generally  adduce,  in  proof  of  the  existence  of 
patriotism,  the  manifestations  of  patriotic  sentiments  in 
a  nation  during  a  time  of  all  kinds  of  celebrations,  as,  for 
example,  in  Eussia  during  a  coronation  or  the  meeting 
of  the  emperor  after  the  calamity  of  the  seventeenth  of 
October,  or  in  France  during  the  proclamation  of  war 
against  Prussia,  or  in  Germany  during  the  festivities  of 
victory,  or  during  the  Franco-Eussian  celebrations. 

But  it  ought  to  be  known  how  these  manifestations  are 
prepared.  In  Eussia,  for  example,  people  are  especially 
dressed  up  by  the  village  commune  and  the  owners  of 
factories  to  meet  and  welcome  the  emperor  whenever  he 
passes  through  a  given  locality. 

The  transports  of  the  masses  are  generally  prepared 
artificially  by  those  who  need  them,  and  the  degree  of 
transport  expressed  by  the  crowd  shows  only  the  degree 
of  the  art  of  the  arrangers  of  these  transports.  This  busi- 
ness has  long  been  practised,  and  so  the  specialists  in 
arranging  such  transports  have  reached  a  high  degree  of 
virtuosity  in  these  arrangements.  When  Alexander  II. 
was  still  an  heir  apparent,  and  was  in  command,  as  is 
usually  the  case,  of  the  Preobrazhenski  regiment,  he  once 
drove  out  after  dinner  to  the  regiment  in  camp.  The 
moment  his  carriage  appeared,  the  soldiers,  coatless  as 
they  were,  rushed  out  to  meet  him,  and  with  such  trans- 
port welcomed,  as  they  say,  their  most  august  commander, 
that  all  ran  a  race  behind  his  carriage,  and  many  of  them 
made  the  sign  of  the  cross  while  on  a  run,  looking  all  the 
time  at  the  heir  apparent.     All  those  who  saw  this  meet- 

424 


CHRISTIANITY    AND    PATRIOTISM  425 

ing  were  deeply  touched  by  this  naive  loyalty  and  love 
of  the  Eussian  soldiers  for  their  Tsar  and  his  heir,  and  by 
that  sincere  religious  and  apparently  unprepared  transport 
which  was  expressed  in  the  faces,  the  motions,  and  es- 
pecially in  the  sigus  of  the  cross,  which  the  soldiers  made. 
However,  all  that  was  done  artificially  and  prepared  in  the 
following  manner :  after  the  inspection  of  the  previous 
day  the  heir  said  to  the  brigade  commander  that  he  would 
drive  up  the  next  day  to  the  regiment. 

"  When  are  we  to  expect  your  Imperial  Majesty  ? " 
"  In  all  probability  in  the  evening.     Only,  please,  no 
preparations." 

The  moment  the  heir  drove  off,  the  brigade  commander 
called  together  the  commanders  of  the  companies  and 
gave  the  order  that  on  the  following  day  all  the  soldiers 
were  to  appear  in  clean  shirts,  and,  as  soon  as  they  saw 
the  heir's  carriage,  which  the  signallers  were  to  announce, 
they  were  to  run  at  haphazard  after  the  carriage,  shouting 
"  Hurrah  ! "  and  that,  at  the  same  time,  every  tenth  man 
in  the  company  was  to  run  and  make  the  sign  of  the 
cross.  The  sergeants  drew  up  the  companies,  and,  count- 
ing the  soldiers,  stopped  at  every  tenth  man  :  "  One,  two, 
three  .  .  .  eight,  nine,  ten,  —  Sidor^nko  —  the  sign  of  the 
cross ;  one,  two,  three,  four  .  .  .  Ivanov  —  the  sign  of 
the  cross  ..."  Everything  was  carried  out  as  by  com- 
mand, and  the  impression  of  transport  was  complete,  both 
on  the  heir  apparent  and  on  all  the  persons  present,  even 
on  the  soldiers  and  the  officers,  and  even  on  the  com- 
mander of  the  brigade,  who  had  invented  all  that.  Just 
so,  though  less  coarsely,  they  do  in  all  places,  wherever 
there  are  any  patriotic  manifestations.  Thus  the  Franco- 
Eussian  celebrations,  which  present  themselves  to  us  as 
free  expressions  of  the  people's  sentiments,  did  not  origi- 
nate with  the  people,  but  were,  on  the  contrary,  very 
artfully  and  quite  obviously  prepared  and  provoked  by 
the  French  government. 


426  CHRISTIANITY    AND    PATRIOTISM 

"  The  moment  the  arrival  of  the  Russian  sailors  became 
known,"  I  am  again  quoting  the  same  Rural  Messenger, 
the  official  organ,  which  collects  its  information  from  all 
the  other  newspapers,  "  committees  for  the  arrangement 
of  celebrations  were  being  formed,  not  only  in  all  the 
large  and  small  cities  lying  on  the  route  from  Toulon  to 
Paris,  a  considerable  distance,  but  also  in  a  large  number 
of  towns  and  villages  which  lie  quite  to  either  side  of  this 
route.  Everywhere  a  subscription  was  opened  for  contri- 
butions to  meet  the  expenses  for  these  celebrations. 
Many  cities  sent  deputations  to  Paris  to  our  imperial 
ambassador,  imploring  him  to  let  the  sailors  visit  their 
cities  even  for  one  day  or  even  for  one  hour.  The  munic- 
ipal governments  of  all  those  cities  in  which  our  sailors 
were  ordered  to  stay  set  aside  vast  sums,  averaging  more 
than  one  hundred  thousand  roubles,  for  the  arrangement 
of  all  kinds  of  festivities  and  amusements,  and  expressed 
their  wilhngness  to  expend  even  greater  sums,  as  much 
as  should  be  needed,  provided  the  welcome  and  the  cele- 
brations should  be  as  magnificent  as  possible. 

"  In  Paris  itself  a  private  committee  collected,  in  addi- 
tion to  the  sum  set  aside  by  the  city  government  for  this 
purpose,  an  immense  sum  by  private  subscription,  also  for 
the  arrangement  of  amusements,  and  the  French  govern- 
ment assigned  more  than  one  hundred  thousand  roubles 
for  expenses  incurred  by  the  ministers  and  other  authori- 
ties in  welcoming  the  guests.  In  many  cities,  where  our 
sailors  will  not  set  foot  at  all,  they  none  the  less  decided 
to  celebrate  the  first  of  October  with  all  kinds  of  festivities 
in  honour  of  Eussia.  A  vast  number  of  cities  and  prov- 
inces decided  to  send  special  deputations  to  Toulon  and 
Paris,  in  order  to  welcome  the  Russian  guests  and  to 
oher  them  presents  to  remember  France  by,  or  to  send  to 
them  addresses  and  telegrams  of  welcome.  It  was  decided 
everywhere  to  consider  the  first  of  October  a  national 
holiday  and  to  dismiss  the  pupils  of  all  the  educational 


CHRISTIANITY    AND    PATRIOTISM  427 

institutions  for  that  day,  and  in  Paris  for  two  days. 
Officials  of  lower  rank  had  their  penalties  remitted,  that 
they  might  gratefully  remember  the  joyful  day  for  France, 
—  the  first  of  October. 

"  To  make  it  easier  for  those  who  wished  to  visit  Toulon 
and  take  part  in  the  welcome  to  the  Eussian  squadron, 
the  railways  lowered  the  rates  to  one-half  and  sent  out 
special  trains." 

And  thus,  when  by  means  of  a  whole  series  of  universal, 
simultaneous  measures,  which  the  government  can  always 
take  by  dint  of  the  power  which  it  has  in  its  hands,  a 
certain  part  of  the  nation,  preeminently  the  scum  of  the 
people,  the  city  crowd,  is  brought  to  a  condition  of  a1)nor- 
mal  excitement,  they  say :  "  Behold,  this  is  the  free  ex- 
pression of  the  will  of  the  whole  nation."  Manifestations 
like  those  which  just  took  place  in  Toulon  and  in  Paris, 
which  in  Germany  take  place  at  the  meeting  of  the  em- 
peror or  of  Bismarck,  or  at  manoeuvres  in  Lorraine,  and 
which  are  constantly  repeated  in  Russia  at  every  meet- 
ing circumstanced  with  solemnity,  prove  only  this,  that 
the  means  of  an  artificial  excitation  of  the  people,  which 
now  are  in  the  hands  of  the  governments  and  the  ruling 
classes,  are  so  powerful  that  the  governments  and  the 
ruhng  classes,  which  are  in  possession  of  them,  are  always 
able  at  will  to  provoke  any  kind  of  a  patriotic  manifesta- 
tion they  may  wish  by  rousing  the  patriotic  sentiments  of 
the  masses.  Nothing,  on  the  contrary,  proves  the  absence 
of  patriotism  in  the  masses  with  such  obviousness  as 
those  tense  efforts  which  now  are  made  by  the  govern- 
ments and  the  ruling  classes  for  the  artificial  excitation 
of  patriotism,  and  the  insignificant  results  which  are  ob- 
tained in  spite  of  all  the  efforts. 

If  patriotic  sentiments  are  so  proper  to  the  nations, 
they  should  be  permitted  to  manifest  themselves  freely, 
and  should  not  be  provoked  by  all  kinds  of  exclusive  and 
artificial  means,  apphed  on  every  possible  occasion.     Let 


428  CHRISTIANITY    AND    PATRIOTISM 

them  even  for  a  time,  for  one  year,  stop  in  Eussia  compel- 
ling all  the  people,  as  they  are  doing  now,  upon  the  acces- 
sion of  every  Tsar,  to  swear  allegiance  to  him ;  let  them  at 
every  divine  service  stop  solemnly  repeating  several  times 
the  customary  prayers  for  the  Tsar ;  let  them  stop  cele- 
brating his  birthdays  and  name-days  with  ringing  of  bells, 
illumination,  and  the  prohibition  to  work ;  let  them  stop 
everywhere  liangiug  out  and  displaying  representations  of 
him ;  let  them  stop,  in  prayer-books,  almanacs,  text-books, 
printing  his  name  and  the  names  of  his  family,  and  even 
the  pronouns  referring  to  him,  in  capitals ;  let  them  stop 
glorifying  him  in  special  books  and  newspapers  printed  for 
the  purpose ;  let  them  stop  imprisoning  men  for  the 
shghtest  disrespectful  word  uttered  concerning  the  Tsar, 
—  let  them  stop  doing  all  that  for  a  time  only,  and  then 
we  should  see  how  proper  it  is  for  the  masses,  for  the 
real  labouring  masses,  for  Prokdfi,  for  elder  Ivan,  and  for 
all  the  men  of  the  Russian  masses,  —  as  the  nation  is 
made  to  believe  and  as  all  the  foreigners  are  convinced  of 
it,  —  to  worship  the  Tsar,  who  in  one  way  or  another 
turns  them  over  into  the  hands  of  a  landed  proprietor  or 
of  the  rich  in  general.  So  it  is  in  Russia ;  but  let  them 
similarly  stop  in  Germany,  France,  Italy,  England,  Amer- 
ica doing  all  that  which  is  done  there  with  the  same  ten- 
sion by  the  ruling  classes  in  order  to  rouse  patriotism  and 
loyalty  and  submission  to  the  existing  government,  and 
we  should  see  in  how  far  this  imaginary  patriotism  is 
characteristic  of  the  nations  of  our  time. 

But,  as  it  is,  the  masses  are  stultified  from  childhood 
by  all  possible  means,  by  school-books,  divine  services, 
sermons,  books,  newspapers,  verses,  monuments,  which  all 
tend  in  one  and  the  same  direction ;  then  they  select  by 
force  or  bribery  a  few  thousands  of  the  people,  and  when 
these  assembled  thousands,  joined  by  all  the  loafers  who 
are  always  happy  to  be  present  at  any  spectacle,  to  the 
sounds  of  cannon-shots  and  of  music,  and  at  the  sight  of 


CHRISTIANITY    AND    PATRIOTISM  429 

every  kind  of  splendour  and  light  begin  to  shout  what  the 
leaders  shout  to  them,  we  are  told  that  this  is  an  expres- 
sion of  the  sentiments  of  the  whole  nation.  But,  in  the 
first  place,  these  thousands,  or,  if  it  is  a  great  crowd,  these 
tens  of  thousands,  who  shout  something  at  such  celebra- 
tions, form  but  a  tiny,  a  ten-thousandth  part  of  the  whole 
nation  ;  in  the  second  place,  out  of  these  tens  of  thousands 
of  shouting  men,  who  wave  their  hats,  the  greater  part  are 
either  collected  by  force,  as  is  the  case  with  us  in  Kussia, 
or  artificially  provoked  by  some  enticement ;  in  the  third 
place,  among  all  these  thousands,  there  are  scarcely  tens 
wlio  know  what  it  is  all  about,  and  all  the  rest  would  as 
gladly  shout  and  wave  their  hats  if  the  very  opposite 
took  place ;  and,  in  the  fourth  place,  the  police  are  always 
present,  and  they  will  make  any  one  shut  up  if  he  does 
not  shout  what  the  government  wants  and  demands  shall 
be  shouted,  and  lock  him  up  at  once,  as  was  done  with 
much  force  during  the  Franco-Eussian  festivities. 

In  France  they  welcomed  with  cc^ual  enthusiasm  the 
war  with  Russia  under  Napoleon  I.,  and  then  Alexander 
I.,  against  whom  the  war  was  waged,  and  then  again 
Napoleon,  and  again  the  allies,  and  Bourbon,  and  Orleans, 
and  the  Republic,  and  Napoleon  III.,  and  Boulanger  ;  and 
in  Russia  they  acclaim  with  the  same  enthusiasm,  to-day 
Peter,  to-morrow  Catherine,  the  next  day  I*aul,  Alexander, 
Constantine,  Nicholas,  the  Duke  of  Leuchtenberg,  the 
brother  Slavs,  the  King  of  Prussia,  the  French  sailors,  and 
all  those  whom  the  government  wants  them  to  welcome. 
The  same  happens  in  England,  America,  Germany,  Italy. 

What  in  our  time  is  called  patriotism  is,  on  the  one 
hand,  only  a  certain  mood,  which  is  constantly  produced 
and  maintained  in  the  masses  by  the  schools,  the  religion, 
the  venal  press,  having  such  a  tendency  as  the  govern- 
ment demands,  and,  on  the  other,  a  temporary  excitation, 
produced  with  exclusive  means  by  the  ruling  classes,  in 
the  masses,  who  stand  on  a  lower  moral  and  even  mental 


430 


CHRISTIANITY   AND   PATRIOTISM 


plane,  —  an  excitation,  which  later  is  given  out  as  a  con- 
stant expression  of  the  will  of  the  whole  nation.  The 
patriotism  of  the  oppressed  nationalities  does  not  form  an 
exception  to  this.  It  is  as  little  characteristic  of  the 
working  classes,  and  is  artificially  inculcated  upon  them  by 
the  upper  classes. 


XIII. 

"  But  if  the  men  of  the  masses  do  not  experience  the 
sentiment  of  patriotism,  this  is  due  to  the  fact  that  they 
have  not  yet  reached  that  exalted  sentiment,  which  is 
characteristic  of  every  cultured  man.  If  they  do  not  ex- 
perience this  exalted  sentiment,  it  has  to  be  educated  in 
them.     It  is  this  that  the  government  is  doing." 

Thus  generally  speak  the  men  of  the  ruling  classes, 
with  such  full  confidence  that  patriotism  is  an  exalted 
sentiment,  that  the  naive  men  of  the  masses,  who  do  not 
experience  it,  consider  themselves  at  fault,  because  they 
do  not  experience  this  sentiment,  and  try  to  assure  them- 
selves that  they  experience  it,  or  at  least  pretend  that 
they  do. 

But  what  is  this  exalted  sentiment,  which,  in  the  opin- 
ion of  the  ruhng  classes,  ought  to  be  educated  in  the 
nations  ? 

This  sentiment  is  in  its  most  precise  definition  nothing 
but  a  preference  shown  to  one's  own  state  or  nation  in 
comparison  with  any  other  state  or  nation,  a  sentiment 
which  is  fully  expressed  in  the  German  patriotic  song, 
"  Deutschland,  Deutschland  ilber  alles"  in  which  we  need 
only  substitute  Russland,  Frankreich,  Italicn,  or  any  other 
state  for  Deutschland,  and  we  shall  get  the  clearest  formula 
of  the  exalted  sentiment  of  patriotism.  It  may  be  that 
this  sentiment  is  very  desirable  and  useful  for  the  govern- 
ments and  the  integrity  of  the  state,  but  one  cannot  help 
but  observe  that  this  sentiment  is  not  at  all  exalted,  but, 
on  the  contrary,  very  stupid  and  very  immoral :  stupid, 
because,  if  every  state  will  consider  itself  better  than  any 

431 


432  CHRISTIANITY    AND    PATRIOTISM 

other,  it  is  obvious  that  they  will  all  be  in  the  wrong ;  and 
immoral,  because  it  inevitably  leads  every  man  who  expe- 
riences the  feeling  to  try  to  obtain  advantages  for  his  own 
state  and  nation,  at  the  expense  of  other  states  and  na- 
tions —  a  tendency  which  is  directly  opposed  to  the  fun- 
damental moral  law  recognized  by  all  men :  not  to  do 
unto  another  what  we  do  not  wish  to  have  done  to  our- 
selves. 

Patriotism  may  have  been  a  virtue  in  the  ancient 
world,  when  it  demanded  of  man  that  he  serve  the  highest 
ideal  accessible  to  him  at  the  time, — the  ideal  of  his 
country.  But  how  can  patriotism  be  a  virtue  in  our  time, 
when  it  demands  of  men  what  is  directly  opposed  to 
what  forms  the  ideal  of  our  religion  and  morality,  —  not 
the  recognition  of  the  equality  and  brotherhood  of  all 
men,  but  the  recognition  of  one  state  and  nationality  as 
predominating  over  all  the  others.  This  sentiment  is  in 
our  time  not  only  not  a  virtue,  but  unquestionably  a  vice ; 
no  such  sentiment  of  patriotism  in  its  true  sense  does  or 
can  exist  in  our  time,  because  the  material  and  moral 
foundations  for  it  are  lacking. 

Patriotism  could  have  some  sense  in  the  ancient  world, 
when  every  nation,  more  or  less  homogeneous  in  its 
structure,  professing  one  and  the  same  state  religion,  and 
submitting  to  the  same  unlimited  power  of  its  supreme, 
deified  ruler,  appeared  to  itself  as  an  island  in  the  ocean  of 
the  barbarians,  which  ever  threatened  to  inundate  it. 

We  can  see  how  with  such  a  state  of  affairs,  patriotism, 
that  is,  the  desire  to  ward  off  the  attacks  of  the  barbari- 
ans, who  were  not  only  prepared  to  destroy  the  social 
order,  but  who  also  threatened  whelesale  plundering  and 
murder,  with  the  enslavement  of  men  and  the  rape  of 
women,  was  a  natural  feeling,  and  we  can  see  why  a  man, 
to  free  himself  and  his  compatriots  from  such  calamities, 
could  have  preferred  his  nation  to  all  the  others,  and 
could  experience  a  hostile  feeling  toward  the  barbarians 


CHRISTIANITY    AND    PATRIOTISM  433 

around  him,  and  could  kill  them,  in  order  to  protect  his 
nation. 

But  what  significance  can  this  sentiment  have  in  our 
Christian  time  ?  On  what  ground  and  for  what  purpose 
can  a  man  of  our  time,  a  Russian,  go  and  kill  Frenchmen 
or  Germans,  or  a  Frenchman  Germans,  when  he  knows 
full  well,  no  matter  how  little  educated  he  may  be,  that 
the  men  of  the  other  state  and  nation,  against  which  they 
are  rousing  his  patriotic  hostility,  are  not  barbarians,  but 
just  such  Christians  as  he,  frequently  of  the  same  faith 
and  profession  with  him,  desiring  like  him  nothing  but 
peace  and  a  peaceful  exchange  of  labour,  and  that,  besides, 
they  are  for  the  most  part  united  with  him  either  by  the 
interests  of  common  labour,  or  by  commercial  or  spiritual 
interests,  or  by  all  together  ?  Thus  frequently  the  men  of 
another  country  are  nearer  and  more  indispensable  to  a 
mail  than  his  own  countrymen,  as  is  the  case  with  labour- 
ers who  are  connected  with  employers  of  other  nation- 
alities, and  as  is  the  case  with  commercial  people,  and 
especially  with  scholars  and  artists. 

Besides,  the  conditions  of  life  themselves  have  so 
changed  now  that  what  we  call  our  country,  what  we  are 
supposed  to  distinguish  from  everything  else,  has  ceased 
to  be  something  clearly  defined,  as  it  was  with  the 
ancients,  where  the  men  forming  one  country  belonged 
to  one  nationality,  one  state,  and  one  faith.  We  can 
understand  the  patriotism  of  an  Egyptian,  a  Jew,  a  Greek, 
who,  defending  his  country,  was  at  the  same  time  defend- 
ing his  faith,  and  his  nationality,  and  his  home,  and  his 
state. 

But  in  what  way  will  in  our  time  be  expressed  the 
patriotism  of  an  Irishman  in  the  United  States,  who  by 
his  faith  belongs  to  Eome,  by  his  nationality  to  Ireland, 
by  his  state  allegiance  to  the  United  States  ?  In  the 
same  condition  are  a  Bohemian  in  Austria,  a  Pole  in 
Russia,  Prussia,  and  Austria,  a  Hindoo  in  England,   a 


434  CHRISTIANITY   AND   PATRIOTISM 

Tartar  and  an  Armenian  in  Eussia  and  in  Turkey.  But, 
even  leaving  out  these  men  of  the  separate  conquered 
nationalities,  the  men  of  the  most  homogeneous  states, 
such  as  are  Eussia,  France,  Prussia,  can  no  longer  experi- 
ence that  sentiment  of  patriotism,  which  was  peculiar  to 
the  ancients,  because  frequently  all  the  chief  interests 
of  their  life  (sometimes  their  domestic  ones,  —  they  are 
married  to  women  of  another  nation  ;  the  economic  ones,  — 
their  capital  is  abroad  ;  their  spiritual,  scientific,  or  artistic 
ones)  are  not  in  their  own  country,  but  outside  it,  in  that 
state  against  which  the  government  is  rousing  his  patri- 
otic hatred. 

But  most  of  all  is  patriotism  impossible  in  our  time, 
because,  no  matter  how  much  we  have  tried  for  eighteen 
hundred  years  to  conceal  the  meaning  of  Christianity,  it 
has  none  the  less  trickled  through  into  our  life,  and  is 
guiding  it  in  such  a  way  that  the  coarsest  and  most  stupid 
of  men  cannot  help  but  see  the  absolute  incompatibihty 
of  patriotism  with  those  moral  rules  by  which  they  live. 


XIV. 

Patriotism  was  necessary  for  the  formation,  out  of 
heterogeneous  nationalities,  of  strong,  united  kingdoms, 
protected  against  the  barbarians.  But  as  soon  as  the 
Christian  enhghtenment  transformed  all  these  kingdoms 
ahke  from  within,  by  giving  them  the  same  foundations, 
patriotism  not  only  became  unnecessary,  but  was  also  the 
one  barrier  against  that  union  of  the  nations  for  which 
they  are  prepared  by  dint  of  their  Christian  consciousness. 

Patriotism  is  in  our  time  the  cruel  tradition  of  a  long- 
gone-by  period  of  time,  which  holds  itself  only  through 
inertia  and  because  the  governments  and  the  ruhng 
classes  feel  that  with  this  patriotism  is  connected  not 
only  their  power,  but  also  their  existence,  and  so  with 
care  and  cunning  and  violence  rouse  and  sustain  it  in  the 
nations.  Patriotism  is  in  our  time  like  the  scaffolding, 
which  at  one  time  was  necessary  for  the  construction  of 
the  walls  of  a  building,  but  which  now,  though  it  only 
interferes  with  the  proper  use  of  the  building,  is  not 
taken  down,  because  its  existence  is  advantageous  for 
some  persons. 

Among  the  Christian  nations  there  has  for  a  long  time 
ceased  to  exist  any  cause  for  discord,  and  there  can  be  no 
such  cause.  It  is  even  impossible  to  imagine  why  and 
how  Russian  and  German  labourers,  who  peacefully  work 
together  near  the  border  and  in  the  capital  cities,  should 
begin  to  quarrel  among  themselves.  And  much  less  can 
we  imagine  any  hostility  between,  let  us  say,  a  Kazan 
peasant,  wIkj  sup})lies  a  German  with  corn,  and  the  Ger- 
man, who  supplies  him  with  scythes  and  machines,  and 

435 


436  CHRISTIANITY   AND   PATRIOTISM 

similarly  among  French,  German,  and  Italian  labourers. 
It  is  even  ridiculous  to  talk  of  quarrels  among  the  schol- 
ars, artists,  writers  of  various  nationalities,  w^ho  live  by 
the  same  interests,  that  are  independent  of  nationality 
and  the   state  structure. 

But  the  governments  cannot  leave  the  nations  alone, 
that  is,  in  peaceful  relations  among  themselves,  because 
the  chief,  if  not  the  only  justification  of  the  existence  of 
the  governments  consists  in  making  peace  between  the 
nations,  that  is,  in  allaying  their  hostile  relations.  And 
so  the  governments  provoke  these  hostile  relations  under 
the  guise  of  patriotism,  and  then  make  it  appear  that  they 
are  making  peace  among  the  nations.  It  is  something 
like  what  a  gipsy  does,  who  pours  some  pepper  under 
his  horse's  tail,  and  lashes  it  in  the  stall,  and  then  leads 
it  out,  wdiile  hanging  on  to  the  bridle,  pretending  that  he 
has  the  hardest  time  to  restrain  the  mettled  horse. 

We  are  assured  that  the  governments  are  concerned 
about  preserving  the  peace  among  the  nations.  In  what 
way  do  they  preserve  this  peace  ? 

People  are  living  along  the  Ehine  in  peaceful  inter- 
course among  themselves,  —  suddenly,  in  consequence  of 
all  kinds  of  disputes  and  intrigues  between  the  kings  and 
emperors,  war  breaks  out,  and  the  French  government 
finds  it  necessary  to  recognize  some  of  these  inhabitants 
as  Frenchmen.  Ages  pass,  men  have  become  accustomed 
to  this  state  of  affairs ;  again  there  begin  hostilities  be- 
tween the  governments  of  the  great  nations,  and  war 
breaks  out  on  the  slightest  pretence,  and  the  Germans 
find  it  necessary  to  recognize  these  inhabitants  once  more 
as  Germans,  and  in  all  the  French  and  the  Germans  ill- 
will  flames  up  toward  one  another.  Or  Germans  and 
Russians  are  living  peacefully  near  the  border,  peacefully 
exchanging  their  labour  and  the  products  of  labour,  and 
suddenly  the  same  institutions  which  exist  only  in  the 
name  of  the  pacification  of  the  nations  begin  to  quarrel, 


CHKISTIANITY    AND    TATIIIOTISM  437 

to  do  one  foolish  thing  after  another,  and  are  not  able  to 
invent  anything  better  than  the  coarsest  childish  method 
of  self-inflicted  punishment,  if  only  they  can  thus  have 
their  will  and  do  something  nasty  to  their  adversary 
(which  in  this  case  is  especially  advantageous,  since  not 
those  who  start  a  customs  war,  but  others,  suffer  from  it)  ; 
thus  the  Customs  War  between  Russia  and  Germany  was 
lately  started.  Then,  with  the  aid  of  the  newspapers, 
there  flames  up  a  malevolent  feeling,  which  is  still  fartlier 
fanned  by  the  Franco-Eussian  celebrations,  and  which, 
before  we  know  it,  may  lead  to  a  sanguinary  war. 

I  have  cited  the  last  two  examples  of  the  manner  in 
which  the  governments  affect  the  people  by  rousing 
in  them  a  hostile  feeling  toward  other  nations,  because 
they  are  contemporary ;  but  there  is  not  one  war  in  all 
history,  w^hich  was  not  provoked  by  the  governments,  by 
the  governments  alone,  independently  of  the  advantages 
to  the  nations,  to  which  war,  even  if  it  is  successful,  is 
always  harmful. 

The  governments  assure  the  nations  that  they  are  in 
danger  of  an  incursion  from  other  nations  and  from  inter- 
nal enemies,  and  that  the  only  salvation  from  this  danger 
consists  in  the  slavish  obedience  of  the  nations  to  their 
governments.  This  is  most  obvious  in  the  time  of  revolu- 
tions and  dictatorships,  and  this  takes  place  at  all  times 
and  in  all  places,  wherever  there  is  power.  Every  gov- 
ernment explains  its  existence  and  justifies  all  its  violence 
by  insisting  that,  if  it  did  not  exist,  things  would  be 
worse.  By  assuring  the  nations  that  they  are  in  danger, 
the  governments  subject  them  to  themselves.  When  the 
nations  submit  to  the  governments,  these  governments 
compel  these  naticjns  to  attack  the  other  nations.  In 
this  manner  the  nations  find  confirmed  the  assurances  of 
their  governments  in  regard  to  the  danger  from  being 
attacked  by  other  nations. 

Divide  et  impcra. 


438  CHRISTIANITY   AND   PATRIOTISM 

Patriotism  in  its  simplest,  clearest,  and  most  unques- 
tionable significance  is  for  the  rulers  nothing  but  a  tool 
for  attaining  their  ambitious  and  selfish  ends,  and  for  the 
ruled  a  renunciation  of  human  dignity,  reason,  conscience, 
and  a  slavish  submission  to  those  who  are  in  power. 
Thus  is  patriotism  actually  preached,  wherever  it  is 
preached. 

Patriotism  is  slavery. 

The  advocates  of  peace  through  arbitration  judge  like 
this  :  two  animals  cannot  divide  their  prey  otherwise  than 
by  fighting,  as  do  children,  barbarians,  and  barbarous 
nations.  But  sensible  people  settle  their  differences  by 
discussion,  conviction,  the  transmission  of  the  solution  of 
the  question  to  disinterested,  sensible  men.  Even  thus 
must  the  sensible  nations  of  our  time  act.  These  reflec- 
tions seem  quite  correct.  The  nations  of  our  time  have 
reached  an  age  of  discretion,  are  not  hostile  to  one  another, 
and  should  be  able  to  settle  their  differences  in  a  peace- 
able manner.  But  the  reflection  is  correct  only  in  refer- 
ence to  the  nations,  to  the  nations  alone,  if  they  were  not 
under  the  power  of  their  governments.  But  the  nations 
which  submit  to  their  governments  cannot  be  sensible, 
because  submission  to  the  governments  is  already  a  sign 
of  the  greatest  senselessness. 

How  can  we  talk  of  the  sensibleness  of  men  who 
promise  in  advance  to  do  everything  (including  the 
murder  of  men)  which  the  government,  that  is,  certain 
men  who  have  accidentally  come  to  hold  this  position, 
may  command  them  to  do  ? 

Men  who  are  able  to  accept  such  a  duty  of  unflinching 
submission  to  what  certain  strangers  will,  from  St.  Peters- 
burg, Vienna,  Paris,  command  them  to  do,  cannot  be 
sensible,  and  the  governments,  that  is,  the  men  who  pos- 
sess such  power,  can  still  less  be  sensible,  and  cannot  help 
abusing  it,  —  they  cannot  help  losing  their  minds  from 
such  a  senselessly  terrible  power.     For  that  reason  the 


CHRISTIANITY   AND   PATRIOTISM  439 

peace  among  the  nations  cannot  be  attained  by  any  sen- 
sible means,  through  conventions,  through  arbitrations,  so 
long  as  there  exists  a  submission  to  the  governments, 
which  is  always  senseless  and  always  pernicious. 

But  the  submission  of  men  to  the  governments  will 
always  exist,  so  long  as  there  is  any  patriotism,  because 
every  power  is  based  on  patriotism,  that  is,  on  the  readi- 
ness of  men,  for  the  sake  of  defending  their  nation,  their 
country,  that  is,  the  state,  against  supposed  dangers  that 
are  threatening  it,  to  submit  to  the  power. 

On  this  patriotism  was  based  the  power  of  the  French 
kings  over  the  whole  nation  previous  to  the  Eevolution ; 
on  the  same  patriotism  was  based  the  power  of  the  Com- 
mittee of  Public  Safety  after  the  Revolution ;  on  the  same 
patriotism  was  reared  the  power  of  Napoleon  (as  consul 
and  as  emperor) ;  and  on  the  same  patriotism,  after  the 
downfall  of  Napoleon,  was  estabhshed  the  power  of  the 
Bourbons,  and  later  of  the  Eepublic,  and  of  Louis  Philippe, 
and  again  of  the  Eepublic,  and  again  of  Bonaparte,  and 
again  of  the  Eepublic,  and  on  the  same  patriotism  came 
very  near  being  established  the  power  of  Mr.  Boulanger, 

It  is  terrible  to  say  so,  but  there  does  not  exist,  and 
there  has  not  existed,  a  case  of  aggregate  violence  com- 
mitted by  one  set  of  men  against  another  which  has  not 
been  committed  in  the  name  of  patriotism.  In  the  name 
of  patriotism  the  Russians  fought  with  the  French,  and 
the  Frencli  with  the  Eussians,  and  in  the  name  of  patriot- 
ism the  Eussians  and  the  French  are  now  preparing  them- 
selves to  wage  war  against  the  Germans,  —  to  fight  from 
two  flanks.  But  war  is  not  all,  —  in  the  name  of  patriot- 
ism the  Eussians  crush  tlie  Poles,  and  the  Germans  the 
Slavs ;  in  the  name  of  patriotism  the  Communists  killed 
the  Versaillians,  and  the  Versaillians,  the  Communists. 


XV. 

It  would  seem  that  with  the  dissemination  of  culture, 
of  improved  means  of  locomotion,  of  frequent  intercourse 
among  the  men  of  the  various  nations,  in  connection  with 
the  diffusion  of  the  press,  and,  above  all,  in  connection 
with  the  complete  absence  of  danger  from  other  nations, 
the  deception  of  patriotism  ought  to  become  harder  and 
harder,  and  ought  in  the  end  to  become  impossible. 

But  the  point  is,  that  these  same  means  of  a  universal 
external  culture,  of  improved  methods  of  locomotion,  and 
of  intercommunication,  and  above  all,  of  the  press,  which 
the  governments  have  seized  upon  and  seize  upon  more 
and  more,  give  them  now  such  a  power  of  exciting  in  the 
nations  hostile  feelings  toward  one  another,  that,  though 
on  the  one  hand  the  obviousness  of  the  uselessness  and 
harm  of  patriotism  has  increased,  there  has,  on  the  other, 
increased  the  power  of  the  governments  and  of  the  ruling 
classes  to  influence  the  masses,  by  rousing  patriotism  in 
them. 

The  difference  between  what  was  and  what  now  is 
consists  only  in  this,  that,  since  now  a  much  greater  num- 
ber of  men  share  in  the  advantages  which  patriotism 
affords  to  the  upper  classes,  a  much  greater  number  of 
men  take  part  in  the  dissemination  and  maintenance 
of  this  wonderful  superstition. 

The  more  difficult  it  is  to  maintain  the  power,  the 
greater  and  greater  is  the  number  of  men  with  whom 
the  government  shares  it. 

Formerly  a  small  group  of  rulers  had  the  power,  —  em- 
perors, kings,  dukes,  their  officials,  and  warriors  ;  but  now 
the    participants  in   this  power  and  in    the  advantages 

440 


CHRISTIANITY    AND    PATRIOTISM  441 

which  it  affords  are  not  only  the  officials  and  the  clergy, 
but  also  capitaHsts,  great  and  small,  the  landowners, 
hankers,  members  of  Chambers,  teachers,  rural  officers, 
scholars,  even  artists,  and  especially  journalists.  And 
all  these  persons  consciously  and  unconsciously  spread 
the  deception  of  patriotism,  which  is  indispensable  to 
them  for  the  maintenance  of  their  advantageous  position. 
And  the  deception,  thanks  to  the  fact  that  the  means  of 
deception  have  become  more  powerful  and  that  now 
an  ever-growing  number  of  men  are  taking  part  in  it,  is 
produced  so  successfully  that,  in  spite  of  the  great  diffi- 
culty of  deceiving,  the  degree  of  the  deception  remains 
the  same. 

One  hundred  years  ago,  the  illiterate  masses,  who  had 
no  conception  as  to  who  composed  their  government  and 
as  to  what  nations  surrounded  them,  blindly  obeyed  those 
local  officials  and  gentry,  whose  slaves  they  were.  And  it 
sufficed  for  the  government  by  means  of  bribes  and 
rewards  to  keep  these  officials  and  this  gentry  in  their 
power,  in  order  that  the  masses  might  obediently  do  what 
was  demanded  of  them.  But  now,  when  the  masses  for 
the  most  part  can  read  and  more  or  less  know  of  whom 
their  government  is  composed,  and  what  nations  surround 
them ;  when  the  men  of  the  masses  constantly  move 
about  with  ease  from  one  place  to  another,  bringing  to  the 
masses  information  about  what  is  going  on  in  the  world, 
a  mere  demand  to  carry  out  the  commands  of  the  govern- 
ment no  longer  suffices :  it  becomes  necessary  to  obscure 
the  true  conceptions  which  the  masses  have  concerning 
life,  and  to  impress  tliem  with  improper  ideas  concern- 
ing the  conditions  of  their  life  and  concerning  the  rela- 
tion of  other  nations  toward  them. 

And  so,  thanks  to  the  diffusion  of  the  press,  of  the  rudi- 
ments, and  of  the  means  of  communication,  the  govern- 
ments, having  their  agents  everywhere,  by  means  of 
decrees,  church  sermons,  the  schools,  the  newspapers  iucul- 


442  CHRISTIANITY   AND    PATRIOTISM 

cate  on  the  masses  the  wildest  and  most  perverse  con- 
ceptions about  their  advantages,  about  the  relation  of  the 
peoples  among  themselves,  about  their  properties  and 
intentions ;  and  the  masses,  which  are  so  crushed  by 
labour  that  they  have  no  time  and  no  chance  to  under- 
stand the  significance  and  verify  the  correctness  of  those 
conceptions  which  are  inculcated  upon  them,  and  of 
those  demands  which  are  made  on  them  in  the  name 
of  their  good,  submit  to  them  without  a  murmur. 

But  the  men  from  the  masses  who  free  themselves 
from  constant  labour  and  who  educate  themselves,  and 
who,  it  would  seem,  should  be  able  to  understand  the  de- 
ception which  is  practised  upon  them,  are  subjected  to 
such  an  intensified  effect  of  menaces,  bribery,  and  hypno- 
tization  by  the  governments,  that  they  almost  without  an 
exception  pass  over  to  the  side  of  the  governments  and, 
accepting  advantageous  and  well-paid  positions  as  teach- 
ers, priests,  officers,  officials,  become  participants  in  the 
dissemination  of  the  deception  which  ruins  their  fellow 
men.  It  is  as  though  at  the  door  of  education  stood  a 
snare,  into  which  inevitably  fall  those  who  in  one  way 
or  another  leave  the  masses  that  are  absorbed  in  labour. 

At  first,  as  one  comes  to  understand  the  cruelty  of  the 
deception,  there  involuntarily  rises  an  indignation  against 
those  who  for  their  personal,  selfish,  ambitious  advantage 
produce  this  cruel  deception,  which  destroys,  not  only 
men's  bodies,  but  also  their  souls,  and  one  feels  like 
showing  up  tbese  cruel  deceivers.  But  the  point  is,  that 
the  deceivers  do  not  deceive  because  they  want  to  de- 
ceive, but  because  they  almost  cannot  do  otherwise.  And 
they  do  not  deceive  in  any  Machiavellian  way,  with  a 
consciousness  of  the  deception  which  they  practise,  but 
for  the  most  part  with  the  naive  assurance  that  they  are 
doing  something  good  and  elevated,  in  which  opinion  they 
are  constantly  maintained  by  the  sympathy  and  approval 
of  all  the  men  who    surround   them.     It  is  true  that. 


CHRISTIANITY   AND    PATRIOTISM  443 

feeling  dimly  that  their  power  and  their  advantageous 
position  is  based  on  this  deception,  they  are  involuntarily 
drawn  toward  it ;  but  they  do  not  act  because  they  wish 
to  deceive  the  masses,  but  because  they  think  that  the 
work  which  they  are  doing  is  useful  for  the  masses. 

Thus  emperors  and  kings  and  their  ministers,  perform- 
ing their  coronations,  manoeuvres,  inspections,  mutual 
visits,  during  which  time  they,  dressing  themselves  up 
in  all  kinds  of  uniforms  and  travelling  from  one  place 
to  another,  consult  with  one  another  with  serious  faces 
about  how  to  pacify  presumably  hostile  nations  (who  will 
never  think  of  fighting  with  one  another),  are  absolutely 
convinced  that  everything  they  do  is  exceedingly  sensible 
and  useful. 

Similarly  all  the  ministers,  diplomatists,  and  all  kinds 
of  officials,  who  dress  themselves  up  in  their  uniforms, 
with  all  kinds  of  ribbons  and  little  crosses,  and  with  pre- 
occupation write  on  fine  paper  their  obscure,  twisted, 
useless  numbered  reports,  communications,  prescriptions, 
projects,  are  absolutely  convinced  that  without  this  their 
activity  the  whole  life  of  the  nations  will  come  to  a 
standstill  or  will  be  entirely  destroyed. 

Similarly  the  military,  who  dress  themselves  up  in 
their  ridiculous  costumes  and  who  seriously  discuss  with 
what  guns  or  cannon  it  is  better  to  kill  people,  are  fully 
convinced  that  their  manasuvres  and  parades  are  luost 
important  and  necessary  for  the  nation. 

The  same  conviction  is  held  by  the  preachers,  journal- 
ists, and  writers  of  patriotic  verses  and  text-books,  who 
receive  a  liberal  reward  for  preaching  patriotism.  Nor  is 
any  doubt  concerning  this  harboured  by  the  managers 
of  celebrations,  like  the  Franco-Eussian  ones,  who  are 
sincerely  affected  when  they  utter  their  patriotic  speeches 
and  toasts.  All  people  do  unconsciously  what  they  do, 
because  that  is  necessary,  or  because  their  whole  life  is 
based  on  this  deception  and  they  are  unable  to  do  any- 


444  CHRISTIANITY    AND    PATRIOTISM 

thing  else,  while  these  same  acts  evoke  the  sympathy  and 
the  approval  of  all  those  men  among  whom  they  are 
committed.  Not  only  do  they,  being  all  connected  with 
one  another,  approve  and  justify  the  acts  and  the  activi- 
ties of  one  another,  —  the  emperors  and  kings,  the  acts 
of  the  soldiers,  the  officials,  and  the  clergy ;  and  the 
military,  the  officials,  and  the  clergy,  the  acts  of  the 
emperors,  the  kings,  and  one  another,  —  the  popular 
crowd,  especially  the  city  crowd,  which  sees  no  compre- 
hensible meaning  in  everything  which  is  being  done  by 
these  men,  involuntarily  ascribes  a  special,  almost  a 
supernatural  significance  to  them.  The  crowd  sees,  for 
example,  that  triumphal  arches  are  being  erected ;  that 
men  masquerade  in  crowns,  uniforms,  vestments ;  that 
fireworks  are  displayed,  cannon  are  fired,  bells  are  rung, 
regiments  are  marching  with  music,  documents,  telegrams, 
and  couriers  fly  from  one  place  to  another,  and  strangely 
masquerading  men  with  preoccupation  keep  riding  from 
one  place  to  another,  saying  and  writing  something,  and 
so  forth,  —  and,  not  being  able  to  verify  whether  there  is 
the  slightest  need  for  what  is  being  done  (as,  indeed,  there 
is  none),  ascribes  to  all  this  a  special,  mysterious,  and 
important  meaning,  and  with  shouts  of  transport  or  with 
silent  awe  meets  all  these  manifestations.  But  in  the 
meantime  these  expressions  of  transport  and  the  constant 
respect  of  the  crowd  still  more  strengthen  the  assurance 
of  the  men  who  are  doing  all  these  foolish  things. 

Lately  William  II.  ordered  a  new  throne  for  himself, 
with  some  special  ornaments,  and,  dressing  himself  up  in 
a  white  uniform  with  patches,  in  tight  trousers,  and  in  a 
helmet  with  a  bird  on  it,  and  throwing  a  red  mantle  over 
all,  came  out  to  his  subjects  and  seated  himself  on  this 
throne,  with  the  full  assurance  that  this  was  a  very  nec- 
essary and  important  act,  and  his  subjects  not  only  did 
not  see  anything  funny  in  all  this,  but  even  found 
this  spectacle  to  be  very  majestic. 


.-* 


XVL 

The  power  of  the  governments  has  now  for  a  long 
time  ceased  to  be  based  on  force,  as  it  was  based  in  those 
times  when  one  nationality  conquered  another  and  by 
force  of  arms  held  it  in  subjection,  or  when  the  rulers, 
amidst  a  defenceless  people,  maintained  separate  armed 
troops  of  janissaries,  oprichniks,  or  guardsmen.  The  power 
of  the  governments  has  now  for  a  long  time  been  based 
on  what  is  called  public  opinion. 

There  exists  a  public  opinion  that  patriotism  is  a  great 
moral  sentiment,  and  that  it  is  good  and  right  to  consider 
one's  own  nation,  one's  own  state,  the  best  in  the  world, 
and  from  this  there  naturally  establishes  itself  a  public 
opinion  that  it  is  necessary  to  recognize  the  power  of 
the  government  over  ourselves  and  to  submit  to  it ;  that 
it  is  good  and  right  to  serve  in  the  army  and  to  submit 
to  discipline;  that  it  is  good  and  right  to  give  up  our 
savings  in  the  shape  of  taxes  to  the  government ;  that  it 
is  good  and  right  to  submit  to  the  decisions  of  the 
courts;  that  it  is  good  and  right  to  believe  without 
verification  in  what  is  given  out  as  a  divine  truth  by 
the  men  of  the  government. 

Once  such  a  pubhc  opinion  exists,  there  establishes 
itself  a  mighty  power,  which  in  our  time  has  command 
of  milliards  of  money,  of  an  organized  mechanism  of 
government,  the  post,  the  telegraphs,  the  telephones,  disci- 
plined armies,  courts,  the  pohce,  a  submissive  clergy,  the 
school,  even  the  press,  and  this  power  maintains  in  the 
nations  that  public  opinion  wliich  it  needs. 

The  power  of  the  governments  is  maintained  through 

445 


446  CHRISTIANITY   AND    PATRIOTISM 

public  opinion  ;  but,  haviug  the  power,  the  governments 
by  means  of  all  their  organs,  the  officers  of  the  courts,  the 
school,  the  church,  even  the  press,  are  always  able  to  keep 
up  the  public  opinion  which  they  need.  Public  opinion 
produces  power,  —  power  produces  public  opinion.  There 
seems  to  be  no  way  out  from  this  situation. 

Thus  it  would,  indeed,  be,  if  pubhc  opinion  were  some- 
thing stable  and  unchanging,  and  if  the  governments  were 
able  to  produce  the  public  opinion  which  they  need. 

But  fortunately  this  is  not  the  case,  and  public  opinion 
is,  in  the  first  place,  not  something  which  is  constant, 
unchanging,  stable,  but,  on  the  contrary,  something  eter- 
nally changing,  moving  together  with  the  motion  of  human- 
ity ;  and,  in  the  second,  public  opinion  not  only  cannot 
be  produced  by  the  will  of  the  governments,  but  is  that 
which  produces  the  governments  and  gives  them  power 
or  takes  it  away  from  them. 

It  may  appear  that  public  opinion  remains  immovable 
and  now  is  such  as  it  was  decades  ago,  and  it  may 
appear  that  public  opinion  wavers  in  relation  to  certain 
special  cases,  as  though  going  back,  so  that,  for  example, 
it  now  destroys  the  republic,  putting  the  monarchy  in  its 
place,  and  now  again  destroys  the  monarchy,  putting  the 
republic  in  its  place  ;  but  that  only  seems  so  when  we 
view  the  external  manifestations  of  that  public  opinion 
which  is  artificially  produced  by  the  governments.  We 
need  only  take  public  opinion  in  its  relation  to  the  whole 
life  of  men,  and  we  shall  see  that  public  opinion,  just  like  the 
time  of  the  day  or  year,  never  stands  in  one  place,  but  is 
always  in  motion,  always  marching  unrestrictedly  ahead 
along  the  path  on  which  humanity  proceeds,  just  as,  in 
spite  of  retardations  and  waverings,  day  or  spring  moves 
on  unrestrictedly  along  the  path  over  which  the  sun 
travels. 

Thus,  though  by  the  external  signs  the  condition  of  the 
nations  of  Europe  in  our  time  is  nearly  the  same  that  it 


CHRISTIANITY    AND    PATRIOTISM  447 

was  fifty  years  ago,  the  relation  of  the  nations  toward 
it  is  now  entirely  different  from  what  it  was  fifty  years 
ago.  Though  there  exist,  even  as  tifty  years  ago,  the 
same-  rulers,  armies,  wars,  taxes,  luxury,  and  misery, 
the  same  Catholicism,  Orthodoxy,  Lutheranism,  these 
existed  before  because  the  public  opinion  of  the  nations 
demanded  them,  but  now  they  all  exist  because  the 
governments  artificially  maintain  that  which  formerly 
was  a  living  public  opinion. 

If  we  frequently  do  not  notice  this  motion  of  public 
opinion,  as  we  do  not  notice  the  motion  of  water  in  the 
river,  with  the  current  of  which  we  are  swimming,  this  is 
due  to  the  fact  that  those  imperceptible  changes  of  public 
opinion  which  form  its  motion  are  taking  place  in  ourselves. 
The  property  of  public  opinion  is  that  of  constant  and 
unrestricted  motion.  If  it  seems  to  us  that  it  is  standing 
in  one  place,  this  is  due  to  the  fact  that  everywhere  there 
are  people  who  have  estabhshed  an  advantageous  position 
for  themselves  at  a  certain  moment  of  public  opinion,  and 
so  with  all  their  strength  try  to  maintain  it  and  not  to 
admit  the  manifestation  of  the  new,  the  present  public 
opinion  which,  though  not  yet  fully  expressed,  is  living  in 
the  consciousness  of  men.  Such  people,  who  retain  the 
obsolete  public  opinion  and  conceal  the  new,  are  all  those 
who  at  the  present  time  form  the  governments  and  the 
ruling  classes,  and  who  profess  patriotism  as  an  indispen- 
sable condition  of  human  life. 

The  means  which  are  at  the  command  of  these  people 
are  enormous,  but  since  public  opinion  is  something  eter- 
nally flowing  and  increasing,  all  their  efforts  cannot  help 
but  be  vain  :  the  old  grows  old,  and  the  youthful  grows. 

The  longer  the  expression  of  the  new  public  opinion 
shall  be  retained,  the  more  it  will  grow,  and  the  greater 
will  be  the  force  with  which  it  will  express  itself'  The 
government  and  the  ruling  classes  try  witli  all  their 
strength  to  retaiu  that  old  public  opinion  of  patriotism,  on 


448  CHRISTIANITY   AND    PATRIOTISM 

which  their  power  is  based,  and  to  retard  the  manifestation 
of  the  new,  which  will  destroy  it.  But  it  is  possible  only 
within  certain  limits  to  retain  the  old  and  retard  the  new, 
just  as  running  water  can  be  held  back  by  a  dam  only 
within  certain  limits. 

No  matter  how  much  the  governments  may  try  to  rouse 
in  the  nations  the  past  public  opinion,  now  no  longer 
characteristic  of  them,  concerning  the  dignity  and  virtue 
of  patriotism,  the  men  of  our  time  no  longer  believe  in 
patriotism,  but  more  and  more  believe  in  the  solidarity 
and  brotherhood  of  the  nations.  Patriotism  now  presents 
to  men  nothing  but  the  most  terrible  future ;  but  the 
brotherhood  of  the  nations  forms  that  ideal  which  more 
and  more  grows  to  be  comprehensible  and  desirable  for 
humanity.  And  so  the  transition  of  men  from  the  for- 
mer obsolete  public  opinion  to  the  new  must  inevitably 
be  accomplished.  This  transition  is  as  inevitable  as  the 
falling  of  the  last  sere  leaves  in  autumn  and  the  unfold- 
ing of  the  young  leaves  in  swelling  buds. 

The  longer  this  transition  is  delayed,  the  more  impera- 
tive does  it  become,  and  the  more  obvious  is  its  necessity. 

Indeed,  we  need  only  recall  what  it  is  we  are  professing, 
as  Christians,  and  simply  as  men  of  our  time,  we  need 
but  recall  those  moral  bases  which  guide  us  in  our  pubhc, 
domestic,  and  private  life,  and  that  position  in  which  we 
have  placed  ourselves  in  the  name  of  patriotism,  in  order 
that  we  may  see  what  degree  of  contradiction  we  have 
reached  between  our  consciousness  and  that  which  among 
us,  thanks  to  the  intensified  influence  of  the  government 
in  this  respect,  is  regarded  as  our  public  opinion. 

We  need  only  reflect  on  those  very  usual  demands  of 
patriotism,  which  present  themselves  to  us  as  something 
very  simple  and  natural,  in  order  that  we  may  understand 
to  what  extent  these  demands  contradict  that  real  public 
opinion  which  we  all  share  now.  We  all  consider  our- 
selves free,  cultured,  humane  men,  and  even  Christians, 


CHRISTIANITY   AND   PATRIOTISM  449 

and  at  the  same  time  we  are  in  such  a  position  that  if 
to-morrow  William  takes  umbrage  at  Alexander,  or  Mr, 

N writes  a  clever  article  on  the  Eastern  question,  or 

some  prince  robs  the  Bulgarians  or  the  Servians,  or  some 
queen  or  empress  takes  offence  at  something,  we  all,  the 
cultured,  humane  Christians,  must  go  out  to  kill  men, 
whom  we  do  not  know,  and  toward  whom  we  are  friendly- 
disposed,  as  toward  all  men.  If  this  has  not  yet  happened, 
we  owe  tliis,  as  we  are  assured,  to  the  peaceful  mind  of 
Alexander  III.,  or  to  this,  that  Nicholas  Aleksandrovich 
is  going  to  marry  Victoria's  grandchild.  But  let  another 
man  be  in  the  place  of  Alexander,  or  let  Alexander  himself 
change  his  mood,  or  Nicholas  Aleksandrovich  marry  Ama- 
lia,  and  not  Alice,  and  we  shall  throw  ourselves  like  blood- 
thirsty animals  upon  one  another,  to  take  out  one  another's 
guts.  Such  is  the  supposed  public  opinion  of  our  time. 
Such  opinions  are  calmly  repeated  in  all  the  leading  and 
liberal  organs  of  the  press. 

If  we,  the  Christians  of  one  thousand  years'  standing, 
have  not  yet  cut  one  another's  throats,  it  is  because  Alex- 
ander 111.  does  not  let  us  do  so. 

This  is,  indeed,  terrible. 


XVIL 

For  the  greatest  and  most  important  changes  to  take 
place  in  the  life  of  humanity,  no  exploits  are  needed,  — 
neither  the  armament  of  millions  of  soldiers,  nor  the  con- 
struction of  new  roads  and  machines,  nor  the  establishment 
of  exhibitions,  nor  the  establishment  of  labour-unions,  nor 
revolutions,  nor  barricades,  nor  explosions,  nor  the  inven- 
tion of  aerial  motion,  and  so  forth,  but  only  a  change  in 
public  opinion.  But  for  public  opinion  to  change,  no 
efforts  of  the  mind  are  needed,  nor  the  rejection  of  any- 
thing existing,  nor  the  invention  of  anything  unusual  and 
new ;  all  that  is  needed  is,  that  every  separate  man  should 
say  what  he  actually  thinks  and  feels,  or  at  least  should  not 
say  what  he  does  not  think.  Let  men,  even  a  small  number 
of  them,  do  so,  and  the  obsolete  public  opinion  will  fall  of 
its  own  accord  and  there  will  be  manifested  the  youthful, 
live,  present  public  opinion.  And  let  public  opinion  change, 
and  the  inner  structure  of  men's  Kfe,  which  torments  and 
pains  them,  will  be  changed  without  any  effort.  It  is 
really  a  shame  to  think  how  little  is  needed  for  all  men 
to  be  freed  from  all  those  calamities  which  now  oppress 
them ;  they  need  only  stop  lying.  Let  men  only  not  suc- 
cumb to  that  lie  which  is  inculcated  on  them,  let  them 
not  say  what  they  do  not  think  or  feel,  and  immediately 
a  revolution  will  take  place  in  the  whole  structure  of  our 
life,  such  as  the  revolutionists  will  not  accomplish  in  cen- 
turies, even  if  all  the  power  were  in  their  hands. 

If  men  only  believed  that  the  strength  is  not  in  strength, 
but  in  the  truth,  and  if  they  boldly  expressed  it,  or  at  least 

450 


CHRISTIANITY   AND   PATKIOTISM  451 

3id  not  depart  from  it  in  words  and  deeds,  —  if  they  did 
Qot  say  what  they  do  not  think,  and  did  not  do  what  they 
consider  bad  and  stupid. 

"  What  harm  is  there  in  crying  *  Vive  la  France  ! '  or 
'  Hurrah ! '  to  some  emperor,  king,  victor,  or  in  going  in  a 
uniform,  with  the  chamberlain's  key,  to  wait  for  him  in 
the  antechamber,  to  bow,  and  to  address  him  by  strange 
titles,  and  then  to  impress  all  young  and  uncultured  men 
with  the  fact  that  this  is  very  praiseworthy  ? "  Or,  "  What 
harm  is  there  in  writing  an  article  in  defence  of  the  Frauco- 
Eussiau  alliance  or  the  Customs  War,  or  in  condemnation 
of  the  Germans,  Russians,  Frenchmen,  Englishmen  ? "  Or, 
"  What  harm  is  there  in  attending  some  patriotic  celebra- 
tion and  eulogizing  men  whom  you  do  not  care  for  and 
have  nothing  to  do  with,  and  drinking  their  health  ?  "  Or 
even,  "  What  harm  is  there  in  recognizing,  in  a  conversa- 
tion, the  benefit  and  usefulness  of  treaties,  or  alliances,  or 
even  in  keeping  silent,  when  your  nation  and  state  is 
praised  in  your  presence,  and  other  nationalities  are  cursed 
and  blackened,  or  when  Catholicism,  Orthodoxy,  Luther- 
anism  are  praised,  or  when  some  war  hero  or  ruler,  like 
Napoleon,  Peter,  or  the  contemporary  Boulanger  or  Skdbe- 
lev,  are  praised  ?  " 

All  that  seems  so  unimportant,  and  yet  in  these  seem- 
ingly unimportant  acts,  in  our  aloofness  from  them,  in  our 
readiness  to  point  out,  according  to  our  strength,  the  irra- 
tionahty  of  what  is  obviously  irrational,  —  in  this  does 
our  great,  invincible  power  consist,  the  power  which  com- 
poses that  insuperable  force  which  forms  the  real,  actual, 
public  opinion,  which,  moving  itself,  moves  the  whole  of 
humanity.  The  governments  know  this,  and  tremble  be- 
fore this  force,  and  with  all  the  means  at  their  command 
try  to  counteract  it  and  to  get  possession  of  it. 

They  know  that  the  force  is  not  in  force,  but  in  thought 
and  in  its  clear  enunciation,  and  so  they  are  more  afraid  of 
the  expression  of  independent  thought  than  of  armies,  and 


452  CHRISTIANITY    AND    PATRIOTISM 

establish  censorships,  bribe  newspapers,  take  possession  of 
the  management  of  religion  and  of  schools.  But  the 
spiritual  force  which  moves  the  world  slips  away  from 
them :  it  is  not  even  in  a  book,  a  newspaper,  —  it  is  in- 
tangible and  always  free,  —  it  is  in  the  depth  of  men's 
consciousness.  The  most  powerful,  intangible,  freest  force 
is  the  one  which  is  manifested  in  man's  soul,  when  he  by 
himself  reflects  on  the  phenomena  of  the  world,  and  then 
involuntarily  expresses  his  thoughts  to  his  wife,  brother, 
friend,  to  all  those  men  with  whom  he  comes  together, 
and  from  whom  he  considers  it  a  sin  to  conceal  what  he 
regards  as  the  truth.  No  milliards  of  roubles,  milHons  of 
soldiers,  no  institutions,  nor  wars,  nor  revolutions  will  pro- 
duce what  will  be  produced  by  the  simple  expression  of  a 
free  man  as  to  what  he  considers  just,  independently  of 
what  exists  and  what  is  inculcated  upon  him. 

One  free  man  will  truthfully  say  what  he  thinks  and 
feels,  amidst  thousands  of  men,  who  by  their  acts  and 
words  affirm  the  very  opposite.  It  would  seem  that  the 
man  who  frankly  expressed  his  thought  would  remain 
alone,  while  in  reality  it  happens  that  all  those  men,  or 
the  majority  of  them,  have  long  been  thinking  and  feeling 
the  same,  but  have  not  expressed  their  thought.  And 
what  yesterday  was  the  new  opinion  of  one  man,  to-day 
becomes  the  common  opinion  of  all  men.  And  as  soon  as 
this  opinion  has  established  itself,  men's  acts  begin  to 
change  imperceptibly,  slowly,  but  irresistibly. 

For,  as  it  is,  every  free  man  says  to  himself :  "  What 
can  I  do  against  all  this  sea  of  evil  and  deceit,  which 
inundates  me  ?  Why  should  I  give  expression  to  my 
thought  ?  Why  even  give  form  to  it  ?  It  is  better  not 
to  think  of  these  obscure  and  intricate  questions.  Maybe 
these  contradictions  form  an  inevitable  condition  of  all 
the  phenomena  of  life.  And  why  should  I  alone  struggle 
against  all  this  evil  of  the  world  ?  Would  it  not  be  better 
if  I  abandoned  myself  to  the  current  which  sweeps  me 


I 


CHRISTIANITY   AND    PATRIOTISM  453 

along  ?  If  anything  can  be  done,  it  can  be  done  only  in 
conjunction  with  other  men." 

And,  abandoning  that  powerful  instrument  of  thought 
and  its  expression,  which  moves  the  world,  this  man  takes 
up  the  instrument  of  public  activity,  without  noticing  that 
all  public  activity  is  based  on  the  very  principles  against 
which  he  has  to  struggle,  that  in  entering  upon  any  pub- 
He  activity  which  exists  amidst  our  world,  he  must  at  least 
partially  depart  from  the  truth,  make  such  concessions  as 
will  destroy  the  wliole  force  of  that  powerful  instrument 
of  the  struggle  which  is  given  to  him.  It  is  as  though  a 
man,  into  whose  hands  an  unusually  sharp  dagger  is  given, 
one  that  cuts  everything,  should  drive  in  nails  with  the 
blade. 

We  all  deplore  the  senseless  order  of  life  which  con- 
tradicts all  our  existence,  and  yet  not  only  fail  to  make 
use  of  the  one  most  powerful  tool,  which  is  in  our  hands, 
—  the  recognition  of  the  truth  and  its  expression,  —  but, 
on  the  contrary,  under  the  pretext  of  struggling  with  evil, 
destroy  this  tool  and  sacrifice  it  to  the  imaginary  struggle 
against  this  order. 

One  man  does  not  tell  the  truth  which  he  knows,  be- 
cause he  feels  himself  under  obligation  to  the  men  with 
whom  he  is  connected ;  another,  —  because  the  truth 
might  deprive  him  of  the  advantageous  position  by  means 
of  which  he  is  supporting  his  family ;  a  third,  —  because 
he  wants  to  attain  glory  and  power,  to  use  them  later  in 
the  service  of  men ;  a  fourth,  —  because  he  does  not  wish 
to  violate  the  ancient  sacred  traditions  ;  i.  fifth,  —  because 
the  expression  of  the  truth  will  provoke  persecution  and 
will  impair  that  good  public  activity  to  which  he  is  de- 
voting himself,  or  intends  to  devote  himself. 

One  man  serves  as  an  emperor,  king,  minister,  official, 
soldier,  and  assures  himself  and  others  that  the  deviation 
from  the  truth  which  is  necessary  in  his  position  is  more 
than  redeemed  by  his  usefulness. 


454  CHRISTIANITY    AND    PATRIOTISM 

Another  exercises  the  office  of  a  spiritual  pastor,  though 
in  the  depth  of  his  heart  he  does  not  believe  in  what  he 
teaches,  permitting  himself  a  deviation  from  the  truth  in 
view  of  the  good  which  he  does.  A  third  instructs  men 
in  literature  and,  in  spite  of  the  suppression  of  the  whole 
truth,  in  order  not  to  provoke  the  government  and  society 
against  himself,  has  no  doubt  as  to  the  good  which  he 
does ;  a  fourth  simply  struggles  against  the  existing  order, 
as  do  the  revolutionists  and  anarchists,  and  is  fully  con- 
vinced that  the  aim  which  he  pursues  is  so  beneficent  that 
the  suppression  of  the  truth,  which  is  indispensable  in  his 
activity,  and  even  lying  will  not  destroy  the  good  effect  of 
his  activity. 

For  the  order  of  life  which  is  contrary  to  the  conscious- 
ness of  men  to  give  way  to  one  in  accord  with  it,  it  is 
necessary  for  the  obsolete  pubHc  opinion  to  give  way  to  a 
live  and  new  one. 

For  the  old,  obsolete  public  opinion  to  give  way  to  the 
new,  live  one,  it  is  necessary  that  the  men  who  are 
conscious  of  the  new  demands  of  life  should  clearly  ex- 
press them.  Meanwhile  all  the  men  who  recognize  all 
these  new  demands,  one  in  the  name  of  one  thing,  and 
another  in  the  name  of  another,  not  only  repress  them, 
but  even  in  words  and  deeds  confirm  what  is  directly 
opposed  to  these  demands.  Only  the  truth  and  its 
expression  can  establish  that  new  public  opinion  which 
will  change  the  obsolete  and  harmful  order  of  hfe ;  we, 
however,  not  only  do  not  express  the  truth  which  we 
know,  but  frequently  even  express  precisely  what  we  con- 
sider to  be  an  untruth. 

If  free  men  would  only  not  depend  on  what  has  no 
force  and  is  never  free,  —  on  external  power,  —  and  would 
always  believe  in  what  is  always  powerful  and  free,  —  in 
the  truth  and  its  expression.  If  men  only  expressed 
boldly  the  truth,  already  revealed  to  them,  about  the 
brotherhood  of  all  the  nations  and  about  the  criminality 


CHRISTIANITY   AND    PATRIOTISM  455 

of  the  exclusive  membership  in  one  nation,  the  dead, 
false  public  opinion,  on  which  the  whole  power  of  the 
governments  is  based,  and  all  the  evil  produced  by  them, 
would  fall  off  by  itself  like  a  dried-up  skin,  and  there 
would  appear  that  new,  live  public  opinion,  which  is  only 
waiting  for  the  sloughing  off  of  the  hampering  old  opinion, 
in  order  clearly  and  boldly  to  proclaim  its  demands  and 
establish  the  new  forms  of  life  in  accordance  with  the 
consciousness  of  men. 


xvin. 

Men  need  but  understand  that  what  is  given  out  to 
them  as  public  opinion,  what  is  maintained  by  such 
complex  and  artificial  means,  is  not  public  opinion,  but 
only  the  dead  consequence  of  the  quondam  public  opinion  ; 
they  need  only,  above  all,  believe  in  themselves,  in  this, 
that  what  is  cognized  by  them  in  the  depth  of  their 
hearts,  what  begs  for  recognition  and  finds  no  expression 
only  because  it  contradicts  public  opinion,  is  that  force 
which  changes  the  world,  and  the  manifestation  of  which 
forms  man's  destiny  ;  men  need  but  believe  that  the 
truth  is  not  what  men  about  him  say,  but  what  his  con- 
science, that  is,  God,  says  to  him,  and  immediately  there 
will  disappear  the  false,  artificially  sustained  public  opin- 
ion, and  the  true  one  will  be  established. 

If  men  only  said  what  they  believe,  and  did  not  say 
what  they  do  not  believe,  there  would  immediately  dis- 
appear the  superstitions  that  result  from  patriotism,  and 
all  the  evil  feelings  and  all  the  violence,  which  are  based 
on  them.  There  would  disappear  the  hatred  and  hostility 
of  states  against  states  and  of  nationalities  against  nation- 
alities, which  are  fanned  by  the  governments  ;  there  would 
disappear  the  eulogizing  of  military  exploits,  that  is,  of 
murder  ;  there  would,  above  all  else,  disappear  the  respect 
for  the  authorities,  the  surrender  of  people's  labours  and 
the  submission  to  them,  for  which  there  are  no  founda- 
tions outside  of  patriotism. 

Let  all  this  be  done,  and  immediately  all  that  vast 
mass  of  weak  men,  who  are  always  guided  from  without, 
will  sweep  over  to  the  side  of  the  new  public  opinion. 

456 


CHRISTIANITY   AND   PATRIOTISM  457 

And  the  new  public  opinion  will  become  the  ruling  one  in 
the  place  of  the  old  public  opinion. 

Let  the  governments  have  possession  of  the  school,  the 
church,  the  press,  milliards  of  roubles,  and  millions  of 
disciplined  men  turned  into  machines,  —  all  that  appar- 
ently terrible  organization  of  rude  force  is  nothing  in 
comparison  with  the  recognition  of  the  truth,  which 
arises  in  the  heart  of  one  man  who  knows  the  force  of 
the  truth,  and  is  communicated  by  this  man  to  another,  a 
third  man,  just  as  an  endless  number  of  candles  are 
hghted  from  one.  This  light  need  only  burn,  and,  like 
the  wax  before  the  face  of  the  lire,  all  this  seemingly  so 
powerful  organization  will  waste  away. 

If  men  only  understood  that  terrible  power  which  is 
given  them  in  the  word  which  expresses  the  truth.  If 
men  only  did  not  sell  their  birthright  for  a  mess  of  pottage. 
If  men  only  made  use  of  this  power  of  theirs,  —  the 
rulers  would  not  only  not  dare,  as  they  dare  now,  to 
threaten  men  with  universal  slaughter,  to  which  they  will 
drive  men  or  not,  as  they  may  see  fit,  but  would  not  even 
dare  in  the  sight  of  peaceable  citizens  to  bring  the  disci- 
plined murderers  out  on  parade  or  in  manoeuvres ;  the 
governments  would  not  dare  for  their  own  profit,  for 
the  advantage  of  their  accomplices,  to  make  and  unmake 
customs  treaties,  and  they  would  not  dare  to  collect  from 
the  people  those  millions  of  roubles  which  they  distribute 
to  their  accomplices  and  for  which  they  prepare  them- 
selves for  the  commission  of  murder. 

And  so  the  change  is  not  only  possible,  but  it  is  even 
irupossible  for  it  not  to  take  place,  as  it  is  impossible  for 
an  overgrown,  dead  tree  not  to  rot,  and  for  a  young  one 
not  to  grow.  "  Peace  I  leave  with  you,  my  peace  I  give 
unto  you:  not  as  the  world  giveth  give  I  unto  you  ;  let 
not  your  heart  be  troubled,  neither  let  it  be  afraid,"  said 
Christ.  And  this  peace  is  actually  already  among  us,  and 
it  depends  on  us  to  attain  it. 


458  CHRISTIANITY   AND   PATRIOTISM 

If  only  the  hearts  of  separate  men  did  not  grow  faint 
from  those  temptations  with  which  they  are  tempted  every 
hour,  and  if  they  were  not  frightened  by  those  imaginary 
fears  with  which  they  are  terrified.  If  men  only  knew  in 
what  their  mighty,  all-conquering  force  consists,  the  peace 
for  which  men  have  always  wished,  not  the  one  which  is 
obtained  by  means  of  diplomatic  treaties,  journeys  of  em- 
perors and  kings  from  one  city  to  another,  dinners, 
speeches,  fortresses,  cannon,  dynamite,  and  melenite,  but 
the  one  which  is  obtained  not  by  the  exhaustion  of  the 
masses  by  taxes,  not  by  tearing  the  flower  of  the  popula- 
tion away  from  work  and  debauching  them,  but  by  the 
free  profession  of  the  truth  by  every  separate  individual, 
would  long  ago  have  come  to  us. 

Moscow,  March  17, 1894. 


REASON  AND   RELIGION 

1895 


I 


REASON  AND   RELIGION 


You  ask  me : 

1.  Should  people  who  are  not  particularly  advanced 
mentally  seek  an  expression  in  words  for  the  truths  of 
the  inner  life,  as  comprehended  by  them  ? 

2.  Is  it  worth  while  in  one's  inner  life  to  strive  after 
complete  consciousness  ? 

3.  What  are  we  to  be  guided  by  in  moments  of  struggle 
and  wavering,  that  we  may  know  whether  it  is  indeed  our 
conscience  that  is  speaking  in  us,  or  whether  it  is  reflec- 
tion, which  is  bribed  by  our  weakness  ?  (The  third  ques- 
tion I  for  brevity's  sake  expressed  in  my  own  words, 
without  having  changed  its  meaning,  I  hope.) 

These  three  questions  in  my  opinion  reduce  themselves 
to  one,  —  the  second,  because,  if  it  is  not  necessary  for  us 
to  strive  after  a  full  consciousness  of  our  inner  life,  it 
will  be  also  unnecessary  and  impossible  for  us  to  express 
in  words  the  truths  which  we  have  grasped,  and  in 
moments  of  wavering  we  shall  have  nothing  to  be  guided 
by,  in  order  to  ascertain  whether  it  is  our  conscience  or  a 
false  reflection  that  is  speaking  within  us.  But  if  it  is 
necessary  to  strive  after  the  greatest  consciousness  acces- 
sible to  human  reason  (whatever  this  reason  may  be),  it  is 
also  necessary  to  express  the  truths  grasped  by  us  in  words, 
and  it  is  these  expressed  truths  which  liave  been  carried 
into  full  consciousness  that  we  have  to  be  guided  by  in 

moments  of  struggle  and  wavering.   And  so  I  answer  your 

461 


462  REASON"  AND  RELIGION 

radical  question  in  the  affirmative,  namely,  that  every 
man,  for  the  fulfilment  of  his  destiny  upon  earth  and  for 
the  attainment  of  the  true  good  (the  two  things  go  to- 
gether), must  strain  all  the  forces  of  his  mind  for  the 
purpose  of  elucidating  to  himself  those  religious  bases  by 
which  he  lives,  that  is,  the  meaning  of  his  life. 

I  have  frequently  met  among  illiterate  earth-diggers, 
who  have  to  figure  out  cubic  contents,  the  wide-spread 
conviction  that  the  mathematical  calculation  is  deceptive, 
and  that  it  is  not  to  be  trusted.  Either  because  they  do 
not  know  any  mathematics,  or  because  the  men  who 
figured  things  out  mathematically  for  them  had  fre- 
quently consciously  or  unconsciously  deceived  them,  the 
opinion  that  mathematics  was  inadequate  and  useless  for 
the  calculation  of  measures  has  established  itself  as  an 
undoubted  truth  which  they  think  it  is  even  unnecessary 
to  prove.  Just  such  an  opinion  has  established  itself 
among,  I  shall  say  it  boldly,  irreligious  men,  —  an  opinion 
that  reason  cannot  solve  any  religious  questions,  —  that 
the  application  of  reason  to  these  questions  is  the  chief 
cause  of  errors,  that  the  solution  of  religious  questions  by 
means  of  reason  is  criminal  pride. 

I  say  this,  because  the  doubt,  expressed  in  your  ques- 
tions, as  to  whether  it  is  necessary  to  strive  after  con- 
sciousness in  our  religious  convictions,  can  be  based  only 
on  this  supposition,  namely,  that  reason  cannot  be  applied 
to  the  solution  of  religious  questions.  However,  such 
a  supposition  is  as  strange  and  obviously  false  as  the 
supposition  that  calculation  cannot  settle  any  mathe- 
matical questions. 

God  has  given  man  but  one  tool  for  the  cognition  of 
himself  and  his  relation  to  the  world,  —  there  is  no  other, 
—  and  this  tool  is  reason,  and  suddenly  he  is  told  that  he 
can  use  his  reason  for  the  elucidation  of  his  domestic, 
economic,  political,  scientific,  artistic  questions,  but  not 
for  the  elucidation  of  what  it  is  given  him  for.     It  turns 


REASON   AND    RELIGION  463 

out  that  for  the  elucidation  of  the  most  important  truths, 
of  those  on  which  his  whole  life  depends,  a  man  must  by- 
no  means  employ  reason,  but  must  recognize  these  truths 
as  beyond  reason,  whereas  beyond  reason  a  man  cannot 
cognize  anything.  They  say,  "Find  it  out,  through  reve- 
lation, faith."  But  a  man  cannot  even  beheve  outside  of 
reason.  If  a  man  beheves  in  this,  and  not  in  that,  he  does 
so  only  because  his  reason  tells  him  that  he  ought  to 
beheve  in  this,  and  not  to  believe  in  that.  To  say  that 
a  man  should  not  be  guided  by  reason  is  the  same  as  say- 
ing to  a  man,  who  in  a  dark  underground  room  is  carry- 
ing a  lamp,  that,  to  get  out  from  this  underground  room 
and  find  his  way,  he  ought  to  put  out  his  lamp  and  be 
guided  by  something  different  from  the  light. 

But,  perhaps,  I  shall  be  told,  as  you  say  in  your  letter, 
that  not  all  men  are  endowed  with  a  great  mind  and  with 
a  special  abihty  for  expressing  their  thoughts,  and  that, 
therefore,  an  awkward  expression  of  their  thoughts  con- 
cerning religion  may  lead  to  error.  To  this  I  will  auswer 
in  the  words  of  the  Gospel,  "  What  is  hidden  from  the 
wise  is  revealed  to  babes."  This  saying  is  not  an  exag- 
geration and  not  a  paradox,  as  people  generally  judge  of 
those  utterances  of  the  Gospel  which  do  not  please  them, 
but  the  assertion  of  a  most  simple  and  unquestionable 
truth,  which  is,  that  to  every  being  in  the  world  a,  law  is 
given,  which  this  being  must  follow,  and  that  for  the  cog- 
nition of  this  law  every  being  is  endowed  with  corre- 
sponding organs.  And  so  every  man  is  endowed  with 
reason,  and  in  this  reason  there  is  revealed  to  him  the  law 
which  he  must  follow.  This  law  is  hidden  only  from 
those  who  do  not  want  to  follow  it  and  who,  in  order  not 
to  follow  it,  renounce  reason  and,  instead  of  using  their 
reason  for  the  cognition  of  the  truth,  use  for  this  purpose 
the  indications,  taken  upon  faith,  of  people  like  them- 
selves, who  also  reject  reason. 

But  the  law  which  a  man  must  follow  is  so  simple 


464  REASON   AND   EELIGION 

that  it  is  accessible  to  any  child,  the  more  so  since  a  man 
has  no  longer  any  need  of  discovering  the  law  of  his  life. 
Men  who  lived  before  him  discovered  and  expressed  it, 
and  all  a  man  has  to  do  is  to  verify  them  with  his  reason, 
to  accept  or  not  to  accept  the  propositions  which  he  finds 
expressed  in  the  tradition,  that  is,  not  as  people,  who  wish 
not  to  fulfil  the  law,  advise  us  to  do,  by  verifying  reason 
through  tradition,  but  by  verifying  tradition  through 
reason.  Tradition  may  be  from  men,  and  false,  but  reason 
is  certainly  from  God,  and  cannot  be  false.  And  so,  for 
the  cognition  and  the  expression  of  truth,  there  is  no  need 
of  any  especial  prominent  capacity,  but  only  of  the  faith 
that  reason  is  not  only  the  highest  divine  quality  of  man, 
but  also  the  only  tool  for  the  cognition  of  truth. 

A  special  mind  and  gifts  are  not  needed  for  the  cogni- 
tion and  exposition  of  the  truth,  but  for  the  invention  and 
exposition  of  the  lie.  Having  once  departed  from  the 
indications  of  reason,  men  heap  up  and  take  upon  faith, 
generally  in  the  shape  of  laws,  revelations,  dogmas,  such 
complicated,  unnatural,  and  contradictory  propositions 
that,  in  order  to  expound  them  and  harmonize  them  with 
the  lie,  there  is  actually  a  need  of  astuteness  of  mind  and 
of  a  special  gift.  We  need  only  think  of  a  man  of  our 
world,  educated  in  the  religious  tenets  of  any  Christian 
profession,  —  Catholic,  Orthodox,  Protestant,  — who  wants 
to  elucidate  to  himself  the  religious  tenets  inculcated 
upon  him  since  childhood,  and  to  harmonize  them  with 
life,  —  what  a  comphcated  mental  labour  he  must  go 
through  in  order  to  harmonize  all  the  contradictions  which 
are  found  in  the  profession  inoculated  in  him  by  his  edu- 
cation :  God,  the  Creator  and  the  good,  created  evil,  pun- 
ishes people,  and  demands  redemption,  and  so  forth,  and 
we  profess  the  law  of  love  and  of  forgiveness,  and  we 
punish,  wage  war,  take  away  the  property  from  poor 
people,  and  so  forth,  and  so  forth. 

It  is  for  the  unravelling  of  these  contradictions,  or 


REASON    AND    RELIGION  465 

rather,  for  the  concealment  of  them  from  ourselves,  that 
a  great  mind  and  special  gifts  are  needed ;  but  for  the 
discovery  of  the  law  of  our  life,  or,  as  you  express  it,  in 
order  to  bring  our  faith  into  full  consciousness,  no  special 
mental  gifts  are  needed,  — -  all  that  is  necessary  is  not  to 
admit  anything  that  is  contrary  to  reason,  not  to  reject 
reason,  rehgiously  to  guard  reason,  and  to  believe  in  noth- 
ing else.  If  the  meaning  of  a  man's  life  presents  itself  to 
him  indistinctly,  that  does  not  prove  that  reason  is  of  no 
use  for  the  elucidation  of  this  meaning,  but  only  this, 
that  too  much  of  what  is  irrational  has  been  taken  upon 
faitli,  and  that  it  is  necessary  to  reject  everything  which 
is  not  confirmed  by  reason. 

And  so  my  answer  to  your  fundamental  question,  as  to 
whether  it  is  necessary  to  strive  after  consciousness  in 
our  inner  life,  is  this,  that  this  is  the  most  necessary 
and  important  work  of  our  Hfe.  It  is  necessary  and 
important  because  the  only  rational  meaning  of  our  life 
consists  in  the  fulfilment  of  the  will  of  God  who  sent  us 
into  this  life.  But  the  will  of  God  is  not  recognized  by 
any  special  miracle,  by  the  writing  of  the  law  on  tablets 
with  God's  finger,  or  by  the  composition  of  an  infallible 
book  with  the  aid  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  or  by  the  infallibility 
of  some  holy  person  or  of  an  assembly  of  men,  —  but  only 
by  the  activity  of  the  reason  of  all  men  who  in  deeds  and 
words  transmit  to  one  another  the  truths  which  have 
become  more  and  more  elucidated  to  their  consciousness. 
This  cognition  has  never  been  and  never  will  be  complete, 
but  is  constantly  increased  with  the  movement  of  human- 
ity :  the  longer  we  live,  the  more  clearly  do  we  recognize 
God's  will  and,  consequently,  what  we  ought  to  do  for  its 
fulfilment.  And  so  I  think  that  the  elucidation  by  any 
man  (no  matter  how  small  he  himself  and  others  may 
consider  him  to  be  —  it  is  the  little  ones  who  are  great) 
of  the  whole  religious  truth,  as  it  is  accessible  to  him,  and 
its  expression  in  words  (since  the  expression  in  words  is 


466  REASON   AND   RELIGION 

the  one  unquestionable  symptom  of  a  complete  clearness 
of  ideas)  is  one  of  the  most  important  and  most  sacred 
duties  of  man. 

I    shall   be  very   much  pleased   if   my  answer   shall 
satisfy  you  even  in  part. 


i 


PATRIOTISM   OR   PEACE 

l^etter  to   Manson 
1896 


i 


PATRIOTISM  OR  PEACE 

Letter    to   Manson 


Dear  Sir  :  —  You  write  to  me  asking  me  to  express 
myself  in  respect  to  the  United  States  of  North  America 
"  in  the  interests  of  Christian  consistency  and  true  peace," 
and  express  the  hope  that  "  the  nations  will  soon  awaken 
to  the  one  means  of  securing  national  peace." 

I  harbour  the  same  hope.  I  harbour  the  same  hope, 
because  the  blindness  in  our  time  of  the  nations  that 
extol  patriotism,  l)ring  up  their  young  generations  in  the 
superstition  of  patriotism,  and,  at  the  same  time,  do  not 
wish  for  the  inevitable  consequences  of  patriotism, — 
war,  —  has,  it  seems  to  me,  reached  such  a  last  stage  that 
the  simplest  reflection,  which  begs  for  utterance  in  the 
mouth  of  every  unprejudiced  man,  is  suflficient,  in  order 
that  men  may  see  the  crying  contradiction  in  which 
they  are. 

Frequently,  when  you  ask  children  which  they  will 
choose  of  two  things  which  are  incompatible,  but  which 
they  want  alike,  they  answer,  "  Both." 

"  Which  do  you  want,  —  to  go  out  driving  or  to  stay  at 
home  ?"  —  "  Both,  —  go  out  driving  and  stay  at  home." 

Just  so  the  Christian  nations  answer  the  question  which 
life  puts  to  them,  as  to  which  they  will  choose,  patriotism 
or    peace,    they    answer    "  Both    patriotism    and    peace," 

46y 


470  PATRIOTISM    OR   PEACE 

though  it  is  as  impossible  to  unite  patriotism  with 
peace,  as  at  the  same  time  to  go  out  driving  and  stay  at 
home. 

The  other  day  there  arose  a  difference  between  the 
United  States  and  England  concerning  the  borders  of 
Venezuela.  Salisbury  for  some  reason  did  not  agree 
to  something ;  Cleveland  wrote  a  message  to  the  Senate ; 
from  either  side  were  raised  patriotic  warlike  cries ;  a 
panic  ensued  upon  'Change ;  people  lost  milhons  of 
pounds  and  of  dollars ;  Edison  announced  that  he  would 
invent  engines  with  which  it  would  be  possible  to  kill 
more  men  in  an  hour  than  Attila  had  killed  in  all  his 
wars,  and  both  nations  began  energetically  to  arm  them- 
selves for  war.  But  because,  simultaneously  with  these 
preparations  for  war,  both  in  England  and  in  America,  all 
kinds  of  literary  men,  princes,  and  statesmen  began  to 
admonish  their  respective  governments  to  abstain  from 
war,  saying  that  the  subject  under  discussion  was  not 
sufficiently  important  to  begin  a  war  for,  especially  between 
two  related  Anglo-Saxon  nations,  speaking  the  same  lan- 
guage, who  ought  not  to  war  among  themselves,  but 
ought  calmly  to  govern  others ;  or  because  all  kinds  of 
bishops,  archdeacons,  canons  prayed  and  preached  con- 
cerning the  matter  in  all  the  churches  ;  or  because  neither 
side  considered  itself  sufficiently  prepared,  —  it  happened 
that  there  was  no  war  just  then.     And  people  calmed  down. 

But  a  person  has  to  have  too  little  perspicacity  not  to 
see  that  the  causes  which  now  are  leading  to  a  conflict 
between  England  and  America  have  remained  the  same, 
and  that,  if  even  the  present  conflict  shall  be  settled  with- 
out a  war,  there  will  inevitably  to-morrow  or  the  day 
after  appear  other  conflicts,  between  England  and  Eussia, 
between  England  and  Turkey,  in  all  possible  permutations, 
as  they  arise  every  day,  and  one  of  these  will  lead  to  war. 

If  two  armed  men  live  side  by  side,  having  been  im- 
pressed from  childhood  with  the  idea  that  power,  wealth, 


PATRIOTISM   OE   PEACE  471 

and  glory  are  the  highest  virtues,  and  that,  therefore,  to 
acquire  power,  wealth,  and  glory  by  means  of  arms,  to  the 
detriment  of  other  neighbouring  possessors,  is  a  very 
praiseworthy  matter,  and  if  at  the  same  time  there  is  no 
moral,  religious,  or  political  restraint  for  these  men,  is  it 
not  evident  that  such  people  will  always  fight,  that  the 
normal  relation  between  them  will  be  war  ?  and  that,  if 
such  people,  having  clutched  one  another,  have  separated 
for  awhile,  they  have  done  so  only,  as  the  French  prov- 
erb says,  "  2Jour  mieux  sauter,"  that  is,  they  have  separa- 
ted to  take  a  better  run,  to  throw  themselves  with  greater 
fury  upon  one  another  ? 

Strange  is  the  egotism  of  private  individuals,  but  the 
egotists  of  private  life  are  not  armed,  do  not  consider  it 
right  either  to  prepare  or  use  arms  against  their  adversa- 
ries ;  the  egotism  of  private  individuals  is  under  the  con- 
trol of  the  political  power  and  of  public  opinion.  A 
private  person  who  with  gun  in  his  hand  takes  away  his 
neighbour's  cow,  or  a  desyatina  of  his  crop,  will  immedi- 
ately be  seized  by  a  policeman  and  put  into  prison.  Be- 
sides, such  a  man  will  be  condemned  by  pubhc  opinion,  — 
he  will  be  called  a  thief  and  robber.  It  is  quite  different 
with  the  states :  they  are  all  armed,  —  there  is  no  power 
over  them,  except  the  comical  attempts  at  catching  a 
bird  by  pouring  some  salt  on  its  tail,  —  attempts  at  es- 
tablishing international  congresses,  which,  apparently, 
will  never  be  accepted  by  the  powerful  states  (who  are 
armed  for  the  very  purpose  that  they  may  not  pay  any 
attention  to  any  one),  and,  above  all,  public  opinion,  wliich 
rebukes  every  act  of  violence  in  a  private  individual,  ex- 
tols, raises  to  the  virtue  of  patriotism  every  appropriation 
of  what  belong  to  others,  for  the  increase  of  the  power  of 
the  country. 

Open  the  newspapers  for  any  period  you  may  wish, 
and  at  any  moment  you  will  see  the  black  spot,  —  the 
cause    of    every    possible    war:    now    it    is    Korea,    now 


472  PATKIOTISM    OR   PEACE 

the  Pamir,  now  the  lands  in  Africa,  now  Abyssinia, 
now  Turkey,  now  Venezuela,  now  the  Transvaal.  The 
work  of  the  robbers  does  not  stop  for  a  moment,  and 
here  and  there  a  small  war,  like  an  exchange  of  shots  in 
the  cordon,  is  going  on  all  the  time,  and  the  real  war  can 
and  will  begin  at  any  moment. 

If  an  American  wishes  the  preferential  grandeur  and 
well-being  of  America  above  all  other  nations,  and  the 
same  is  desired  for  his  state  by  an  EngHshman,  and  a 
Eussian,  and  a  Turk,  and  a  Dutchman,  and  an  Abyssinian, 
and  a  citizen  of  Venezuela  and  of  the  Transvaal,  and  an 
Armenian,  and  a  Pole,  and  a  Bohemian,  and  all  of  them 
are  convinced  that  these  desires  need  not  only  not  be  con- 
cealed or  repressed,  but  should  be  a  matter  of  pride  and 
be  developed  in  themselves  and  in  others ;  and  if  the 
greatness  and  well-being  of  one  countiy  or  nation  cannot 
be  obtained  except  to  the  detriment  of  another  nation, 
frequently  of  many  countries  and  nations,  —  how  can  war 
be  avoided  ? 

And  so,  not  to  have  any  war,  it  is  not  necessary  to 
preach  and  pray  to  God  about  peace,  to  persuade  the 
English-speaking  nations  that  they  ought  to  be  friendly 
toward  one  another,  in  order  to  be  able  to  rule  over  other 
nations ;  to  form  double  and  triple  alliances  agaiQst  one 
another ;  to  marry  princes  to  princesses  of  other  nations,  — 
but  to  destroy  what  produces  war.  But  what  produces 
war  is  the  desire  for  an  exclusive  good  for  one's  own 
nation,  —  what  is  called  patriotism.  And  so  to  aboHsh 
war,  it  is  necessary  to  abohsh  patriotism,  and  to  abolish 
patriotism,  it  is  necessary  first  to  become  convinced  that 
it  is  an  evil,  and  that  it  is  hard  to  do.  Tell  people 
that  war  is  bad,  and  they  will  laugh  at  you :  who  does 
not  know  that  ?  Tell  them  that  patriotism  is  bad,  and  the 
majority  of  people  wiU  agree  with  you,  but  with  a  small 
proviso.  "  Yes,  bad  patriotism  is  bad,  but  there  is  also 
another  patriotism,  the  one  we  adhere  to."     But  wherein 


PATRIOTISM    OR    PEACE  473 

this  good  patriotism  consists  no  one  can  explain.  If  good 
patriotism  consists  in  not  being  acquisitive,  as  many  say, 
it  is  none  the  less  retentive ;  that  is,  men  want  to  retain 
what  was  formerly  acquired,  since  there  is  no  country 
which  was  not  based  on  conquest,  and  it  is  impossible  to 
retain  what  is  conquered  by  any  other  means  than  those 
by  which  it  was  acquired,  that  is,  by  violence  and  mur- 
der. But  even  if  patriotism  is  not  retentive,  it  is  restora- 
tive,—  the  patriotism  of  the  vanquished  and  oppressed 
nations,  the  Armenians,  Poles,  Bohemians,  Irish,  and  so 
forth.  This  patriotism  is  almost  the  very  worst,  because 
it  is  the  most  enraged  and  demands  the  greatest  degree 
of  violence. 

Patriotism  cannot  be  good.  Why  do  not  people  say 
that  egotism  can  be  good,  though  this  may  be  asserted 
more  easily,  because  egotism  is  a  natural  sentiment,  with 
which  a  man  is  born,  while  patriotism  is  an  unnatural 
sentiment,  which  is  artificially  inoculated  in  him  ? 

It  will  be  said :  "  Patriotism  has  united  men  in  states 
and  keeps  up  the  unity  of  the  states."  But  the  men  are 
already  united  in  states,  —  the  work  is  all  done :  why 
should  men  now  maintain  an  exclusive  loyalty  for  their 
state,  when  this  loyalty  produces  calamities  for  all  states 
and  nations  ?  The  same  patriotism  which  produced  the 
unification  of  men  into  states  is  now  destroying  those 
states.  If  there  were  but  one  patriotism,  —  the  patriotism 
of  none  but  the  English,  —  it  might  be  regarded  as  unifica- 
tory or  beneficent,  but  when,  as  now,  there  are  American, 
Englisli,  German,  French,  Eussian  patriotisms,  all  of  them 
opposed  to  one  another,  patriotism  no  longer  unites,  but 
disunites.  To  say  that,  if  patriotism  was  beneficent,  by 
uniting  men  into  states,  as  was  the  case  during  its  high- 
est development  in  Greece  and  Eome,  patriotism  even 
now,  after  eighteen  hundred  years  of  Christian  Hfe,  is  just 
as  beneficent,  is  the  same  as  saying  that,  since  the  plough- 
ing  was  useful  and  beneficent  for  the  field  before  tlie 


474  PATRIOTISM    OR   PEACE 

sowing,  it  will  be  as  useful  now,  after  the  crop  has  grown 
up. 

It  would  be  very  well  to  retain  patriotism  in  memory 
of  the  use  which  it  once  had,  as  people  preserve  and  re- 
tain the  ancient  monuments  of  temples,  mausoleums,  and 
so  forth.  But  the  temples  and  mausoleums  stand,  with- 
out causing  any  harm  to  men,  while  patriotism  produces 
without  cessation  innumerable  calamities. 

What  now  causes  the  Armenians  and  the  Turks  to 
suffer  and  cut  each  other's  throats  and  act  like  wild 
beasts  ?  Why  do  England  and  Eussia,  each  of  them  con- 
cerned about  her  share  of  the  inheritance  from  Turkey, 
lie  in  wait  and  do  not  put  a  stop  to  the  Armenian  atroci- 
ties ?  Why  do  the  Abyssinians  and  Italians  fight  one 
another  ?  Why  did  a  terrible  war  come  very  near  break- 
ing out  on  account  of  Venezuela,  and  now  on  account  of 
the  Transvaal  ?  And  the  Chino-Japanese  War,  and  the 
Turkish,  and  the  German,  and  the  French  wars  ?  And 
the  rage  of  the  subdued  nations,  the  Armenians,  the 
Poles,  the  Irish  ?  And  the  preparation  for  war  by  all 
the  nations  ?  All  that  is  the  fruits  of  patriotism.  Seas 
of  blood  have  been  shed  for  the  sake  of  this  sentiment, 
and  more  blood  will  be  shed  for  its  sake,  if  men  do  not 
free  themselves  from  this  outhved  bit  of  antiquity. 

I  have  several  times  had  occasion  to  write  about  patriot- 
ism, about  its  absolute  incompatibility,  not  only  with  the 
teaching  of  Christ  in  its  ideal  sense,  but  even  with  the 
lowest  demands  of  the  morahty  of  Christian  society,  and 
every  time  my  arguments  have  been  met  with  silence  or 
with  the  supercilious  hint  that  the  ideas  expressed  by  me 
were  Utopian  expressions  of  mysticism,  anarchism,  and 
cosmopolitanism.  My  ideas  have  frequently  been  re- 
peated in  a  compressed  form,  and,  instead  of  retorting  to 
them,  it  was  added  that  it  was  nothing  but  cosmopolitan- 
ism, as  though  this  word  "  cosmopolitanism "  unanswer- 
ably overthrew  all  my  arguments.     Serious,  old,  clever, 


PATRIOTISM    OR    PEACE  475 

good  men,  who,  above  all  else,  stand  like  the  city  on  a 
hill,  and  who  involuntarily  guide  the  masses  by  their 
example,  make  it  ai3pear  that  the  legality  and  beneficence 
of  patriotism  are  so  obvious  and  incontestable  that  it  is  not 
worth  while  to  answer  the  frivolous  and  senseless  attacks 
upon  this  sentiment,  and  the  majority  of  men,  who  have 
since  childhood  been  deceived  and  infected  by  patriotism, 
take  this  supercilious  silence  to  be  a  most  convincing 
proof,  and  continue  to  stick  fast  in  their  ignorance. 

And  so  those  people  who  from  their  position  can  free 
the  masses  from  their  calamities,  and  do  not  do  so,  commit 
a  great  sin. 

The  most  terrible  thing  in  the  world  is  hypocrisy. 
There  was  good  reason  why  Christ  once  got  angry,  —  that 
was  against  the  hypocrisy  of  the  Pharisees. 

But  what  was  the  hypocrisy  of  the  Pharisees  in  com- 
parison with  the  hypocrisy  of  our  time  ?  In  comparison 
with  our  men,  the  Pharisees  were  the  most  truthful  of 
men,  and  their  art  of  hypocrisy  was  as  child's  play  in 
comparison  with  the  hypocrisy  of  our  time ;  nor  can  it  be 
otherwise.  Our  whole  life,  with  the  profession  of  Chris- 
tianity, the  teaching  of  humility  and  love,  in  connection 
with  the  life  of  an  armed  den  of  robbers,  can  be  nothing 
but  one  solid,  terrible  hypocrisy.  It  is  very  convenient  to 
profess  a  teaching  at  one  end  of  which  is  Christian  sanc- 
tity and  infallibility,  and  at  the  other  —  the  pagan  sword 
and  gallows,  so  that,  when  it  is  possible  to  impose  or 
deceive  by  means  of  sanctity,  sanctity  is  put  into  effect, 
and  when  the  deception  does  not  work,  the  sword  and  the 
gallows  are  put  into  effect.  Such  a  teaching  is  very  con- 
venient, but  the  time  comes  when  this  spider-web  of  lie  is 
dispersed,  and  it  is  no  longer  possible  to  continue  to  keep 
both,  and  it  is  necessary  to  ally  oneself  with  either  one  or 
the  other.  It  is  tliis  which  is  now  getting  to  be  the  case 
in  relation  to  the  teaching  about  patriotism. 

Whether  people  want  it  or  not,  the   question  stands 


476  PATRIOTISM   OR   PEACE 

clearly  before  humanity :  how  can  that  patriotism,  from 
which  result  innumerable  physical  and  moral  calamities 
of  men,  be  necessary  and  a  virtue  ?  It  is  indispensable  to 
give  an  answer  to  this  question. 

It  is  necessary  either  to  show  that  patriotism  is  such 
a  great  good  that  it  redeems  all  those  terrible  calamities 
which  it  produces  in  humanity  ;  or  to  recognize  that  patri- 
otism is  an  evil,  which  must  not  only  not  be  inoculated  in 
men  and  impressed  upon  them,  but  from  which  also  we 
must  try  to  free  ourselves  at  all  cost. 

G'est  d,  'prendre  ou  d,  laisser,  as  the  French  say.  If 
patriotism  is  good,  then  Christianity,  which  gives  peace, 
is  an  idle  dream,  and  the  sooner  this  teaching  is  eradi- 
cated, the  better.  But  if  Christianity  really  gives  peace, 
and  we  really  want  peace,  patriotism  is  a  survival  from 
barbarous  times,  which  must  not  only  not  be  evoked  and 
educated,  as  we  now  do,  but  which  must  be  eradicated  by 
all  means,  by  means  of  preaching,  persuasion,  contempt, 
and  ridicule.  If  Christianity  is  the  truth,  and  we  wish  to 
live  in  peace,  we  must  not  only  have  no  sympathy  for  the 
power  of  our  country,  but  must  even  rejoice  in  its  weak- 
ening, and  contribute  to  it.  A  Russian  must  rejoice  when 
Poland,  the  Baltic  provinces,  Finland,  Armenia,  are  sepa- 
rated from  Russia  and  made  free;  and  an  Englishman 
must  similarly  rejoice  in  relation  to  Ireland,  Australia, 
India,  and  the  other  colonies,  and  cooperate  in  it,  because, 
the  greater  the  country,  the  more  evil  and  cruel  is  its 
patriotism,  and  the  greater  is  the  amount  of  the  suffering 
on  which  its  power  is  based.  And  so,  if  we  actually  want 
to  be  what  we  profess,  we  must  not,  as  we  do  now,  wish 
for  the  increase  of  our  country,  but  wish  for  its  diminu- 
tion and  weakening,  and  contribute  to  it  with  all  our 
means.  And  thus  must  we  educate  the  younger  genera- 
tions :  we  must  bring  up  the  younger  generations  in  such 
a  way  that,  as  it  is  now  disgraceful  for  a  young  man  to 
manifest  his  coarse  egotism,  for  example,  by  eating  every- 


PATRIOTISM    OR   PEACE  477 

thing  up,  without  leaving  anything  for  others,  to  push  a 
weaker  person  down  from  the  road,  in  order  to  pass  by 
himself,  to  take  away  by  force  what  another  needs,  it 
should  be  just  as  disgraceful  to  wish  for  the  increase  of 
his  country's  power ;  and,  as  it  now  is  considered  stupid 
and  ridiculous  for  a  person  to  praise  himself,  it  should  be 
considered  stupid  to  extol  one's  nation,  as  is  now  done  in 
various  lying  patriotic  histories,  pictures,  monuments,  text- 
books, articles,  sermons,  and  stupid  national  hymns.  But 
it  must  be  understood  that  so  long  as  we  are  going  to 
extol  patriotism  and  educate  the  younger  generations  in  it, 
we  shall  have  armaments,  which  ruin  the  physical  and 
spiritual  life  of  the  nations,  and  wars,  terrible,  horrible 
wars,  like  those  for  which  we  are  preparing  ourselves,  and 
into  the  circle  of  which  we  are  introducing,  corrupting 
them  with  our  patriotism,  the  new,  terrible  fighters  of  the 
distant  East. 

Emperor  William,  one  of  the  most  comical  persons  of 
our  time,  orator,  poet,  nuisician,  dramatic  writer,  and 
artist,  and,  above  all,  patriot,  has  lately  painted  a  picture 
representing  all  the  nations  of  Europe  with  swords,  stand- 
ing at  the  seashore  and,  at  the  indication  of  Archangel 
Michael,  looking  at  the  sitting  figures  of  Buddha  and  Con- 
fucius in  the  distance.  According  to  William's  intention, 
this  should  mean  that  the  nations  of  Europe  ought  to  unite 
in  order  to  defend  themselves  against  the  peril  which  is 
proceeding  from  there.  He  is  quite  right  from  his  coarse, 
pagan,  patriotic  point  of  view,  which  is  eighteen  hundred 
years  behind  the  times.  The  European  nations,  forgetting 
Christ,  have  in  the  name  of  their  patriotism  more  and 
more  irritated  these  peaceful  nations,  and  have  taught 
them  patriotism  and  war,  and  have  now  irritated  them  so 
much  that,  indeed,  if  Japan  and  China  will  as  fully  forget 
the  teachings  of  Buddha  and  of  Confucius  as  we  have 
forgotten  the  teaching  of  Christ,  they  will  soon  learn  tlie 
art  of  killing  people  (they  learn  these  things  quickly,  as 


478  PATllIOTISM    OR    PEACE 

Japan  has  proved),  and,  being  fearless,  agile,  strong,  and 
populous,  they  will  inevitably  very  soon  make  of  the  coun- 
tries of  Europe,  if  Europe  does  not  invent  something 
stronger  than  guns  and  Edison's  inventions,  what  the 
countries  of  Europe  are  making  of  Africa.  "  The  dis- 
ciple is  not  above  his  master :  but  every  one  that  is 
perfect  shall  be  as  his  master  "  (Luke  vi.  40). 

In  reply  to  a  prince's  question  how  to  increase  his  army, 
in  order  to  conquer  a  southern  tribe  which  did  not  submit 
to  him,  Confucius  rephed :  "  Destroy  all  thy  army,  and 
use  the  money,  which  thou  art  wasting  now  on  the  army, 
on  the  enlightenment  of  thy  people  and  on  the  improve- 
ment of  agriculture,  and  the  southern  tribe  will  drive  away 
its  prince  and  will  submit  to  thy  rule  without  war." 

Thus  taught  Confucius,  whom  we  are  advised  to  fear. 
But  we,  having  forgotten  Christ's  teaching,  having  re- 
nounced it,  wish  to  vanquish  the  nations  by  force,  and 
thus  are  only  preparing  for  ourselves  new  and  stronger 
enemies  than  our  neighbours.  A  friend  of  mine,  who  saw 
William's  picture,  said  :  "  The  picture  is  beautiful,  only  it 
does  not  at  all  represent  what  the  legend  says.  It  means 
that  Archangel  Michael  shows  to  all  the  governments  of 
Europe,  which  are  represented  as  robbers  bedecked  with 
arms,  what  it  is  that  will  cause  their  ruin  and  annihilation, 
namely,  the  meekness  of  Buddha  and  the  wisdom  of  Con- 
fucius." He  might  have  added,  "And  the  humility  of 
Lao-tse." 

Indeed,  we,  thanks  to  our  hypocrisy,  have  forgotten 
Christ  to  such  an  extent,  have  so  squeezed  out  of  our  life 
everything  Christian,  that  the  teachings  of  Buddha  and 
Confucius  stand  incomparably  higher  than  that  beastly 
patriotism,  by  which  our  so-called  Christian  nations  are 
guided.  And  so  the  salvation  of  Europe  and  of  the 
Christian  world  at  large  does  not  consist  in  this,  that, 
bedecking  themselves  with  swords,  as  William  has  repre- 
sented them,  they  should,  like  robbers,  cast  themselves 


PATRIOTISM    OR   PEACE  479 

upon  their  brothers  beyond  the  sea,  in  order  to  kill  them, 
but,  on  the  contrary,  they  should  renounce  the  survival 
of  barbarous  times,  —  patriotism,  —  and,  having  renounced 
it,  should  take  off  their  arms  and  show  the  Eastern  nations, 
not  an  example  of  savage  patriotism  and  beastliness,  but 
an  example  of  brotherly  love,  which  Christ  has  taught  us. 
Moscow,  January  2, 1896. 


LETTER  TO   ERNEST   HOW- 
ARD  CROSBY 

On  Non-Resistance 
1896 


LETTER  TO   ERNEST   HOW- 
ARD  CROSBY 

On  Non-Resistance 


My  dear  Crosby  :  —  I  am  very  glad  to  hear  of  your 
activity  and  that  it  is  beginning  to  attract  attention. 
Fifty  years  ago  Garrison's  proclamation  of  non-resistance 
only  cooled  people  toward  him,  and  the  whole  fifty  years' 
activity  of  Ballon  in  this  direction  was  met  with  stubborn 
silence.  I  read  with  great  pleasure  in  Peace  the  beautiful 
ideas  of  the  American  authors  in  regard  to  non-resistance. 
I  make  an  exception  only  in  the  case  of  Mr.  Bemis's  old, 
unfounded  opinion,  which  calumniates  Christ  in  assum- 
ing that  Christ's  expulsion  of  the  cattle  from  the  temple 
means  that  he  struck  the  men  with  a  whip,  and  com- 
manded his  disciples  to  do  likewise. 

The  ideas  expressed  by  these  writers,  especially  by  H. 
Newton  and  G.  Herron,  are  beautiful,  but  it  is  to  be  re- 
gretted that  they  do  not  answer  the  question  which  Christ 
put  before  men,  but  answer  the  question  which  the  so- 
called  orthodox  teachers  of  the  churches,  the  chief  and 
most  dangerous  enemies  of  Christianity,  have  put  in  its 
place. 

Mr.  Higginson  says  that  the  law  of  non-resistance  is 
not  admissible  as  a  general  rule.  H.  Newton  says  that 
the  practical  results  of  the  application  of  Christ's  teaching 

483 


484        LETTER   TO    ERNEST    HOWARD    CROSBY 

will  depend  on  the  degree  of  faith  which  men  will  have 
in  this  teaching.  Mr.  C.  Martyn  assumes  that  the  stage 
at  which  we  are  is  not  yet  suited  for  the  apphcation  of 
the  teaching  about  non-resistance.  G.  Herron  says  that 
in  order  to  fulfil  the  law  of  non-resistance,  it  is  necessary 
to  learn  to  apply  it  to  life.  Mrs.  Livermore  says  the 
same,  thinking  that  the  fulfilment  of  the  law  of  non- 
resistance  is  possible  only  in  the  future. 

All  these  opinions  treat  only  the  question  as  to  what 
would  happen  to  people  if  all  were  put  to  the  necessity  of 
fulfilling  the  law  of  non-resistance ;  but,  in  the  first  place, 
it  is  quite  impossible  to  compel  all  men  to  accept  the  law 
of  non-resistance,  and,  in  the  second,  if  this  were  possible, 
it  would  be  a  most  glaring  negation  of  the  very  principle 
which  is  being  established.  To  compel  all  men  not  to 
practise  violence  against  others  !  Who  is  going  to  compel 
men  ? 

In  the  third  place,  and  above  all  else,  the  question,  as 
put  by  Christ,  does  not  consist  in  this,  whether  non- 
resistance  may  become  a  universal  law  for  all  humanity, 
but  what  each  man  must  do  in  order  to  fulfil  his  destiny, 
to  save  his  soul,  and  do  God's  work,  which  reduces  itself 
to  the  same. 

The  Christian  teaching  does  not  prescribe  any  laws  for 
all  men ;  it  does  not  say,  "  Follow  such  and  such  rules 
under  fear  of  punishment,  and  you  will  all  be  happy," 
but  explains  to  each  separate  man  his  position  in  the 
world  and  shows  him  what  for  him  personally  results 
from  this  position.  The  Christian  teaching  says  to  each 
individual  man  that  his  life,  if  he  recognizes  his  life  to  be 
his,  and  its  aim,  the  worldly  good  of  his  personality  or  of 
the  personalities  of  other  men,  can  have  no  rational  mean- 
ing, because  this  good,  posited  as  the  end  of  life,  can  never 
be  attained,  because,  in  the  first  place,  all  beings  strive 
after  the  goods  of  the  worldly  life,  and  these  goods  are 
always  attained  by  one  set  of  beings  to  the  detriment  of 


LETTER    TO    ERNEST    HOWARD    CROSBY        485 

others,  so  that  every  separate  man  cannot  receive  the  de- 
sired good,  but,  in  all  probability,  must  even  endure  many 
unnecessary  sufferings  in  his  struggle  for  these  unattained 
goods ;  in  the  second  place,  because  if  a  man  even  attains 
the  worldly  goods,  these,  the  more  of  them  he  attains, 
satisfy  him  less  and  less,  and  he  wishes  for  more  and 
more  new  ones ;  in  the  third  place,  mainly  because  the 
longer  a  man  lives,  the  more  inevitably  do  old  age,  dis- 
eases, and  finally  death,  which  destroys  the  possibility  of 
any  worldly  good,  come  to  him. 

Thus,  if  a  man  considers  his  life  to  be  his,  and  its  end 
to  be  the  worldly  good,  for  himself  or  for  other  men,  this 
life  can  have  for  him  no  rational  meaning.  Life  receives 
a  rational  meaning  only  when  a  man  understands  that 
the  recognition  of  his  life  as  his  own,  and  the  good  of  per- 
sonality, of  his  own  or  of  that  of  others,  as  its  end,  is  an 
error,  and  that  the  human  life  does  not  belong  to  him, 
who  has  received  this  life  from  some  one,  but  to  Him  who 
produced  this  life,  and  so  its  end  must  not  consist  in  the 
attainment  of  his  own  good  or  of  the  good  of  others,  but 
only  in  the  fulfilment  of  the  will  of  Him  who  produced  it. 
Only  with  such  a  comprehension  of  life  does  it  receive 
a  rational  meaning,  and  its  end,  which  consists  in  the  ful- 
filment of  God's  will,  become  attainable,  and,  above  all, 
only  with  such  a  comprehension  does  man's  activity  be- 
come clearly  defined,  and  he  no  longer  is  subject  to  de- 
spair and  suffering,  which  were  inevitable  with  his  former 
comprehension. 

"  The  world  and  I  in  it,"  such  a  man  says  to  himself, 
"  exist  by  the  will  of  God.  I  cannot  know  the  whole 
world  and  my  relation  to  it,  but  I  can  know  what  is 
wanted  of  me  by  God,  who  sent  men  into  this  world, 
endless  in  time  and  space,  and  therefore  inaccessible  to 
my  understanding,  because  this  is  revealed  to  me  in  the 
tradition,  that  is,  in  the  aggregate  reason  of  the  best 
people  in  the  world,  who    hved   before  me,  and  in    my 


486        LETTER   TO    EENEST    HOWARD    CROSBY 

reason,  and  in  my  heart,  that  is,  in  the  striving  of  my 
whole  being. 

"  In  the  tradition,  the  aggregate  of  the  wisdom  of  all 
the  best  men,  who  lived  before  me,  I  am  told  that  I  must 
act  toward  others  as  I  wish  that  others  should  act  toward 
me ;  my  reason  tells  me  that  the  greatest  good  of  men  is 
possible  only  when  all  men  will  act  hkewise. 

"  My  heart  is  at  peace  and  joyful  only  when  I  abandon 
myself  to  the  feeling  of  love  for  men,  which  demands  the 
same.  And  then  I  can  not  only  know  what  I  must  do, 
but  also  the  cause  for  which  my  activity  is  necessary  and 
defined. 

"  I  cannot  grasp  the  whole  divine  work,  for  which  the 
world  exists  and  lives,  but  the  chvine  work  which  is  being 
accomplished  in  this  world  and  in  which  I  am  taking  part 
with  my  life  is  accessible  to  me.  This  work  is  the  de- 
struction of  the  discord  and  of  the  struggle  among  men 
and  other  beings,  and  the  establishment  among  men  of 
the  greatest  union,  concord,  and  love ;  this  work  is  the 
realization  of  what  the  Jewish  prophets  promised,  saying 
that  the  time  will  come  when  all  men  shall  be  taught  the 
truth,  when  the  spears  shall  be  forged  into  pruning-hooks, 
and  the  scythes  and  swords  into  ploughshares,  and  when 
the  hon  shall  lie  with  the  lamb." 

Thus  the  man  of  the  Christian  comprehension  of  life 
not  only  knows  how  he  must  act  in  life,  but  also  what 
he  must  do. 

He  must  do  what  contributes  to  the  establishment  of 
the  kingdom  of  God  in  the  world.  To  do  this,  a  man 
must  fulfil  the  inner  demands  of  God's  will,  that  is,  he 
must  act  amicaljly  tow^ard  others,  as  he  would  like  others 
to  do  to  him.  Thus  the  inner  demands  of  a  man's  soul 
coincide  with  that  external  end  of  life  which  is  placed 
before  him. 

And  here  though  we  have  an  indication  which  is  so 
clear  to  a  man  of  the  Christian  comprehension,  and  incon- 


LETTER   TO    EENEST   HOWARD    CROSBY       487 

testable  from  two  sides,  as  to  what  the  meaning  and  end 
of  human  life  consists  in,  and  how  a  man  must  act,  and 
what  he  must  do,  and  what  not,  there  appear  certain 
people,  who  call  themselves  Christians,  who  decide  that  in 
such  and  such  cases  a  man  must  depart  from  God's  law 
and  the  common  cause  of  life,  which  are  given  to  him, 
and  must  act  contrary  to  the  law  and  the  common  cause 
of  life,  because,  according  to  their  ratiocination,  the  conse- 
quences of  the  acts  committed  according  to  God's  law 
may  be  profitless  and  disadvantageous  for  men. 

Man,  according  to  the  Christian  teaching,  is  God's 
workman.  The  workman  does  not  know  his  master's 
whole  business,  but  the  nearest  aim  to  be  attained  by  his 
work  is  revealed  to  him,  and  he  is  given  definite  indica- 
tions as  to  what  he  should  do ;  especially  definite  are  the 
indications  as  to  what  he  must  not  do,  in  order  that  he 
may  not  work  against  the  aim  for  the  attainment  of 
which  he  was  sent  to  work.  In  everything  else  he  is 
given  complete  hberty.  And  so  for  a  man  who  has 
grasped  the  Christian  conception  of  life  the  meaning  of 
his  life  is  clear  and  rational,  and  he  cannot  have  a 
moment  of  wavering  as  to  how  he  should  act  in  life  and 
what  he  ought  to  do,  in  order  to  fulfil  the  destiny  of  his 
life. 

According  to  the  law  given  him  in  the  tradition,  in  his 
reason,  and  in  his  heart,  a  man  must  always  act  toward 
another  as  he  wishes  to  have  done  to  him :  he  must  con- 
tribute to  the  establishment  of  love  and  union  among 
men;  but  according  to  the  decision  of  these  far-sighted 
people,  a  man  must,  while  the  fulfilment  of  the  law, 
according  to  their  opinion,  is  still  premature,  do  violence, 
deprive  of  liberty,  kill  people,  and  with  this  contribute, 
not  to  union  of  love,  but  to  the  irritation  and  enragement 
of  people.  It  is  as  though  a  mason,  who  is  put  to  do 
certain  definite  work,  who  knows  that  he  is  taking  part 
with   others  in  the  building  of  a  house,  and  who  has 


488        LETTER   TO    ERNEST    HOWARD    CROSBY 

received  a  clear  and  indubitable  command  from  the 
master  himself  that  he  is  to  lay  a  wall,  should  receive 
the  command  from  other  masons  like  him,  who,  like  him, 
do  not  know  the  general  plan  of  the  structure  and  what  is 
useful  for  the  common  work,  to  stop  laying  the  wall,  and 
to  undo  the  work  of  the  others. 

Wonderful  delusion !  The  being  that  breathes  to-day 
and  disappears  to-morrow,  that  has  one  definite,  incontest- 
able law  given  to  him,  as  to  how  he  is  to  pass  his  short 
term  of  life,  imagines  that  he  knows  what  is  necessary 
and  useful  and  appropriate  for  all  men,  for  the  whole 
world,  for  that  world  which  moves  without  cessation,  and 
goes  on  developing,  and  in  the  name  of  this  usefulness, 
which  is  differently  understood  by  each  of  them,  he  pre- 
scribes to  himself  and  to  others  for  a  time  to  depart  from 
the  unquestionable  law,  which  is  given  to  him  and  to  all 
men,  and  not  to  act  toward  all  men  as  he  wants  others 
to  act  toward  him,  not  to  bring  love  into  the  world,  but 
to  practise  violence,  to  deprive  of  freedom,  to  punish,  to 
kill,  to  introduce  malice  into  the  world,  when  it  is  found 
that  this  is  necessary.  And  he  enjoins  us  to  do  so  know- 
ing that  the  most  terrible  cruelties,  tortures,  murders  of 
men,  from  the  Inquisitions  and  punishments  and  terrors 
of  all  the  revolutions  to  the  present  bestiahties  of  the 
anarchists  and  the  massacres  of  them,  have  all  proceeded 
from  this,  that  men  suppose  that  they  know  what  people 
and  the  world  need ;  knowing  that  at  any  given  moment 
there  are  always  two  opposite  parties,  each  of  which 
asserts  that  it  is  necessary  to  use  violence  against  the 
opposite  party,  —  the  men  of  state  against  the  anarchists, 
the  anarchists  against  the  men  of  state ;  the  Enghsh 
against  the  Americans,  the  Americans  against  the  Eng- 
lish ;  the  English  against  the  Germans ;  and  so  forth,  in 
all  possible  combinations  and  permutations. 

Not  only  does  a  man  of  the  Christian  concept  of  life 
see  clearly  by  reflection  that  there  is  no  ground  whatever 


LETTER   TO    ERNEST    HOWARD    CROSBY        489 

for  his  departure  from  the  law  of  his  life,  as  clearly  indi- 
cated to  him  by  God,  in  order  to  follow  the  accidental, 
frail,  frequently  contradictory  demands  of  men ;  but  if  he 
has  been  living  the  Christian  life  for  some  time,  and  has 
developed  in  himself  the  Christian  moral  sensitiveness,  he 
can  positively  not  act  as  people  demand  that  he  shall, 
not  only  as  the  result  of  reflection,  but  also  of  feeling. 

As  it  is  for  many  men  of  our  world  impossible  to  sub- 
ject a  child  to  torture  and  to  kill  it,  though  such  a  torture 
may  save  a  hundred  other  people,  so  a  whole  series  of  acts 
becomes  impossible  for  a  man  who  has  developed  the 
Christian  sensitiveness  of  his  heart  in  himself.  A  Chris- 
tian, for  example,  who  is  compelled  to  take  part  in  court 
proceedings,  where  a  man  may  be  sentenced  to  capital 
punishment,  to  take  part  in  matters  of  forcible  seizure  of 
other  people's  property,  in  discussions  about  the  declara- 
tion of  war,  or  in  preparations  for  the  same,  to  say  nothing 
of  war  itself,  finds  himself  in  the  same  position  in  which 
a  good  man  would  be,  if  he  were  compelled  to  torture  or 
kill  a  child.  It  is  not  that  he  decides  by  reflection  what 
he  ought  not  to  do,  but  that  he  cannot  do  what  is  de- 
manded of  him,  because  for  a  man  there  exists  the  moral 
impossibility,  just  as  there  is  a  physical  impossibility, 
of  committing  certain  acts.  Just  as  it  is  impossible  for 
a  man  to  lift  up  a  mountain,  as  it  is  impossible  for  a 
good  man  to  kill  a  child,  so  it  is  impossible  for  a  man 
who  lives  a  Christian  life  to  take  part  in  violence.  Of 
what  significance  for  such  a  man  can  be  the  reflections 
that  for  some  imaginary  good  he  must  do  wliat  has 
become  morally  impossible  for  him  ? 

How,  then,  is  a  man  to  act  when  he  sees  the  obvious 
harm  of  following  the  law  of  love  and  the  law  of  non- 
resistance,  which  results  from  it  ?  How  is  a  man  to  act 
—  this  example  is  always  adduced  —  when  a  robber  in 
his  sight  kills  or  injures  a  child,  and  when  the  child 
cannot  be  saved  otherwise  than  by  killing  the  robber  ? 


490        LETTER   TO    ERNEST    HOWARD    CROSBY 

It  is  generally  assumed  that,  when  they  adduce  such 
an  example,  there  can  be  no  other  answer  to  the  question 
than  that  the  robber  ought  to  be  killed,  in  order  that  the 
child  be  saved.  But  this  answer  is  given  so  emphatically 
and  so  quickly  only  because  we  are  not  only  in  the  habit 
of  acting  in  this  manner  in  the  case  of  the  defence  of  a 
child,  but  also  in  the  case  of  the  expansion  of  the  borders 
of  a  neighbouring  state  to  the  detriment  of  our  own,  or  in 
the  case  of  the  transportation  of  lace  across  the  border,  or 
even  in  the  case  of  the  defence  of  the  fruits  of  our  garden 
against  depredations  by  passers-by. 

It  is  assumed  that  it  is  necessary  to  kill  the  robber  in 
order  to  save  the  child,  but  we  need  only  stop  and  think 
on  what  ground  a  man  should  act  thus,  be  he  a  Christian 
or  a  non-Christian,  to  convince  ourselves  that  such  an  act 
can  have  no  rational  foundations,  and  is  considered  neces- 
sary only  because  two  thousand  years  ago  such  a  mode  of 
action  was  considered  just  and  people  were  in  the  habit 
of  acting  thus.  Why  should  a  non-Christian,  who  does 
not  recognize  God  and  the  meaning  of  life  in  the  fulfil- 
ment of  His  will,  kill  the  robber,  in  defending  the  child  ? 
To  say  nothing  of  this,  that  in  killing  the  robber  he  is 
certainly  killing,  but  does  not  know  for  certain  until  the 
very  last  moment  whether  the  robber  will  kill  the  child 
or  not,  to  say  nothing  of  this  irregularity  :  who  has  decided 
that  the  life  of  the  child  is  more  necessary  and  better 
than  the  life  of  the  robber  ? 

If  a  non-Christian  does  not  recognize  God,  and  does  not 
consider  the  meaning  of  life  to  consist  in  the  fulfilment  of 
God's  will,  it  is  only  calculation,  that  is,  the  consideration 
as  to  what  is  more  profitable  for  him  and  for  all  men,  the 
continuation  of  the  robber's  hfe  or  that  of  the  child,  which 
guides  the  choice  of  his  acts.  But  to  decide  this,  he  must 
know  what  will  become  of  the  child  which  he  saves,  and 
what  would  become  of  the  robber  if  he  did  not  kill  him. 
But  that  he  cannot  know.     And  so,  if  he  is  a  non-Chris- 


LETTER   TO    ERNEST    HOWARD    CROSBY        491 

tian,  he  has  no  rational  foundation  for  saving  the  child 
through  the  death  of  the  robber. 

But  if  a  man  is  a  Christian,  and  so  recognizes  God  and 
sees  the  meaning  of  life  in  the  fulfilment  of  His  will,  no 
matter  what  terrible  robber  may  attack  any  innocent  and 
beautiful  child,  he  has  still  less  cause  to  depart  from  the 
law  given  him  by  God  and  to  do  to  the  robber  what 
the  robber  wants  to  do  to  the  child ;  he  may  implore  the 
robber,  may  place  his  body  between  the  robber  and  his 
victim,  but  there  is  one  thing  he  cannot  do,  —  he  cannot 
consciously  depart  from  the  law  of  God,  the  fulfilmeut  of 
which  forms  the  meaning  of  his  life.  It  is  very  likely 
that,  as  the  result  of  his  bad  bringing  up  and  of  his  ani- 
mality,  a  man,  being  a  pagan  or  a  Christian,  will  kill  the 
robber,  not  only  in  the  defence  of  the  child,  but  also  in 
his  own  defence  or  in  the  defence  of  his  purse,  but  that 
will  by  no  means  signify  that  it  is  right  to  do  so,  that  it 
is  right  to  accustom  ourselves  and  others  to  think  that 
that  ought  to  be  done. 

This  will  only  mean  that,  in  spite  of  the  external  edu- 
cation and  Christianity,  the  habits  of  the  stone  age  are 
still  strong  in  man,  that  he  is  capable  of  committing  acts 
which  have  long  ago  been  disavowed  by  his  conscious- 
ness. A  robber  in  my  sight  is  about  to  kill  a  child  and 
I  can  save  it  by  killing  the  robber ;  consequently  it  is 
necessary  under  certain  conditions  to  resist  evil  with  vio- 
lence. 

A  man  is  in  danger  of  his  life  and  can  be  saved  only 
through  my  lie;  consequently  it  is  necessary  in  certain 
cases  to  lie.  A  man  is  starving,  and  I  cannot  save  him 
otherwise  than  by  stealing  ;  consequently  it  is  necessary 
in  certain  cases  to  steal. 

I  lately  read  a  story  by  Coppee,  in  which  an  orderly 
kills  his  officer,  who  has  his  life  insured,  and  thus  saves 
his  honour  and  the  life  of  his  family.  Consequently  in 
certain  cases  it  is  right  to  kill. 


492        LETTER   TO    ERNEST    HOWxlRD    CROSBY  | 

Such  imaginary  cases  and  the  conclusions  drawn  from 
them  prove  only  this,  that  there  are  men  who  know  that 
it  is  not  right  to  steal,  to  lie,  to  kill,  but  who  are  so  loath 
to  stop  doing  this  that  they  use  all  the  efforts  of  their 
mind  in  order  to  justify  their  acts.  There  does  not  exist 
a  moral  rule  for  which  it  would  be  impossible  to  invent  a 
situation  when  it  would  be  hard  to  decide  which  is  more 
moral,  the  departure  from  the  rule  or  its  fulfilment.  The 
same  is  true  of  the  question  of  non-resistance  to  evil: 
men  know  that  it  is  bad,  but  they  are  so  anxious  to  live 
by  violence,  that  they  use  all  the  efforts  of  their  mind,  not 
for  the  elucidation  of  all  the  evil  which  is  produced  by 
man's  recognition  of  the  right  to  do  violence  to  others,  but 
for  the  defence  of  this  right.  But  such  invented  cases 
in  no  way  prove  that  the  rules  about  not  lying,  stealing, 
killing  are  incorrect. 

"  Fais  ce  que  doit,  advienne  que  pourra,  —  do  what  is 
right,  and  let  come  what  may,"  —  is  an  expression  of  pro- 
found wisdom.  Each  of  us  knows  unquestionably  what 
he  ought  to  do,  but  none  of  us  knows  or  can  know  what 
will  happen.  Thus  we  are  brought  to  the  same,  not  only 
by  this,  that  we  must  do  what  is  right,  but  also  by  this, 
that  we  know  what  is  right,  and  do  not  know  at  all  what 
will  come  and  result  from  our  acts. 

The  Christian  teaching  is  a  teaching  as  to  what  a  man 
must  do  for  the  fulfilment  of  the  will  of  Him  who  sent 
him  into  the  world.  But  the  reflections  as  to  what  con- 
sequences we  assume  to  result  from  such  or  such  acts  of 
men  not  only  have  nothing  in  common  with  Christianity, 
but  are  that  very  delusion  which  destroys  Christianity. 

No  one  has  yet  seen  the  imaginary  robber  with  the 
imaginary  child,  and  all  the  horrors,  which  fill  history  and 
contemporary  events,  have  been  produced  only  because 
men  imagine  that  they  can  know  the  consequences  of  the 
possible  acts. 

How  is  this  ?     Men  used  to  live  a  beastly  life,  violating 


LETTER   TO    ERNEST    HOWARD    CROSBY        493 

and  killing  all  those  whom  it  was  advantageous  for  them 
to  violate  and  kill,  and  even  eating  one  another,  thinking 
that  that  was  right.  Then  there  came  a  time,  when, 
thousands  of  years  ago,  even  in  the  time  of  Moses,  there 
appeared  the  consciousness  in  men  that  it  was  bad  to 
violate  and  kill  one  another.  But  there  were  some  men 
for  whom  violence  was .  ad vantageous,  and  they  did  not 
recognize  the  fact,  and  assured  themselves  and  others  that 
it  was  not  always  bad  to  violate  and  kill  men,  but  that 
there  were  cases  when  this  was  necessary,  useful,  and 
even  good.  And  acts  of  violence  and  murder,  though  not 
as  frequent  and  cruel,  w^ere  continued,  but  with  this  dif- 
ference, that  those  who  committed  them  justified  them  on 
the  ground  of  usefulness  to  men.  It  was  this  false  justi- 
fication of  violence  that  Christ  arraigned.  He  showed 
that,  since  every  act  of  violence  could  be  justified,  as 
actually  happens,  when  two  enemies  do  violence  to  one 
another  and  both  consider  their  violence  justifiable,  and 
there  is  no  chance  of  verifying  the  justice  of  the  determi- 
nation of  either,  it  is  necessary  not  to  believe  in  any 
justifications  of  violence,  and  under  no  condition,  as  at 
first  was  thought  right  by  humanity,  is  it  necessary  to 
make  use  of  them. 

It  would  seem  that  men  who  profess  Christianity  would 
have  carefully  to  unveil  this  deception,  because  in  the  un- 
veiling of  this  deception  does  one  of  the  chief  manifesta- 
tions of  Christianity  consist.  But  the  very  opposite  has 
happened  :  men  to  whom  violence  was  advantageous,  and 
who  did  not  want  to  give  up  these  advantages,  took  upon 
themselves  the  exclusive  propaganda  of  Christianity,  and, 
preaching  it,  asserted  that,  since  there  are  cases  in  which 
the  non-application  of  violence  produces  more  evil  than  its 
application  (the  imaginary  robber  who  kills  the  child),  we 
must  not  fully  accept  Christ's  teaching  about  non-resist- 
ance to  evil,  and  that  we  may  depart  from  this  teaching 
in  the  defence  of  our  Uves  and  of  those  of  other  men,  in 


494        LETTER   TO    ERNEST    HOWARD    CROSBY 

the  defence  of  our  country,  the  protection  of  society  from 
madmen  and  malefactors,  and  in  many  other  cases.  But 
the  decision  of  the  question  as  to  when  Christ's  teaching 
ought  to  be  set  aside  was  left  to  those  very  men  who 
made  use  of  violence.  Thus  Christ's  teaching  about  non- 
resistance  to  evil  turned  out  to  be  absolutely  set  aside, 
and,  what  is  worse  than  all  that,  those  very  men  whom 
Christ  arraigned  began  to  consider  themselves  the  exclu- 
sive preachers  and  expounders  of  His  teaching.  But  the 
light  shineth  in  the  dark,  and  the  false  preachers  of 
Christianity  are  again  arraigned  by  His  teaching. 

We  can  think  of  the  structure  of  the  world  as  we 
please,  we  may  do  what  is  advantageous  and  agreeable 
for  us  to  do,  and  use  violence  against  people  under  the 
pretext  of  doing  good  to  men,  but  it  is  absolutely  impos- 
sible to  assert  that,  in  doing  so,  we  are  professing  Christ's 
teaching,  because  Christ  arraigned  that  very  deception. 
The  truth  will  sooner  or  later  be  made  manifest,  and  will 
arraign  the  deceivers,  even  as  it  does  now. 

Let  only  the  question  of  the  human  life  be  put  correctly, 
as  it  was  put  by  Christ,  and  not  as  it  was  corrupted  by 
the  churches,  and  all  the  deceptions  which  by  the 
churches  have  been  heaped  on  Christ's  teaching  will  fall 
of  their  own  accord. 

The  question  is  not  whether  it  will  be  good  or  bad  for 
human  society  to  follow  the  law  of  love  and  the  resulting 
law  of  non-resistance,  but  whether  you  —  a  being  that 
lives  to-day  and  is  dying  by  degrees  to-morrow  and  every 
moment  —  will  now,  this  very  minute,  fully  do  the  will 
of  Him  who  sent  you  and  clearly  expressed  it  in  tradition 
and  in  your  reason  and  heart,  or  whether  you  want  to  act 
contrary  to  this  will.  As  soon  as  the  question  is  put  in 
this  form,  there  will  be  but  one  answer :  I  want  at  once, 
this  very  minute,  without  any  delay,  without  waiting  for 
any  one,  and  without  considering  the  seeming  conse- 
quences, with  all  my  strength  to  fulfil  what  alone  I  am 


LETTER   TO    ERNEST    HOWARD    CROSBY        495 

indubitably  commanded  to  do  by  Him  who  sent  me  into 
the  world,  and  in  no  case,  under  no  condition,  will  I,  can 
I,  do  what  is  contrary  to  it,  because  in  this  lies  the  only 
possibility  of  my  rational,  unwretched  life. 
January  12,  1896. 


INTRODUCTIONS  TO  BOOKS 


A.   STOCKHAM'S  TOKOLOGY 

The  present  book  does  not  belong  to  the  vast  number 
of  all  kinds  of  books,  from  the  philosophical  and  the 
scientific  to  the  artistic  and  practical,  which,  with  other 
words,  in  other  permutations  and  combinations,  say  and 
repeat  the  old  familiar,  sickeningly  familiar,  common- 
places. This  book  is  one  of  those  rare  books  which  do 
not  treat  of  what  everybody  talks  about  and  nobody 
needs,  but  of  what  nobody  talks  about  and  what  is 
important  and  necessary  for  all.  It  is  important  for  the 
parents  to  knov/  how  they  should  act,  in  order  without 
unnecessary  suffering  to  bring  forth  uncorrupted  and 
healthy  children,  and  still  more  important  it  is  for  the 
future  children  to  be  born  under  the  best  of  conditions, 
as,  indeed,  it  says  in  one  of  the  mottoes  of  the  book,  "  To 
be  well-born  is  the  right  of  every  child." 

The  book  is  not  one  of  those  which  are  read  only  that 
no  one  may  say  that  he  has  not  read  this  book,  but  one 
of  those  the  reading  of  which  leaves  traces,  comjielling 
men  to  change  their  lives,  to  mend  what  is  irregular  in 
them,  or  at  least  to  think  of  doing  so.  This  book  is  called 
Tokology,  the  science  of  the  bearing  of  children.  There  are 
all  kinds  of  strange  sciences,  but  there  is  no  such  science, 
and  yet,  after  the  science  of  how  to  live  and  die,  this  is 
the  most  important  science.     This  book  has  had  enormous 

499 


500  A.  stockham's  tokology 

success  in  America,  and  has  greatly  influenced  American 
mothers  and  fathers.  In  Eussia  it  ought  to  have  an  even 
greater  influence.  The  questions  about  abstaining  from 
tobacco  and  all  kinds  of  exciting  beverages,  beginning 
with  alcohol  and  ending  with  tea,  the  questions  about 
eating  without  the  slaughter  of  living  beings,  vegeta- 
rianism, the  questions  about  sexual  continence  in  domestic 
life,  and  many  others,  which  partly  have  been  solved  and 
partly  are  being  worked  out,  and  possess  a  vast  literature 
in  Europe  and  in  America,  have  not  yet  been  touched 
upon  by  us,  and  so  Mrs.  Stockham's  book  is  particularly 
important  for  us :  it  at  once  transfers  the  reader  into  a 
new  world  of  a  living  human  movement. 

In  this  book  every  thinking  woman  —  for  this  book  is 
chiefly  intended  for  women  —  will  find  first  of  all  an 
indication  that  there  is  absolutely  no  need  of  continuing 
to  live  as  insipidly  as  her  forefathers  lived,  but  that  it  is 
possible  to  find  better  paths  of  hfe,  using  for  this  purpose 
science,  the  experience  of  men,  and  her  own  free  thought, 
and,  as  the  first  model  of  such  a  use  she  will  find  in  this 
book  many  precious  counsels  and  hints,  which  will  make 
life  easier  for  herself,  her  husband,  and  her  children. 

February  2,  1890. 


AMIEL'S   DIAEY 

About  a  year  and  a  half  ago  1  chanced  for  the  first  time 
to  read  Amiel's  book,  Fragments  d'un  Journal  Intime. 
I  was  struck  by  the  significance  and  profundity  of  its 
contents,  the  beauty  of  the  exposition,  and,  above  all,  the 
sincerity  of  this  book.  As  J.  read  it,  I  marked  down  the 
passages  which  more  particularly  startled  me.  My 
daughter  undertook  to  translate  these  passages,  and  thus 
were  formed  the  extracts  from  the  Fragments  d'un 
Journal  Intime,"  that  is,  the  extracts  from  the  extracts  of 
Amiel's  diary  in  several  volumes  not  yet  printed,  which 
he  conducted  from  day  to  day  for  the  period  of  thirty 
years. 

Henri  Amiel  was  born  in  Geneva  in  1821  and  was 
early  left  an  orphan.  Having  graduated  from  the  higher 
courses  in  Geneva,  Amiel  went  abroad  and  there  passed 
several  years  at  the  universities  of  Heidelberg  and  Berlin. 
Upon  returning  in  1849  to  his  home,  he  at  the  age  of 
twenty-eight  years  received  in  the  Geneva  Academy  a 
professorship,  at  first  of  aesthetics,  and  later  of  philosophy, 
and  this  he  held  until  his  death. 

Amiel's  whole  life  was  passed  in  Geneva,  where  he  died 
in  1881,  having  in  no  way  risen  above  the  large  number 
of  the  most  ordinary  of  professors,  who,  mechanically 
compiling  their  lectures  from  the  latest  books  in  their 
particular  specialties,  just  as  mechanically  transmit  them 
to  their  hearers,  and  from  a  still  greater  number  of  poets 
without  contents,  who  furnish  these  quite  useless,  but  still 
marketable  wares  to  periodicals  that  are  published  in  tens 
of  thousands  of  copies. 

Amiel  did  not  have  the  slightest  success  either  in  the 

601 


502  AMIEL*S    DIARY 

learned  or  in  the  literary  field.  As  he  was  approaching 
old  age,  he  wrote  of  himself  as  follows : 

"What  have  I  been  able  to  extract  -from  those  gifts 
which  were  bestowed  upon  me,  fvom  the  peculiar  condi- 
tions of  my  life  of  half  a  century  ?  Are  all  my  collected 
scribbliugs,  my  correspoudeuce,  these  thousands  of  intimate 
pages,  my  lectures,  my  articles,  my  verses,  my  different 
notes  anything  but  dry  leaves  ?  To  whom  and  for  what 
have  I  ever  been  of  any  use  ?  And  will  my  name  live  a 
day  longer  than  I  myself,  and  will  it  have  any  significance 
for  any  one  ?     Insignificant,  empty  life  !      Vie  nulle." 

About  Amiel  and  his  diary  two  well-known  French 
writers,  his  friend,  the  well-known  critic,  E.  Scherer,  and 
the  philosopher,  Caro,  have  written  after  his  death.  In- 
teresting is  that  sympathetic,  but  partially  patronizing  air 
with  which  both  these  authors  treat  Amiel,  when  they 
regret  that  he  was  deprived  of  those  qualities  which  are 
necessary  for  the  performance  of  real  work.  And  yet, 
the  real  work  of  these  two  writers  —  the  critical  labours 
of  E.  Scherer  and  the  philosophic  labours  of  Caro  —  will 
hardly  much  outlive  their  authors,  while  the  accidental, 
not  real  work  of  Amiel,  his  diary,  will  always  remain  a 
live  book,  necessary  for  men  and  influencing  them  for  the 
good. 

A  writer  is  dear  and  necessary  for  us  only  in  the 
measure  in  which  he  reveals  to  us  the  inner  working  of 
his  soul,  of  course,  if  this  work  is  new,  and  not  previously 
accomplished.  No  matter  what  he  may  write,  a  drama, 
a  learned  work,  'a  story,  a  philosophic  treatise,  a  lyric 
poem,  a  criticism,  a  satire,  it  is  only  this  inner  work  of 
his  soul  which  is  dear  to  us,  and  not  the  architectural 
structure  in  which  he,  for  the  most  part,  and  I  think, 
always,  distorting  them,  clothes  his  thoughts  and  feelings. 

Everything  which  Amiel  poured  into  a  ready  mould, 
his  lectures,  treatises,  poems,  was  completely  dead ;  but 
his  diary,  where,  without  thinking  of  the  form,  he  spoke 


amiel's  diary  503 

only  to  himself,  full  of  life,  wisdom,  instruction,  consola- 
tion, will  for  ever  remain  one  of  the  best  books  acciden- 
tally left  to  us  by  such  men  as  Marcus  Aurelius,  Pascal, 
Epictetus. 

Pascal  says :  "  There  are  but  three  kinds  of  people : 
those  who,  having  found  God,  serve  Him ;  those  who,  not 
having  found  Him,  are  busy  seeking  Him,  and  those  who, 
not  having  found  Him,  none  the  less  do  not  seek  Him. 

"  The  tirst  are  sensible  and  happy,  the  last  are  senseless 
and  unhappy,  the  second  are  unhappy,  but  sensible." 

I  think  that  the  difference  established  by  Pascal  be- 
tween the  first  and  the  second,  between  those  who,  as  he 
says  in  another  passage,  having  found  God,  serve  Him 
with  their  whole  hearts,  and  those  who,  not  having  found 
Him,  seek  Him  with  their  whole  hearts,  is  not  only  not 
so  great  as  he  thought,  but  does  not  even  exist.  I  think 
that  those  who  with  their  whole  hearts  and  suffering  ("  en 
geinissant"  as  Pascal  says)  seek  (}od,  already  serve  Him, 
They  serve  Him  with  this,  that  with  these  sufferings  of 
their  seeking  tiiey  lay  out  and  open  for  others  the  road  to 
God,  as  Pascal  himself  did  in  liis  thoughts,  and  as  Amiel 
did  all  his  life  in  his  diary. 

Amiel's  whole  life,  as  it  is  presented  to  us  in  this  diary, 
is  full  of  this  seeking  after  God,  wliich  is  suffering  with 
the  whole  heart.  The  contemplation  of  this  seeking  is 
the  more  instructive  in  that  it  never  ceases  to  be  a  seek- 
ing, never  stops,  never  passes  into  the  consciousness  of 
the  acquisition  of  truth  and  into  instruction.  Amiel  says 
neither  to  himself  nor  to  others :  "  I  now  know  the  truth, 
—  hear  me ! "  On  the  contrary,  it  seems  to  him,  as  is 
proper  for  him  who  sincerely  seeks  the  truth,  that  the  more 
he  finds  out,  the  more  he  has  still  left  to  know,  and  he, 
without  stopping,  does  everything  he  can  for  the  purpose 
of  finding  out  more  and  more  of  the  truth,  and  so  con- 
stantly feels  his  ignorance.  He  constantly  dwells  upon 
what  Christianity  and  the  condition  of  a  Christian  ought 


604  amiel's  diary 

to  be,  without  for  a  moment  dwelliug  on  the  thought  that 
Christianity  is  precisely  what  he  professes,  and  that  he 
himself  personifies  the  condition  of  a  Christian.  And  yet 
his  whole  diary  is  full  of  expressions  of  the  profoundest 
Christian  understanding  and  feeling.  These  expressions 
act  most  powerfully  on  the  reader  on  account  of  their 
very  unconsciousness  and  sincerity.  He  speaks  with 
himself,  without  thinking  that  he  is  heard,  without  trying 
to  appear  sure  of  what  he  is  not  sure,  without  concealing 
his  suffering  and  his  seeking. 

It  is  as  though  we  were  present,  without  the  master's 
knowledge,  at  the  most  secret,  profound,  impassioned 
inner  work  of  the  soul,  which  is  generally  concealed  from 
the  view  of  an  outsider. 

For  this  reason  it  is  possible  to  find  many  statelier  and 
more  eloquent  expressions  of  Amiel's  religious  feeling, 
but  it  is  hard  to  find  such  as  are  more  intimate  and  more 
heart-stirring.  Shortly  before  his  death,  when  he  knew 
that  his  disease  might  any  day  end  in  strangulation,  he 
wrote : 

"  When  you  no  longer  reflect  that  you  have  tens  of 
years,  one  year,  a  month  free  before  yourself,  when  you 
already  count  tens  of  hours,  and  the  future  night  bears  in 
itself  the  menace  of  the  unexplored,  it  is  evident  that 
you  decline  art,  science,  politics,  and  are  satisfied  with 
conversing  with  yourself,  and  that  is  possible  until  the 
very  end.  This  inward  conversation  is  the  only  thing 
which  is  left  to  him  who  is  sentenced  to  death  and  whose 
execution  is  delayed.  He  (this  condemned  man)  concen- 
trates upon  himself.  He  no  longer  emits  rays,  but  only 
converses  with  his  soul.  He  no  longer  acts,  but  only 
contemplates.  .  .  .  Like  a  hare,  he  returns  to  his  lair  to 
die  ;  and  this  lair  is  his  conscience,  his  thought.  So  long 
as  he  can  hold  a  pen  and  has  a  moment  of  solitude,  he 
concentrates  himself  before  this  echo  of  himself  and  holds 
converse  with  God. 


amiel's  diary  505 

"  This,  by  the  way,  is  not  a  moral  investigation,  a  re- 
pentance, a  call.     It  is  only  the  *  amen  '  of  submission. 

"  My  child,  give  me  your  heart. 

"  Renunciation  and  agreement  are  less  difficult  for  me 
than  for  others,  because  I  want  nothing.  I  should  only 
want  not  to  suffer.  Christ  in  the  Garden  of  Gethsemane 
asked  for  the  same.  Let  us  do  the  same  that  He  did. 
*  Nevertheless  not  as  I  will  but  as  Thou  wilt/  —  and  we 
will  wait." 

Such  he  is  on  the  day  before  his  death.  He  is  not  less 
sincere  and  serious  throughout  his  whole  diary,  in  spite 
of  the  elegance,  and  now  and  then  choiceness  of  his  dic- 
tion, which  became  a  habit  with  him.  In  the  course  of 
all  the  thirty  years  of  his  diary  he  feels  that  we  all  so 
thoroughly  forget,  that  we  are  all  condemned  to  death  and 
that  our  execution  is  only  delayed.  And  it  is  for  this 
very  reason  that  this  book  is  so  sincere,  serious,  and  use- 
ful. 

1893. 


S.   T.    SEMENOV'S   PEASANT   STORIES 

I  HAVE  long  ago  formed  a  rule  to  judge  every  artistic 
production  from  three  sides :  (1)  from  the  side  of  its  con- 
tents, —  in  how  far  that  which  is  revealed  by  the  artist 
from  a  new  side  is  important  and  necessary  for  men, 
because  every  production  is  a  production  of  art  only  when 
it  reveals  a  new  side  of  life  ;  (2)  to  what  extent  the  form 
of  the  production  is  good,  beautiful,  and  in  correspondence 
with  the  contents ;  and  (3)  in  how  far  the  relation  of  the 
artist  to  his  subject  is  sincere,  that  is,  in  how  far  he 
believes  in  what  he  represents.  This  last  quality  always 
seems  to  me  to  be  the  most  important  one  in  an  artistic 
production.  It  gives  to  an  artistic  production  its  force, 
makes  an  artistic  production  infectious,  that  is,  evokes  in 
the  hearer  and  reader  those  sensations  which  the  artist 
experiences. 

Sem^nov  possesses  this  quality  in  the  highest  degree. 

There  is  a  certain  story  by  Flaubert,  translated  by 
Turg^nev,  Julian  the  Merciful.  The  last  episode  of  the 
story,  which  is  intended  to  be  most  touching,  consists  in 
this,  that  Julian  lies  down  in  the  same  bed  with  a  leper, 
whom  he  warms  up  with  his  body.  This  leper  is  Christ, 
who  carries  Julian  off  to  heaven  with  Him.  All  that  is 
told  with  great  mastery,  but  I  always  remain  very  cold 
during  the  reading  of  this  story.  I  feel  that  the  author 
himself  would  not  have  done,  and  would  not  even  have 
wished  to  do  so,  and  I  never  feel  any  agitation  in  reading 
about  this  wonderful  exploit. 

But  Sem^nov  describes  the  simplest  story,  and  it  always 

606 


S.    T.    SEM^NOV'S    PEASAJ^T    STORIES  507 

touches  me.  A  village  lad  comes  to  Moscow  to  find 
himself  a  place,  and  with  the  influence  of  a  countryman 
of  Ms,  a  coachman,  who  is  liviug  with  a  wealthy  mer- 
chant, he  here  gets  the  position  of  assistant  janitor.  Tliis 
place  was  formerly  occupied  by  an  old  man.  It  was  by 
the  advice  of  his  coachman  that  the  merchant  sent  away 
the  old  .man  and  in  his  place  put  the  young  lad.  The  lad 
arrives  in  the  evening  to  begin  his  work,  and  in  the  yard 
hears  the  old  man's  complaints  in  the  servants'  room,  for 
having  been  discharged  for  no  cause  whatsoever,  only  to 
make  room  for  the  young  fellow.  The  lad  suddenly  feels 
pity  for  the  old  man  and  is  ashamed  to  have  pushed  him 
out.  He  reflects  for  a  moment,  wavers,  and  finally 
decides  to  give  up  the  place,  which  he  needs  and  which 
has  pleased  him  so  much. 

All  this  is  told  in  such  a  way  that  every  time  when  I 
read  it  I  feel  that  the  author  not  only  would  have  wished 
to  act  similarly  in  such  a  case,  but  would  certainly  have 
done  so,  and  his  feeling  infects  me,  and  I  am  happy,  and 
it  seems  to  me  that  I  have  done  something  good  or  would 
be  glad  to  do  something  good. 

Sincerity  is  Semenov's  chief  characteristic.  But,  besides 
it,  the  contents  are  always  significant, —  significant,  because 
they  deal  with  the  most  important  class  of  Eussia,  the 
peasantry,  which  Semenov  knows  as  only  a  peasant,  who 
himself  lives  the  hard  life  of  a  peasant,  can  know.  The 
contents  of  his  stories  are  also  significant,  because  in  all 
of  them  the  chief  interest  is  not  in  the  external  events, 
not  in  the  peculiarities  of  the  situations,  but  in  the  approxi- 
mation to  and  the  removal  from  the  ideal  of  Christian 
truth,  which  stands  firm  and  clear  in  the  soul  of  the 
author  and  serves  him  as  a  safe  measure  for  the  valuation 
of  the  worth  and  importance  of  human  acts. 

The  form  of  the  stories  fully  corresponds  to  the  con- 
tents :  it  is  serious  and  simple,  and  the  details  are  always 
correct,  —  there  are  no  false  notes.     What  is  particularly 


508  S.    T.    SEMENOV'S    PEASANT    STORIES 

good  is  the  figurative  language  of    the  persons  in  the 
stories,  which  is  frequently  quite  new,  and  always  artless 
and  strikingly  powerful 
March  23, 1894. 


THE  WOEKS  OF  GUY  DE  MAUPASSANT 

It  was,  I  think,  in  the  year  1881  that  Turg(^nev,  during 
a  visit  at  my  house,  took  a  French  novel,  under  the  name 
of  Maison  Tellier,  out  of  his  satchel  and  gave  it  to  me. 

"  Eead  it,  if  you  have  a  chance,"  he  said,  apparently 
with  indifference,  just  as  the  year  before  he  had  handed 
me  a  number  of  the  Russian  Wealth,  in  which  there  was 
an  article  by  Garshin,  who  was  making  his  d^but.  Evi- 
dently, as  in  the  case  of  Garshin,  so  even  now,  he  was 
afraid  he  might  influence  me  in  one  way  or  another,  and 
wished  to  know  my  uninfluenced  opinion. 

"  He  is  a  young  French  author,"  he  said  ;  "  look  at  it,  — 
it  is  not  bad  ;  he  knows  you  and  esteems  you  very  much," 
he  added,  as  though  to  encourage  me.  "  As  a  man  he 
reminds  me  of  Druzhinin.  He  is  just  as  excellent  a  son 
and  friend,  un  homme  d\cn  commerce  sur,  as  was  Druzhinin, 
and,  besides,  he  has  relations  with  the  labouring  people, 
whom  he  guides  and  aids.  Even  in  his  relations  to 
women  he  reminds  me  of  Druzhinin." 

And  Turg^nev  told  me  something  remarkable  and  in- 
credible in  regard  to  Maupassant's  relations  in  this 
respect. 

This  time,  the  year  1881,  was  for  me  the  most  ardent 
time  of  the  inner  reconstruction  of  my  whole  world-con- 
ception, and  in  this  reconstruction  the  activity  wliich  is 
called  artistic,  and  to  which  I  formerly  used  to  devote  all 
my  strength,  not  only  lost  for  me  the  significance  formerly 
ascribed  to  it,  but  even  became  distinctly  distasteful  to 
me  on  account  of  the  improper  place  which  it  had  occu- 

509 


510   THE  WORKS  OF  GUY  DE  MAUPASSANT 

pied  in  my  life  and  which  in  general  it  occupies  in  the 
concepts  of  the  men  of  the  wealthy  classes. 

For  this  reason  I  was  at  that  time  not  in  the  least 
interested  in  such  productions  as  the  one  which  Turg^nev 
recommended  to  me.  But,  to  oblige  him,  I  read  the 
book  which  he  gave  me. 

Judging  from  the  first  story,  Maison  Tellier,  I  could 
not  help  but  see,  in  spite  of  the  indecent  and  insignificant 
subject  of  the  story,  that  the  author  possessed  what  is 
called  talent. 

The  author  was  endowed  with  that  particular  gift,  called 
talent,  which  consists  in  the  author's  ability  to  direct, 
according  to  his  tastes,  his  intensified,  strained  attention 
to  this  or  that  subject,  in  consequence  of  which  the  author 
who  is  endowed  with  this  ability  sees  in  those  subjects, 
upon  which  he  directs  his  attention,  something  new, 
something  which  others  did  not  see.  Maupassant  evi- 
dently possessed  that  gift  of  seeing  in  subjects  something 
which  others  did  not  see.  But,  to  judge  from  the  small 
volume  which  I  had  read,  he  was  devoid  of  the  chief  con- 
dition necessary,  besides  talent,  for  a  truly  artistic  produc- 
tion. Of  the  three  conditions:  (1)  a  correct,  that  is,  a 
moral  relation  of  the  author  to  the  subject,  (2)  the  clear- 
ness of  exposition,  or  the  beauty  of  form,  which  is  the 
same,  and  (3)  sincerity,  that  is,  an  undisguised  feeling  of 
love  or  hatred  for  what  the  artist  describes,  —  Maupas- 
sant possessed  only  the  last  two,  and  was  entirely  devoid 
of  the  first.  He  had  no  correct,  that  is,  no  moral  relation 
to  the  subjects  described.  From  what  I  had  read,  I  was 
convinced  that  Maupassant  possessed  talent,  that  is,  the 
gift  of  attention,  which  in  the  objects  and  phenomena  of 
life  revealed  to  him  those  qualities  which  are  not  visible 
to  other  men ;  he  also  possessed  a  beautiful  form,  that  is, 
he  expressed  clearly,  simply,  and  beautifully  what  he 
wished  to  say,  and  also  possessed  that  condition  of  the 
worth  of  an  artistic  production,  without  which  it  does  not 


THE  WORKS  OF  GUT  DE  MAUPASSANT   511 

produce  any  effect,  —  sincerity,  —  that  is,' he  did  not 
simulate  love  or  hatred,  but  actually  loved  and  hated 
what  he  described.  But,  unfortunately,  being  devoid  of 
the  first,  almost  the  most  important  condition  of  the  worth 
of  an  artistic  production,  of  the  correct,  moral  relation  to 
what  he  represented,  that  is,  of  the  knowledge  of  the 
difference  between  good  and  evil,  he  loved  and  represented 
what  it  was  not  right  to  love  and  represent,  and  did  not 
love  and  did  not  represent  what  he  ought  to  have  loved 
and  represented.  Thus  the  author  in  this  little  volume 
describes  with  much  detail  and  love  how  women  tempt 
men  and  men  tempt  women,  and  even  some  incomprehen- 
sible obscenities,  which  are  represented  in  La  Fcmmc  de 
Paul,  and  he  describes  the  labouring  country  people,  not 
only  with  indifference,  but  even  with  contempt,  as  so 
many  animals. 

Particularly  striking  was  that  lack  of  distinction  between 
bad  and  good  in  the  story  Unc  Fartie  de  Camjjagne,  in 
which,  in  the  form  of  a  most  clever  and  amusing  jest,  he 
gives  a  detailed  account  of  how  two  gentlemen  with  bared 
arms,  rowing  in  a  boat,  simultaneously  tempted,  the  one 
an  old  mother,  and  the  other  a  young  maiden,  her  daugh- 
ter. 

The  author's  sympathy  is  during  the  whole  time  obvi- 
ously to  such  an  extent  on  the  side  of  the  two  rascals, 
that  he  ignores,  or,  rather,  does  not  see  what  the  tempted 
mother,  the  girl,  the  father,  and  the  young  man,  evidently 
the  fianc^^of  the  daughter,  must  have  suffered,  and  so  we 
not  only  get  a  shocking  description  of  a  disgusting  crime 
in  the  form  of  an  amusing  jest,  but  the  event  itself  is 
described  falsely,  because  only  the  most  insignificant  side 
of  the  subject,  the  pleasure  afforded  to  the  rascals,  is 
described. 

In  the  same  volume  there  is  a  story,  Histoire  d'une  Fille 
de  Ferme,  which  Turg^uev  recommended  to  me  more  par- 
ticularly, and  which  more  particularly  displeased  me  on 


512   THE  WOKKS  OF  GUY  DE  MAUPASSANT 

account  of  tl\e  author's  incorrect  relation  to  the  subject. 
The  author  apparently  sees  in  all  the  working  people 
whom  he  describes  nothing  but  animals,  who  do  not  rise 
above  sexual  and  maternal  love,  and  so  the  description 
leaves  us  with  an  incomplete,  artificial  impression. 

The  insufficient  comprehension  of  the  lives  and  interests 
of  the  working  classes,  and  the  representation  of  the  men 
from  those  classes  in  the  form  of  half-animals,  which  are 
moved  only  by  sensuality,  malice,  and  greed,  forms  one  of 
the  chief  and  most  important  defects  of  the  majority  of 
the  modern  French  authors,  among  them  Maupassant, 
not  only  in  this  story,  but  also  in  all.  the  other  stories,  in 
which  he  touches  on  the  people  and  always  describes  them 
as  coarse,  dull  animals,  whom  one  can  only  ridicule.  .  Of 
course,  the  French  authors  must  know  the  conditions  of 
their  people  better  than  I  know  them  ;  but,  although  I  am 
a  Russian  and  have  not  lived  with  the  French  people,  I 
none  the  less  assert  that,  in  describing  their  masses,  the 
French  authors  are  wrong,  and  that  the  French  masses 
cannot  be  such  as  they  are  described.  If  there  exists 
a  France  as  we  know  it,  with  her  truly  great  men  and 
with  those  great  contributions  which  these  great  men  have 
made  to  science,  art,  civil  polity,  and  the  moral  perfection 
of  humanity,  those  labouring  masses,  which  have  held 
upon  their  shoulders  this  France  and  her  great  men,  do 
not  consist  of  animals,  but  of  men  with  great  spiritual 
qualities ;  and  so  I  do  not  believe  what  I  am  told  in  nov- 
els Hke  La  Terre,  and  in  Maupassant's  stories^  just  as  I 
should  not  believe  if  I  were  told  of  the  existence  of  a 
beautiful  house  standing  on  no  foundation.  It  is  very 
possible  that  the  high  qualities  of  the  masses  are  not  such 
as  are  described  in  La  petite  Fadctte  and  in  La  Mare  au 
Diable,  but  these  qualities  exist,  that  I  know  for  certain, 
and  the  writer  who  describes  the  masses,  as  Maupassant 
does,  by  telling  sympathetically  of  the  "  hanches "  and 
"  gorges  "  of  Breton  domestics,  and  with  contempt  and  ridi- 


THE   WORKS    OF   GUY   DE   MAUPASSANT       513 

cule  the  life  of  the  labouring  people,  commits  a  great 
error  in  an  artistic  sense,  because  he  describes  the  subject 
from  only  one,  the  most  uninteresting,  physical  side,  and 
completely  overlooks  the  other,  the  most  important,  spirit- 
ual side,  which  forms  the  essence  of  the  subject. 

In  general,  the  reading  of  the  volume  which  Turg(5nev 
gave  me  left  me  completely  indifferent  to  the  young  writer. 

I  was  at  that  time  so  disgusted  with  the  stories,  Une 
Partie  de  Campagne,  La  Femme  de  Paul,  and  L'Histoire 
d'une  Fille  de  Ferme,  that  I  did  not  at  that  time  notice 
the  beautiful  story,  Le  Papa  de  Simon,  and  the  superb 
story,  so  far  as  the  description  of  a  night  is  concerned, 
Su7'  I'Eau. 

"  There  are  in  our  time,  when  there  are  so  many  who 
are  willing  to  write,  a  number  Of  people  with  talent,  who 
do  not  know  to  what  to  apply  it,  or  who  boldly  apply  it 
to  what  ought  not  and  should  not  be  described,"  I  thought. 
I  told  Turg(5uev  so.  And  I  entirely  forgot  about  Mau- 
passant. 

The  first  thing  from  Maupassant's  writings  which  after 
that  fell  into  my  hands  was  Une  Vie,  which  somebody 
advised  me  to  read.  This  book  at  once  made  me  change 
my  opinion  concerning  Maupassant,  and  after  that  I  read 
with  interest  everything  which  was  written  over  his  name. 
Une  Vie  is  an  excellent  novel,  not  only  incomparably  the 
best  novel  by  Maupassant,  but  almost  the  best  French 
novel  since  Hugo's  Les  MiseraUcs.  Besides  the  remarka- 
ble power  of  his  talent,  that  is,  of  that  peculiar,  strained 
attention,  directed  upon  an  object,  in  consequence  of 
which  the  author  sees  entirely  new  features  in  the  life 
which  he  is  describing,  this  novel  combines,  almost  to  an 
equal  degree,  all  three  conditions  of  a  true  artistic  produc- 
tion:  (1)  the  correct,  that  is,  the  moral,  relation  of  the 
author  to  the  suljject,  (2)  the  beauty  of  form,  and  (3)  sin- 
cerity, that  is,  love  for  what  the  author  describes.  Here 
the  meaning  of  life  no  longer  presents  itself  to  the  author 


514   THE  WORKS  OF  GUY  DE  MAUPASSANT 

in  the  experiences  of  all  kinds  of  debauched  persons, — 
here  the  contents,  as  the  title  says,  are  formed  by  the 
description  of  a  ruined,  innocent,  sweet  woman,  who  is 
prepared  for  anything  beautiful,  a  woman  who  is  ruined 
by  that  very  gross,  animal  sensuality  which  in  the  former 
stories  presented  itself  to  the  author  as  the  central  phe- 
nomenon of  life,  which  dominates  everything,  and  the 
author's  whole  sympathy  is  on  the  side  of  the  good. 

The  form,  which  is  beautiful  even  iq  the  first  stories, 
is  here  carried  to  a  high  degree  of  perfection,  such  as,  in 
my  opinion,  has  not  been  reached  by  any  other  French 
prose  writer.  And,  besides,  what  is  most  important,  the 
author  here  really  loves,  and  loves  strongly,  the  good  fam- 
ily which  he  describes,  and  actually  despises  that  coarse 
male  who  destroys  the  happiness  and  peace  of  this  dear 
family  and  especially  of  the  heroine  of  the  novel. 

It  is  for  that  reason  that  all  the  events  and  persons  of 
this  novel  are  so  vivid  and  impress  themselves  on  our 
memory :  the  weak,  good,  slatternly  mother ;  the  noble, 
weak,  dear  father,  and  the  daughter,  who  is  still  dearer  in 
her  simplicity,  absence  of  exaggeration,  and  readiness  for 
everything  good  ;  their  mutual  relations,  their  first  journey, 
their  servants,  their  neighbours,  the  calculating,  coarsely 
sensuous,  stingy,  petty,  impudent  fianc^,  who,  as  always, 
deceives  the  innocent  girl  with  the  customary  base  ideal- 
ization of  the  grossest  of  sentiments ;  the  marriage ;  Cor- 
sica, with  the  charming  descriptions  of  nature ;  then  the 
life  in  the  country ;  the  coarse  deception  of  the  husband ; 
the  seizure  of  the  power  over  the  estate ;  his  conflicts  with 
his  father-in-law ;  the  yielding  of  the  good  people ;  the 
victory  of  impudence ;  the  relation  to  the  neighbours,  — 
all  that  is  life  itself,  with  all  its  complexity  and  variety. 
But  not  only  is  all  this  described  vividly  and  well, — 
there  is  over  all  a  sincere,  pathetic  tone,  which  involunta- 
rily affects  the  reader.  One  feels  that  the  author  loves 
this  woman,  and  that  he  does  not  love  her  merely  for  her 


THE  WORKS  OF  GUT  DE  MAUPASSANT   515 

external  forms,  but  for  her  soul,  for  what  there  is  good  in 
it,  and  that  he  sympathizes  with  her  and  suffers  for  her, 
and  this  sensation  is  involuntarily  transferred  to  the 
reader.  And  the  questions  as  to  why,  for  what  purpose, 
this  fair  creature  was  ruined,  and  why  it  should  be  so, 
naturally  arise  in  the  reader's  soul,  and  make  him  stop 
and  reflect  on  the  meaning  and  significance  of  human  life. 

In  spite  of  the  false  notes,  which  here  and  there  occur 
in  the  novel,  as,  for  example,  the  detailed  account  of  the 
girl's  skin,  or  the  impossible  and  unnecessary  details  about 
how  the  deserted  wife,  by  the  advice,  of  the  abbot,  again 
becomes  a  mother,  details  which  destroy  all  the  charm  of 
the  heroine's  purity ;  in  spite  of  the  melodramatic  and 
unnatural  history  of  the  revenge  of  the  insulted  husband, 
—  in  spite  of  these  blemishes,  the  novel  not  only  appears 
to  me  to  be  beautiful,  but  through  it  I  no  longer  saw  in 
the  author  the  talented  babbler  and  jester,  who  does  not 
know  and  does  not  want  to  know  what  is  good  and  what 
bad,  such  as  he  had  appeared  to  me  to  be,  judging  him 
from  the  first  book,  but  a  serious  man,  who  looks  deeply 
into  man's  life  and  is  beginning  to  make  things  out  in  it. 

The  next  novel  of  Maupassant  which  I  read  was  Bel- 
Ami. 

Bel-Ami  is  a  very  filthy  book.  The  author  apparently 
gives  himself  the  reins  in  the  description  of  what  attracts 
him,  and  at  times  seems  to  be  losing  the  fundamental, 
negative  point  of  view  upon  his  hero  and  passes  over  to 
his  side ;  but  in  general,  Bel-Ami,  like  Une  Vie,  has  for 
its  basis  a  serious  thought  and  sentiment. 

In  Une  Vie  the  fundamental  thought  is  the  perplexity 
in  the  presence  of  the  cruel  senselessness  of  the  agonizing 
life  of  a  beautiful  woman,  who  is  ruined  by  the  gross 
sensuality  of  a  man ;  here  it  is  not  only  the  perplexity, 
but  also  the  indignation  of  the  author  at  the  sight  of  the 
welfare  and  success  of  a  gross  sensuous  beast,  who  by  his 
very  sensuality  makes  a  career  for  himself  and  attains 


516   THE  WORKS  OF  GUT  DE  MAUPASSANT 


a  high  position  in  the  world,  an  indignation  also  at  the 
sight  of  the  corruption  of  that  milieu  in  which  the  hero 
attains  his  success.  There  the  author  seems  to  ask: 
"  Why,  for  what  purpose,  is  the  fair  creature  ruined  ? 
Why  did  it  happen  ? "  Here  he  seems  to  be  answering 
the  questions  :  "  Everything  pure  and  good  has  perished 
and  continues  to  perish  in  our  society,  because  this  society 
is  corrupt,  senseless,  and  terrible." 

The  last  scene  of  the  novel,  the  marriage  in  a  fashion- 
able church  of  the  triumphant  rascal,  who  is  adorned  with 
the  Order  of  the  Legion  of  Honour,  with  the  pure  young 
maiden,  the  daughter  of  the  old,  formerly  irreproachable 
mother  of  the  family,  whom  he  seduced,  the  marriage, 
which  is  blessed  by  the  bishop  and  is  recognized  as  some- 
thing good  and  proper  by  all  the  persons  present,  ex- 
presses this  idea  with  unusual  force.  In  this  novel,  in 
spite  of  its  being  clogged  with  obscene  details,  in  which 
the  author  unfortunately  seems  to  delight,  we  can  see  the 
same  serious  relations  of  the  author  to  life. 

Read  the  conversation  of  the  old  poet  with  Duroy, 
when  they  come  out  after  dinner  from  the  Walters,  I 
think.  The  old  poet  lays  bare  life  before  his  young  in- 
terlocutor and  shows  it  to  him  such  as  it  is,  with  its 
eternal,  unavoidable  companion  and  end,  —  death. 

"  It  already  holds  me,  la  gueuse,"  he  says  of  death.  "  It 
has  already  loosened  my  teeth,  pulled  out  my  hair,  mauled 
my  limbs,  and  is  about  to  swallow  me.  I  am  already  in 
its  power,  —  it  only  plays  with  me,  as  a  cat  plays  with 
a  mouse,  knowing  that  I  cannot  get  away  from  it.  Glory, 
wealth,  —  what  is  it  all  good  for,  since  it  is  not  possible 
to  buy  a  woman's  love  with  them,  and  it  is  only  a  woman's 
love  that  makes  life  worth  living.  And  death  will  take 
that  away.  It  will  take  this  first,  and  then  health, 
strength,  and  life  itself.  And  it  is  the  same  with  every- 
body.    And  that  is  all." 

Such  is  the  meaning  of  the  remarks  of  the  aging  poet. 


THE  WORKS  OF  GUY  DE  MAUPASSANT   517 

But  Duroy,  the  fortunate  lover  of  all  those  women  whom 
he  likes,  is  so  full  of  sensuous  energy  and  strength  that 
he  hears,  and  yet  does  not  hear,  and  understands,  and  yet 
does  not  understand,  the  words  of  the  old  poet.  He  hears 
and  understands,  but  the  spring  of  his  sensuous  life 
bubbles  up  with  such  force  that  the  incontestable  truth, 
which  promises  the  same  end  to  him,  does  not  appal 
him. 

It  is  this  inner  contradiction  which,  besides  its  satirical 
significance,  forms  the  chief  meaning  of  Bel- Ami.  The 
same  thought  sparkles  in  the  beautiful  scenes  of  the  death 
of  the  consumptive  journalist.  The  author  puts  the  ques- 
tion to  himself  as  to  what  life  is  and  how  the  contra- 
diction between  the  love  of  life  and  the  knowledge  of 
unavoidable  death  is  to  be  solved,  —  and  he  does  not 
answer  the  questions.  He  seems  to  be  seeking  and  wait- 
ing, and  does  not  decide  one  way  or  another.  Conse- 
quently the  moral  relation  to  life  continues  to  be  correct 
in  this  novel  also. 

But  in  the  next  novels  after  that  this  moral  relation 
to  life  begins  to  become  entangled,  the  valuation  of  the 
phenomena  of  life  begins  to  waver,  to  grow  dim,  and  in 
the  last  novels  is  completely  distorted. 

In  Mont-Oriol  Maupassant  seems  to  combine  the  motives 
of  the  two  preceding  novels,  and  repeats  himself  as  regards 
contents.  In  spite  of  the  beautiful  descriptions,  full  of 
refined  humour,  of  a  fashionable  watering-place  and  of  the 
activity  of  the  doctors  in  this  place,  we  have  here  the  same 
male,  Paul,  wlio  is  just  as  base  and  heartless  as  the  hus- 
band in  Une  Vie,  and  the  same  deceived,  ruined,  yielding, 
weak,  lonely,  always  lonely,  dear  woman,  and  the  same 
indifferent  triumph  of  insignificance  and  baseness  as  in 
Bel- Ami. 

The  thought  is  the  same,  but  the  author's  relation  to 
what  he  describes  is  now  considerably  lower,  especially 
lower  than  in  the  first  novel.     The  inner  valuation  of  the 


518   THE  WOEKS  OF  GUY  DE  MAUPASSANT 

author  as  to  what  is  good  and  bad  begins  to  become 
entangled.  In  spite  of  all  the  mental  desire  of  the  author 
to  be  objective  without  any  bias,  the  rascal  Paul  appar- 
ently enjoys  the  author's  complete  sympathy.  For  this 
reason  the  history  of  Paul's  love,  his  attempts  to  seduce, 
and  his  success  in  this  produce  a  false  impression.  The 
reader  does  not  know  what  the  author  wants,  —  whether 
he  wants  to  show  the  whole  emptiness  and  baseness  of 
Paul,  who  with  indifference  turns  away  from  the  woman 
and  offends  her,  only  because  her  form  is  spoiled  from 
being  pregnant  with  a  child  by  him,  or  whether  he  wants, 
on  the  contrary,  to  show  how  agreeable  and  nice  it  is  to 
live  the  way  this  Paul  lives. 

In  the   next   novels   after   that,  Pierre   et  Jean,  Fort 
comme  la  Mort,  and  Notre  Cceur,  the  moral  relation  of  the 
author  to   his   persons   is   still    more  entangled,  and    is 
entirely  lost  in  the  last.     On  all   these    novels   already 
lies  the  stamp  of   indifference,  haste,  fictitiousness,  and, 
above  all,  again   that    absence  of  a   correct   moral   rela- 
tion  to  life  which   was  noticeable  in  his  first  writings. 
This  begins  at  the  same  time  that  Maupassant's  reputa- 
tion as  a  fashionable  author  becomes  established,  and  he 
is  subject  to  that  terrible  temptation  to  which  every  well- 
known    author,  particularly   such    an    attractive   one    as 
Maupassant,  falls  a  prey.     On  the  one  side,  the  success 
of  the  first  novels,  newspaper  laudations,  and  flattery  of 
society,   especially    of   the  women;    on  the    second,  the 
evergrowing  rewards,  which,  however,  do  not  keep  pace 
with    the    constantly  growing    demands ;    on    the    third, 
—  the  insistence  of  publishers,  who  vie  with  one  another, 
flatter,  implore,  and  no  longer  judge  of  the  quahty  of  the 
productions  offered  by  the  author,  but  in  ecstasy  accept 
everything  which  appears  over  the  name  that  has  estab- 
lished its  reputation  with  the  reading  public.     All  these 
temptations  are  so  great  that  they  evidently  intoxicate 
the  author :  he  succumbs  to  them,  and,  though  he  coi* 


THE  WORKS  OF  GUY  DE  MAUPASSANT  '  519 

tinues  to  work  out  his  novels  as  regards  their  forms,  and 
does  it  even  better  than  before,  and  even  loves  what  he 
describes,  he  no  longer  loves  what  he  describes  because 
it  is  good  and  moral,  that  is,  because  it  is  loved  by  every- 
body, and  hates  what  he  describes  not  because  it  is  bad 
and  despised  by  everybody,  but  only  because  one  thing 
accidentally  pleases  and  another  displeases  him. 

Upon  all  the  novels  of  Maupassant,  beginning  with 
Bel-Ami,  lies  this  stamp  of  haste  and,  above  all,  of  ficti- 
tiousness.  From  that  time  on  Maupassant  no  longer 
does  what  be  did  in  his  first  two  novels,  —  he  does  not 
take  for  the  foundation  of  his  novels  certain  moral  de- 
mands and  on  their  basis  describe  the  activity  of  his 
persons,  but  writes  his  novels  as  all  artisan  novelists 
write  theirs,  that  is,  he  iuvents  the  most  interesting  and 
the  most  pathetic  or  most  contemporary  persons  and  sit- 
uations, and  from  these  composes  his  novel,  adorning  it 
with  all  those  observations  which  he  has  happened  to 
make  and  which  fit  into  the  canvas  of  the  novel,  without 
the  slightest  concern  how  the  events  described  are  related 
to  the  demands  of  morahty.  Such  are  Pierre  et  Jean,  Fort 
comme  la  Mort,  and  Notre  Coeur. 

No  matter  how  much  we  are  accustomed  to  read  in 
French  novels  about  how  famihes  live  by  threes,  and  how 
there  is  always  a  lover,  whom  all  but  the  husband  know, 
it  still  remains  quite  incomprehensible  to  us  how  it  is 
that  all  husbands  are  always  fools,  cocus,  and  ridictdes, 
and  all  lovers,  who  in  the  end  marry  and  become  husbands, 
are  neither  ridicules  nor  cocus,  but  heroes.  And  still  less 
can  we  understand  in  wbat  way  all  women  are  loose  in 
morals  and  all  mothers  holy. 

It  is  on  these  unnatural  and  improbable  and,  above  all, 
profoundly  immoral  situations  tliat  Pierre  et  Jean  and 
Fort  comme  la  Mort  are  constructed.  And  so  the  suffer- 
ings of  the  persons  who  are  in  these  situations  do  not 
touch  us   much.     Pierre's   and  Jean's  mother,  who   was 


520       THE   WORKS   OF   GUY   DE   MAUPASSANT 

able  to  pass  all  her  life  in  deceiving  her  husband,  evokes 
little  sympathy  for  herself  when  she  is  compelled  to  con- 
fess her  sin  to  her  son,  and  still  less  when  she  justifies 
herself,  asserting  that  she  could  not  help  making  use  of 
the  opportunity  of  happiness  which  presented  itself  to 
her.  Still  less  can  we  sympathize  with  the  gentleman 
who,  in  Fort  comme  la  Mort,  during  his  whole  hfe  deceived 
his  friend,  corrupted  his  wife,  and  now  laments  because, 
having  grown  old,  he  is  not  able  to  corrupt  also  the 
daughter  of  his  paramour.  But  the  last  novel,  Notre 
Cceur,  does  not  even  have  any  inner  problem,  except  the 
description  of  all  kinds  of  shades  of  sexual  love.  What 
is  described  is  a  satiated,  idle  debauchee,  who  does  not 
know  what  he  wants,  and  who  now  falls  in  with  just  as 
debauched,  mentally  debauched^  a  woman,  without  even 
any  justification  of  sensuality,  and  now  parts  from  her 
and  falls  in  with  a  servant  girl,  and  now  again  falls  in 
with  the  first  and,  it  seems,  lives  with  both.  Though  in 
Pierre  et  Jean  and  Fort  comme  la  Mort  there  are  touch- 
ing scenes,  this  last  novel  provokes  nothing  but  disgust 
in  us. 

The  question  in  Maupassant's  first  novel,  Une  Vie, 
stands  hke  this.  Here  is  a  good,  clever,  dear  human 
being,  ready  for  anything  good,  and  this  being  for  some 
reason  is  sacrificed,  at  first  to  a  coarse,  petty,  stupid  animal 
of  a  husband,  and  then  to  just  such  a  son,  and  perishes 
aimlessly,  without  having  given  anything  to  the  world. 
What  is  this  for  ?  The  author  puts  the  question  like 
that,  and  does  not  seem  to  give  any  answer.  But  his 
whole  novel,  all  his  sentiments  of  sympathy  for  her  and 
disgust  with  what  ruined  her  serve  as  an  answer  to  his 
question.  If  there  is  one  man  who  has  understood  her 
suJEferings  and  has  given  expression  to  this  understanding, 
these  sufferings  are  redeemed,  as  Job  says  to  his  friends, 
when  they  say  that  no  one  will  find  out  about  his  suffer- 
ing.    Let  a  suffering  be  made  known  and  understood, 


THE  WORKS  OF  GUY  DE  MAUPASSANT   521 

and  it  is  redeemed.  Here  the  author  saw  and  compre- 
hended this  suffering  and  showed  it  to  men.  And  this 
suffering  is  redeemed,  because,  as  soon  as  it  is  understood 
by  men,  it  will  sooner  or  later  be  destroyed. 

In  the  next  novel,  Bel- Ami,  the  question  is  no  longer 
as  to  why  there  is  any  suffering  for  the  worthy,  but  why 
there  is  wealth  and  glory  for  the  unworthy.  And  what 
are  this  wealth  and  glory,  and  how  are  they  acquired  ? 
And  just  as  before,  this  question  includes  an  answer, 
which  consists  in  the  negation  of  everything  which  is  so 
highly  valued  by  the  crowd.  The  contents  of  this  sec- 
ond novel  are  stdl  serious,  but  the  moral  relation  of  the 
author  to  the  subject  described  is  considerably  weakened, 
and  while  in  the  first  novel  only  here  and  there  occur 
Ijlemishes  of  sensuality,  which  spoil  the  novel,  in  Bel- Ami 
these  blemishes  expand,  and  many  chapters  are  written 
in  mere  obscenity,  in  which  the  author  seems  to  revel. 

In  the  next  novel,  Mont-Oriol,  the  questions  as  to 
why  and  for  what  purpose  are  the  sufferings  of  the  dear 
woman  and  the  success  and  joys  of  the  savage  male  are 
no  longer  put,  but  it  seems  to  be  assumed  that  it  ought  to 
be  so,  and  the  moral  demands  are  almost  not  felt ;  instead 
there  appear,  without  any  need  and  evoked  by  no  artistic 
demands,  obscene,  sensuous  descriptions.  As  a  striking 
example  of  this  violation  of  art,  in  consequence  of  the 
incorrect  relation  of  the  author  to  the  subject,  may  with 
particular  vividness  serve  the  detailed  description  of  the 
appearance  of  the  hercjine  in  the  bathtub,  which  is  given 
in  this  novel.  This  description  is  of  no  use  whatsoever, 
and  is  in  no  way  connected  with  the  external  or  the  in- 
ternal meaning  of  the  novel:  bubbles  cling  to  the  pink 
body. 

"  Well  ? "  asks  the  reader. 

"  That's  all,"  replies  the  author.  "  I  describe,  because 
I  like  such  descriptions." 

In  the  next  two  novels,  Pierre  et  Jean  and  Fort  comme 


522   THE  WORKS  OF  GUY  DE  MAUPASSANT 

la  Mort,  no  moral  demand  whatever  is  to  be  founds 
Both  novels  are  constructed  on  debauchery,  deception, 
and  lying,  which  bring  the  dramatis  personce  to  tragic 
situations. 

In  the  last  novel,  Notre  Coeur,  the  condition  of  the 
dramatis  personm  is  most  monstrous,  savage,  and  immoral, 
and  these  persons  no  longer  .struggle  against  anything, 
but  only  seek  enjoyments,  of  ambition,  of  the  senses,  of 
the  sexual  passion,  and  the  author  seems  to  sympathize 
completely  with  their  strivings.  The  only  conclusion 
one  can  draw  from  this  last  novel  is  this,  that  the  great- 
est happiness  in  life  is  sexual  intercourse,  and  that,  there- 
fore, we  must  in  the  most  agreeable  manner  make  use  of 
this  happiness. 

Still  more  startling  is  this  immoral  relation  to  life  as  it 
is  expressed  in  the  quasi-novel,  Yvette.  The  contents 
of  this  terribly  immoral  production  are  as  follows :  a 
charming  girl,  with  an  innocent  soul,  but  corrupted  in  the 
forms  which  she  has  acquired  in  the  corrupt  surroundings 
of  her  mother,  deludes  the  debauchee.  He  falls  in  love 
with  her,  but,  imagining  that  this  girl  consciously  talks 
that  insinuating  nonsense  which  she  has  learned  in  her 
mother's  company,  and  which  she  repeats  like  a  parrot, 
without  understanding  it,  he  imagines  that  the  girl  is  cor- 
rupt, and  coarsely  proposes  a  liaison  with  her.  This  prop- 
osition frightens  and  offends  her  (she  loves  him),  opens 
her  eyes  to  her  position  and  to  that  of  her  mother,  and 
makes  her  suffer  deeply.  The  touching  situation  —  the 
conflict  of  the  beauty  of  the  innocent  soul  with  the  immo- 
rality of  the  world  —  is  beautifully  described,  and  it  would 
have  been  well  to  stop  here,  but  the  author,  without  the 
least  external  or  internal  need,  continues  his  narration 
and  causes  this  gentleman  to  make  his  way  to  the  girl  at 
night  and  seduce  her.  In  the  first  part  of  the  novel  the 
author  had  evidently  been  on  the  side  of  the  girl,  and  in 
the  second  he  suddenly  passed  over  to  the  side  of  the 


THE    WORKS    OF    GUY    DE    MAUPASSANT       523 

debauchee.  One  impression  destroys  the  other,  and  the 
whole  novel  falls  to  pieces  and  breaks  up,  like  bread 
which  has  not  been  kneaded. 

In  all  his  novels  after  Bel-Ami  (I  am  not  speaking 
now  of  his  shorter  stories,  which  form  his  chief  desert  and 
fame,  —  of  them  I  shall  speak  later),  Maupassant  obviously 
surrendered  himself  to  the  theory,  which  not  only  existed 
in  his  circle  in  Paris,  but  which  now  exists  everywhere 
among  artists,  that  for  an  artistic  production  we  not 
only  need  have  no  clear  conception  of  what  is  good 
and  what  bad,  but  that,  on  the  contrary,  the  artist  must 
absolutely  ignore  all  moral  questions,  —  that  in  this  does 
a  certain  merit  of  the  artist  consist.  According  to  this 
theory  an  artist  can  and  must  represent  what  is  true, 
what  exists,  or  what  is  beautiful,  what,  consequently, 
pleases  him,  or  even  what  can  be  useful  as  material  for 
"  science,"  but  it  is  not  the  business  of  the  artist  to 
trouble  himself  about  what  is  moral  or  immoral,  good  or  bad. 

I  remember,  a  famous  painter  showed  me  once  his 
paiutiug,  which  represented  a  reHgious  procession.  Every- 
thing was  exquisitely  painted,  but  I  could  not  see  any 
relation  of  the  artist  to  his  subject. 

"  Well,  do  you  consider  these  rites  good,  and  do  you 
think  that  they  ought  to  be  performed,  or  do  you  not  ? "  I 
asked  the  artist. 

The  artist  said  to  me,  with  a  certain  condescension  to 
my  naivete,  that  he  did  not  know  and  did  not  consider  it 
necessary  to  know :  his  business  was  to  represent  life. 

"  But  do  you  at  least  love  this  ?  " 

"  I  cannot  tell  you." 

"  Well,  do  you  despise  these  rites  ?  " 

"  Neither  the  one  nor  the  other,"  replied,  with  a  smile 
of  compassion  for  my  stupidity,  the  modern  highly  cul- 
tured artist,  who  represented  life  without  understanding 
its  meaning  and  without  either  loving  or  hating  its  phe- 
nomena.    Even  so  unfortunately  thought  Maupassant. 


624   THE  WORKS  OF  GUY  DE  MAUPASSANT 

In  his  introduction  to  Pierre  et  Jean  he  says  that 
people  tell  the  writer :  "  Consolez-moi,  attristez-moi,  atten- 
drissez-moi,  faites-tnoi  rever,  faites-moi  rire,  faites-'tnoi 
fremir,  faites-JThoi  pleurer,  faites-moi  penser.  Seuls  quel- 
ques  esprits  d'elites  demaiident  k  I'artiste  :  faites-moi  quel- 
que  chose  de  beau  dans  la  forTne  qui  vous  conviendra  le 
mieux  d'apres  votre  temperament." 

It  was  to  satisfy  the  demand  of  these  chosen  spirits 
that  Maupassant  wrote  his  novels,  imagining  naively  that 
that  which  was  considered  beautiful  in  his  circle  was  the 
beautiful  which  art  ought  to  serve. 

In  the  same  circle  in  which  Maupassant  moved,  it  is 
woman,  a  young,  beautiful,  for  the  most  part  a  nude 
woman,  and  the  sexual  intercourse  with  her  that  have 
preeminently  been  considered  to  be  that  beauty  which  art 
must  serve.  Such  an  opinion  was  held  not  only  by  Mau- 
passant's fellows  in  "  art,"  by  painters,  sculptors,  noveUsts, 
and  poets,  but  also  by  philosophers,  the  teachers  of  the 
younger  generations.  Thus  the  famous  Eenan  says 
frankly  in  his  work,  Marc  Aurele,  while  condemning 
Christianity  for  its  lack  of  appreciation  of  feminine  beauty  . 

"  Le  dcfaut  du  cliristianisme  apparait  hien  id,  il  est 
trop  uniquemcnt  moral :  la  leaute  chez-lui  est  tout-d,-fait 
sacrifiee.  Or,  aux  yeux  d'une  philosophie  complete,  la 
heaute,  loin  d'etre  un  avantage  sui^erficiel,  un  danger,  un 
inconvenient,  est  un  don  de  Dieu,  comme  la  vertu.  Elle 
vaut  la  vertu  ;  la  femme  belle  exprime  aussi  bien  une  face 
du  but  divin,  U7ie  des  fins  de  Dieu,  que  I'homme'  de  genie  ou 
la  femme  vertueuse.  Elle  le  sait  et  de  Id,  sa  fierte.  Elle 
sent  i/istinctivement  le  tresor  iiifini  qu'elle  porte  en  son 
corps ;  elle  sait  bien,  que  sans  esprit,  sans  talent,  sans 
grave  vertu,  elle  compte  entre  les  premieres  manifestations 
de  Dieu :  et  pourquoi  lui  interdire  de  mettre  en  valeur  le 
don,  qui  lui  a  etc  fait,  de  sortir  le  diamant  qui  lui  est 
echu  ? 

"  La  femme,  en  se  passant,  accomplit  un  devoir ;  elle 


THE    WORKS    OF    GUY   T)E    MAUPASSA:N'T       525 

pratique  un  art,  art  exquis,  en  un  sens  le  plus  charmant 
des  arts.  Nc  nous  laissons  pas  cgarer  par  le  sourire  que 
certains  mots  provoquent  chez  les  gens  frivoles.  Ondecerne 
la  palme  du  genie  a  V artiste  grec  qui  a  su  resoudre  le  plus 
delicat  des  prohlemes,  orner  le  corps  humain,  c'est  d  orner 
la  perfection  mtme,  et  Von  ne  veut  voir  qu'une  affaire  de 
chiffons  dans  I'essai  de  collaborer  di  la  plus  belle  ceuvre  de 
Dieii,  ci  la  heaute  de  lafemrne  !  La  toilette  de  la  femtne,  avec 
tous  ses  raffinements,  est  du  grand  art  tt  sa  maniere. 

"  Les  siecles  et  les  pays,  qui  savent  y  reussir,  —  sont  les 
grands  siecles,  les  grands  pays,  et  le  christianisme  montra 
par  V exclusion  dont  il  frappa  le  genre  de  reclierches  que 
I'ideal  social  qu'il  concevait  ne  dcviendrait  le  cadre  d'une 
societe  complete  que  hien  plus  tard,  quand  la  revolte  des  gens 
du  monde  aurait  brise  lejoug  etroit  impose  primitivement 
h  la  secte  par  un  pietisme  exalte"  {Marc  Aurele,  p.  555). 

(Thus,  according  to  the  opinion  of  this  guide  of  the 
younger  generations,  it  is  only  now  that  the  Parisian 
tailors  and  wigmakers  have  mended  the  mistake  made  by 
Christianity,  and  have  ree'stablished  beauty  in  its  real, 
high  significance.) 

To  leave  no  doubt  in  what  sense  beauty  is  to  be  taken, 
this  same  famous  writer,  historian,  and  scholar  wrote  a 
drama,  L'Abbesse  de  Jouarrc,  in  which  he  showed  that 
sexual  intercourse  with  a  woman  is  that  very  ministra- 
tion to  beauty,  that  is,  a  high  and  good  work.  In  this 
drama,  which  is  remarkable  for  its  absence  of  talent  and 
especially  for  the  coarseness  of  Darcy's  conversations  with 
the  Abbess,  where  we  can  see  from  the  very  first  words 
of  what  love  this  gentleman  is  speaking  with  the  appar- 
ently innocent  and  highly  moral  girl,  who  is  not  in  tlie 
least  offended  by  this,  —  it  appears  that  the  most  highly 
moral  people,  in  the  sight  of  death,  to  which  they  are 
condemned,  a  few  hours  before  it  can  do  nothing  more 
beautiful  than  surrender  themselves  to  their  animal  passion. 

Thus,  in  the  circle  in  w^hich  Maupassant  grew  up  and 


526   THE  WOKKS  OF  GUT  DE  MAUPASSANT 

was  educated,  the  representation  of  feminine  beauty  and 
love  has  quite  seriously,  and  as  something  long  ago  de- 
cided and  determined  by  the  cleverest  and  most  learned 
of  men,  been  considered  to  be  the  true  problem  of  the 
highest  art,  —  Ic  grand  art. 

lu  is  to  this  theory,  frightful  in  its  insipidity,  that 
Maupassant  was  subjected,  when  he  became  a  fashionable 
writer.  And,  as  was  to  have  been  expected,  in  the  novels 
this  false  ideal  led  Maupassant  to  a  series  of  mistakes 
and  to  weaker  and  ever  weaker  productions. 

In  this  showed  itself  the  radical  difference  which  exists 
between  the  demands  of  the  novel  and  those  of  the  story. 
The  novel  has  for  its  problem,  even  for  its  external  prob- 
lem, the  description  of  the  whole  human  life  or  of  many 
human  lives,  and  so  the  writer  of  a  novel  must  have  a 
clear  and  firm  idea  of  what  is  good  and  what  bad  in  life, 
and  Maupassant  did  not  possess  that;  on  the  contrary, 
according  to  the  theory  to  which  he  held,  it  was  thought 
that  that  was  not  necessary.  If  he  had  been  a  novelist 
like  some  untalented  writers  of  sensuous  novels,  he  would 
have  calmly  described  as  good  what  is  bad,  and  his  novels 
would  be  complete  and  interesting  for  people  sharing  the 
same  views  as  the  author.  But  Maupassant  had  talent, 
that  is,  he  saw  things  in  their  real  form,  and  so  he  invol- 
untarily revealed  the  truth :  he  involuntarily  saw  the  bad 
in  what  he  wanted  to  regard  as  good.  For  this  reason  his 
sympathy  is  constantly  wavering  in  all  his  novels,  with 
the  exception  of  the  first :  now  he  represents  the  bad  as 
being  good,  now  he  recognizes  the  bad  to  be  bad  and  the 
good  to  be  good,  and  now  again  he  keeps  all  the  time 
jumping  from  one  to  the  other.  But  this  destroys  the 
very  essence  of  every  artistic  impression,  the  charpcntc,  on 
which  he  stands.  People  who  are  not  very  sensitive  to 
art  frequently  imagine  that  an  artistic  production  forms 
one  whole,  because  the  same  persons  act  in  it  all  the  time, 
because  everything  is  constructed  on  one  plot,  or  because 


THE  WORKS  OF  GUY  DE  MAUPASSANT   527 

the  life  of  one  man  is  described.  That  is  not  true.  That 
only  seems  so  to  the  superficial  observer :  the  cement 
which  binds  every  artistic  production  into  one  whole  and 
so  produces  the  illusion  of  a  reflection  of  life  is  not  the 
unity  of  persons  and  situations,  but  the  unity  of  the 
original,  moral  relation  of  the  author  to  his  subject.  In 
reality,  when  we  read  or  contemplate  an  artistic  produc- 
tion by  a  new  author,  the  fundamental  question  which 
arises  in  our  soul  is  always  this :  "  Well,  what  kind  of  a 
man  are  you  ?  How  do  you  differ  from  all  other  men 
whom  I  know,  and  what  new  thing  can  you  tell  me  about 
the  way  we  ought  to  look  upon  our  life  ? "  No  matter 
what  the  artist  may  represent,  —  saints,  robbers,  kings, 
lackeys,  —  we  seek  and  see  only  the  artist's  soul.  If  he 
is  an  old,  familiar  artist,  the  question  is  no  longer,  "  Who 
are  you  ? "  but,  "  Well,  what  new  thing  can  you  tell  me  ? 
From  wliat  new  side  will  you  now  illumine  my  life  for 
me  ? "  And  so  an  author  who  has  no  definite,  clear,  new 
view  of  the  world,  and  still  more  so  the  one  who  does  not 
consider  this  to  be  necessary,  cannot  give  an  artistic  pro- 
duction. He  can  write  beautifully,  and  a  great  deal,  but 
there  will  be  no  artistic  production.  Even  so  it  was  with 
Maupassant  in  his  novels.  In  his  first  two  novels,  es- 
pecially in  the  first,  Une  Vie,  there  was  that  clear, 
definite,  new  relation  to  life,  and  so  there  was  an  artistic 
production ;  but  as  soon  as  he,  submitting  to  the  fashion- 
able theory,  decided  that  there  is  no  need  whatever  for 
this  relation  of  the  author  to  life,  and  began  to  write  only 
in  order  to  faire  quclque  chose  de  beau,  his  novels  ceased 
to  be  artistic  productions.  In  Une  Vie  and  Bel-Ami  the 
author  knows  who  is  to  be  loved  and  who  is  to  be  hated, 
and  the  reader  agrees  with  him  and  believes  him,  believes 
in  those  persons  and  events  which  are  described  to  him. 
But  in  Notre  Cceur  and  in  Yvcttc  the  author  does  not 
know  who  is  to  be  loved  and  who  is  to  be  hated ;  nor 
does    the    reader    know    it.      And    as    the    reader    does 


528   THE  WORKS  OF  GUY  DE  MAUPASSANT  ^! 

III 
not  know  it,  he  does  not  believe  in  the  events  described 
and  is  not  interested  in  them.  And  so,  with  the  excep- 
tion of  the  first  two,  or,  speaking  strictly,  of  the  one  first 
novel,  all  of  Maupassant's  novels,  as  novels,  are  weak ; 
and  if  Maupassant  had  left  us  only  his  novels,  he  would 
be  a  striking  example  of  how  a  brilliant  gift  may  perish 
in  consequence  of  that  false  milieu  in  which  it  was 
evolved,  and  of  those  false  tlieories  of  art  which  are  in- 
vented by  men  who  do  not  love  it  and  so  do  not  under- 
stand it.  But,  fortunately,  Maupassant  has  written  short 
stories,  in  which  he  did  not  succumb  to  the  false  theory 
which  he  adopted,  and  wrote,  not  quelque  chose  de  heau, 
but  what  touched  and  provoked  his  moral  feeling.  It  is 
in  these  stories,  not  in  all,  but  in  the  best  of  them,  that 
we  see  how  the  moral  feeling  grew  in  the  author. 

In  this,  indeed,  does  the  remarkable  quality  of  every 
true  talent  consist,  so  long  as  it  does  not  do  violence  to 
itself  under  the  influence  of  a  false  theory,  that  it  teaches 
its  possessor,  leads  him  on  over  the  path  of  moral  develop- 
ment, makes  him  love  what  is  worthy  of  love,  and  hate 
what  is  worthy  of  hatred.  An  artist  is  an  artist  for  the 
very  reason  that  he  sees  the  objects,  not  as  he  wants  to 
see  them,  but  as  they  are.  The  bearer  of  talent,  —  man, 
—  may  make  mistakes,  but  the  talent,  as  soon  as  the 
reins  are  given  to  it,  as  was  done  by  Maupassant  in  his 
stories,  will  reveal  and  lay  bare  the  subject  and  will  make 
the  writer  love  it,  if  it  is  worthy  of  love,  and  hate  it,  if  it 
is  worthy  of  hatred.  What  happens  to  every  true  artist, 
when,  under  the  influence  of  his  surroundings,  he  begins 
to  desci'ibe  somethiag  different  from  what  he  ought  to 
describe,  is  what  happened  to  Balaam,  who,  when  he 
wanted  to  bless,  cursed  that  which  ought  to  have  been 
cursed,  and,  when  he  wanted  to  curse,  began  to  bless  that 
which  ought  to  have  been  blessed ;  he  will  involuntarily 
do,  not  what  he  wants,  but  what  he  ought  to  do.  The 
same  happened  with  Maupassant. 


THE    WORKS    OF    GUT    DE    MAUPASSANT       529 

There  has  hardly  been  another  such  an  author,  who 
thought  so  sincerely  that  all  the  good,  the  whole  meaning 
of  life  was  in  woman,  in  love,  and  who  with  such  force  of 
passion  described  woman  and  the  love  of  her  from  all  sides, 
and  there  has  hardly  been  another  author,  who  with  such 
clearness  and  precision  has  pointed  out  all  the  terrible 
sides  of  the  same  phenomenon,  which  to  him  seemed  to 
be  the  highest,  and  one  that  gives  the  greatest  good  to  men. 
The  more  he  comprehended  this  phenomenon,  the  more 
did  it  become  unveiled ;  the  shrouds  fell  off,  and  all  there 
was  left  was  its  terrible  consequences  and  its  still  more 
terrible  reality. 

Eead  his  "  Idiot  Son,"  "  A  Night  with  the  Daughter  " 
(Z'Urmite),  "The  Sailor  and  His  Sister"  (Le  Por^),"  Field 
of  Olives,"  Za  Petite  Eoque,  the  English  Miss  Harriet, 
Monsieur  Parent,  LArmoire  (the  girl  that  fell  asleep  in 
the  safe),  "  The  Marriage  "  in  Sur  VEau,  and  the  last  ex- 
pression of  everything,  Un  Gas  de  Divorce.  What  Marcus 
Aurelius  said,  trying  to  find  means  with  which  to  destroy 
in  imagination  the  attractiveness  of  this  sin,  Maupassant 
does  in  glaring,  artistic  pictures,  which  upset  one  com- 
pletely. He  wants  to  laud  love,  but  the  more  he  knew  of 
it,  the  more  he  cursed  it.  He  cursed  it  for  the  calamities 
and  sufferings  which  it  brings  with  it,  and  for  the  disap- 
pointments, and,  above  all,  for  the  simulation  of  true  love, 
for  the  deception  which  is  in  it,  and  from  which  man  suffers 
the  more,  the  more  he  abandons  himself  to  this  deception. 

The  mighty  moral  growth  of  the  author,  during  his 
literary  activity,  is  written  in  indelible  characters  in  these 
exquisite  short  stories  and  in  his  best  book,  Sur  VEau. 

And  not  merely  in  this  discrowning,  this  involuntary 
and,  therefore,  so  nnich  more  powerful  discrowning  of 
sexual  love,  do  we  see  the  author's  moral  growth  ;  we  see 
it  also  in  all  those  higher  and  ever  higher  demands  which 
he  makes  on  life. 

Not  only  in  sexual  love  does  he  see  the  inner  contra- 


630   THE  WORKS  OF  GUT  DE  MAUPASSANT 

diction  between  the  demands  of  the  animal  and  of  the 
rational  man,  —  he  sees  it  in  the  whole  structure  of 
the  world. 

He  sees  that  the  world,  the  material  world,  such  as  it  is, 
is  not  only  not  the  best  of  worlds,  but,  on  the  contrary, 
might  have  been  quite  different,  —  this  idea  is  strikingly 
expressed  in  Horla,  —  and  does  not  satisfy  the  demands 
of  reason  and  of  love ;  he  sees  that  there  is  a  certain  other 
world,  or  at  least  there  are  the  demands  for  such  a  world, 
in  man's  soul. 

He  is  tormented,  not  only  by  the  irrationality  of  the 
material  world  and  the  absence  of  beauty  in  it,  but  also 
by  its  lack  of  love,  by  its  disunion.  I  know  of  no  more 
heartrending  cry  of  despair  of  an  erring  man  who  recog- 
nizes his  loneliness,  than  the  expression  of  this  idea  in  the 
exquisite  story,  Solitude. 

The  phenomenon  which  more  than  any  other  tortured 
Maupassant,  and  to  which  he  frequently  returned,  is  the 
agonizing  state  of  loneliness,  the  spiritual  lonehness  of  a 
man,  that  barrier  which  stands  between  a  man  and  others, 
that  barrier  which,  as  he  says,  is  felt  the  more  painfully, 
the  closer  the  bodily  contact. 

What  is  it  that  tortures  him  ?  And  what  would  he 
have  ?  What  destroys  this  barrier,  what  puts  a  stop  to 
this  loneliness  ?  Love,  not  love  of  woman,  of  which  he  is 
tired,  but  pure,  spiritual,  divine  love.  And  it  is  this  that 
Maupassant  seeks ;  toward  this  saviour  of  life,  which  was 
long  ago  clearly  revealed  to  all,  that  he  painfully  tugs  at 
the  fetters  with  which  he  feels  himself  bound. 

He  is  not  yet  able  to  name  what  he  is  seeking,  he  does 
not  want  to  name  it  with  his  hps  alone,  for  fear  of  defil- 
ing his  sanctuary.  But  his  unnamed  striving,  which  is 
expressed  by  his  terror  in  the  presence  of  solitude,  is  so 
sincere  that  it  infects  us  and  draws  us  more  powerfully 
than  many,  very  many  sermons  of  love,  which  are  enun- 
ciated with  the  lips  alone. 


THE  WORKS  OF  GUY  DE  MAUPASSANT   531 

The  tragedy  of  Maupassant's  life  consists  in  this,  that, 
living  in  surroundings  that  are  terrible  because  of  their 
monstrousness  and  immorality,  he  by  the  force  of  his 
talent,  that  unusual  light  which  was  in  him,  broke  away 
from  the  world-conception  of  his  circle,  was  near  to  libera- 
tion, already  breathed  the  air  of  freedom,  but,  having 
spent  his  last  strength  in  this  struggle,  perished  without 
becoming  free,  because  he  did  not  have  the  strength  to 
make  this  one  last  effort. 

The  tragedy  of  this  ruin  consists  in  the  same  in  which 
it  even  now  continues  to  consist  for  the  majority  of  the 
so-called  men  of  our  time. 

Men  have  in  general  never  lived  without  an  explana- 
tion of  the  meaning  of  the  life  they  live.  Everywhere 
and  at  all  times  there  have  appeared  advanced,  highly 
gifted  men,  prophets,  as  they  are  called,  who  have  ex- 
plained to  men  this  meaning  and  significance  of  life,  and 
at  all  times  the  men  of  the  rank  and  file,  who  have  no 
strength  to  make  this  meaning  clear  to  themselves,  have 
followed  that  explanation  of  life  which  their  prophets 
revealed  to  them. 

This  meaning  was  eighteen  hundred  years  ago  simply, 
lucidly,  indubitably,  and  joyously  explained  by  Chris- 
tianity, as  is  proved  by  the  life  of  all  those  who  have 
accepted  this  meaning  and  follow  that  guide  of  life  which 
follows  from  this  meaning. 

But  there  appeared  men  who  interpreted  this  meaning 
in  such  a  way  that  it  became  nonsense.  And  people  are 
in  a  dilemma,  —  whether  to  recognize  Christianity,  as  it 
is  interpreted  by  Catholicism,  Lourdes,  the  Pope,  the 
dogma  of  the  seedless  conception,  and  so  forth,  or  to  live 
on,  being  guided  by  thci  instructions  of  Renan  and  his 
like,  that  is,  to  live  without  any  guidance  and  comprehen- 
sion of  Hfe,  surrendering  themselves  to  their  lusts,  so  long 
as  they  are  strong,  and  to  their  habits,  when  the  passions 
have  subsided. 


532   THE  WORKS  OF  GUT  DE  MAUPASSANT 

And  the  people,  the  people  of  the  rank  and  file,  choose 
one  or  the  other,  sometimes  both,  at  first  libertinism,  and 
then  Catholicism.  And  people  continue  to  live  thus  for 
generations,  shielding  themselves  with  different  theories, 
which  are  not  invented  in  order  to  find  out  the  truth,  but 
in  order  to  conceal  it.  And  the  people  of  the  rank  and 
file,  especially  the  dull  ones  among  them,  feel  at  ease. 

But  there  are  also  other  people,  —  there  are  but  a  few 
of  them  and  they  are  far  between,  —  and  such  was  Mau- 
passant, who  with  their  own  eyes  see  things  as  they  are, 
see  their  meaning,  see  the  contradictions  of  life,  which  are 
hidden  from  others,  and  vividly  present  to  themselves 
that  to  which  these  contradictions  must  inevitably  lead 
them,  and  seek  for  their  solutions  in  advance.  They  seek 
for  them  everywhere  except  where  they  are  to  be  found,  in 
Christianity,  because  Christianity  seems  to  them  to  have 
outlived  its  usefulness,  to  be  obsolete  and  foolish  and 
repellent  by  its  monstrosity.  Trying  in  vain  to  arrive  by 
themselves  at  these  solutions,  they  come  to  the  conclu- 
sion that  there  are  no  solutions,  that  the  property  of  life 
consists  in  carrying  within  oneself  these  unsolved  contra- 
dictions. Having  arrived  at  such  a  solution,  these  people, 
if  they  are  weak,  unenergetic  natures,  make  their  peace 
with  such  a  senseless  life,  are  even  proud  of  their  condi- 
tion, considering  their  lack  of  knowledge  to  be  a  desert,  a 
sign  of  culture ;  but  if  they  are  energetic,  truthful,  and 
talented  natures,  such  as  was  Maupassant,  they  cannot 
bear  it  and  in  one  way  or  another  go  out  of  this  insipid 
life. 

It  is  as  though  thirsty  people  in  the  desert  should  be 
looking  everywhere  for  water,  except  near  those  men  who, 
standing  near  a  spring,  pollute  it  and  offer  ill-smelling 
mud  instead  of  water,  which  still  keeps  on  flowing  farther 
down,  below  the  mud.  Maupassant  was  in  that  position ; 
he  could  not  believe,  —  it  even  never  occurred  to  him  that 
the  truth  which  he  was  seeking  had  been  discovered  long 


THE    WORKS    OF    GUY    DE    MAUPASSANT       533 

ago  and  was  near  him ;  nor  could  he  believe  that  it  was 
possible  for  a  man  to  live  in  a  contradiction  such  as  he 
felt  himself  to  be  living  in. 

Life,  according  to  those  theories  in  which  he  was 
brought  up,  which  surrounded  liim,  and  which  were  veri- 
fied by  all  the  passions  of  his  youthful  and  spiritually  and 
physically  strong  being,  consists  in  enjoyment,  chief  of 
which  is  woman  and  the  love  of  her,  and  in  the  doubly 
reflected  enjoyment,  —  in  the  representation  of  this  love 
and  the  excitation  of  this  love  in  others.  All  that  would 
be  very  well,  but,  as  we  look  closely  at  these  enjoyments, 
we  see  amidst  them  appear  phenomena  which  are  quite 
ahen  and  hostile  to  tliis  love  and  this  beauty :  woman 
for  some  reason  grows  homely,  looks  horrid  in  her  preg- 
nancy, bears  a  cliild  in  uastiuess,  then  more  children, 
unwi^hed-for  children,  then  deceptions,  cruelties,  then 
moral  sufferings,  then  simply  old  age,  and  finally  death. 

And  then,  is  this  beauty  really  beauty  ?  And  then, 
what  is  it  all  for  ?  It  would  be  nice,  if  it  were  possible 
to  arrest  life.  But  it  goes  on.  What  does  it  mean, — 
life  goes  on  ?  Life  goes  on,  means,  —  the  hair  falls  out 
and  grows  gray,  the  teeth  decay,  there  appear  wrinkles, 
and  there  is  an  odour  in  the  mouth.  Even  before  every- 
thing ends,  everything  becomes  terrible  and  disgusting : 
you  perceive  the  pasty  paint  and  powder,  the  sweat,  the 
stench,  the  homeliness.  Where  is  that  which  I  served  ? 
Where  is  beauty  ?  And  it  is  all.  If  it  is  not,  —  there  is 
nothing.     There  is  no  life. 

Not  only  is  there  no  life  in  what  seemed  to  have  life, 
but  you,  too,  begin  to  get  away  from  it,  to  grow  feeble,  to 
look  homely,  to  decay,  while  others  before  your  very  eyes 
seize  from  you  those  pleasures  in  which  was  the  whole 
good  of  life.  More  than  that :  there  begins  to  glint  the 
possibility  of  another  life,  something  else,  some  other 
union  of  men  with  the  whole  world,  such  as  excludes  all 
those  deceptions,  sometliiug  else,  something  that  cannot  be 


534   THE  WORKS  OF  GUY  DE  MAUPASSANT 

impaired  by  anything,  that  is  true  and  always  beautiful. 
But  that  cannot  be,  —  it  is  only  the  provoking  sight  of  an 
oasis,  when  we  know  that  it  is  not  there  and  that  every- 
thing is  sand. 

Maupassant  Hved  down  to  that  tragic  moment  of  life, 
when  there  began  the  struggle  between  the  lie  of  the 
Hfe  which  surrounded  him,  and  the  truth  which  he  was 
beginning  to  see.  He  already  had  symptoms  of  spiritual 
birth. 

It  is  these  labours  of  birth  that  are  expressed  in  his 
best  productions,  especially  in  his  short  stories. 

If  it  had  been  his  fate  not  to  die  in  the  labour  of  birth, 
but  to  be  born,  he  would  have  given  great,  instructive 
productions,  but  even  what  he  gave  us  during  the  process 
of  his  birth  is  much.  Let  us  be  grateful  to  this  strong, 
Lruthful  man  for  what  he  gave  us. 

Voronezh,  April  2, 1894' 


THE  END. 


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